Traceability in Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software refers to the ability to link all your stakeholder information together. This connectivity enables you to quickly build a comprehensive understanding of your stakeholders and engagement projects.
Not all SRMs on the market have traceability, but for SRMs with this capability, users can easily trace back through all the inputted stakeholder information and track each part of the engagement process to understand how everything connects, like what issues were raised at a meeting, or when a commitment was made, or which conversation a task is related to, etc. This makes your SRM the one source of truth for everyone in your organization and connects each piece of your stakeholder engagement plan.
5 ways traceability helps stakeholder engagement
1. Understand engagement with individual stakeholders
When meeting with a stakeholder, ensure you're prepared by reviewing everything that has been said and promised to date. By utilizing an SRM with traceability, such as Jambo SRM software, you can click on a stakeholder's profile and access all previous engagement information, including communications with the stakeholder, details of issues they were involved in, any commitments made to them, and team tasks associated with them. An SRM with traceability equips your team with the context they need to provide personalized and relevant information at every meeting.
Having all your stakeholder engagement information documented helps you remove the guesswork, as you'll understand the current situation with stakeholders, as well as any potential gaps (e.g., realizing you should be engaging more with a stakeholder or noticing they haven't yet heard your organization's key messages). The ability to efficiently utilize stakeholder information to understand better your current stakeholder relationships will strengthen your stakeholder engagement plan and relationships, which are key to the success of your plan.
Learn more about how to document your stakeholder engagement information →
2. Back-track to build the whole story
SRM traceability enables you to easily review a commitment or issue and view related information, such as the original communication where the issue or commitment was first raised. This allows you to work backward if you notice something that needs further investigation and understanding.
When you're communicating with various stakeholders and collecting much different information, things can get disorganized. SRMs like Jambo enable you to click into stakeholder profiles, individual issues, tasks, commitments, and more to quickly and easily find all related information and understand the big picture, regardless of which piece of information you started with.
3. Easily shareable information
Part of a successful stakeholder engagement plan is the ability to share your project's progress with regulators, stakeholders, decision-makers, or members of your team.
An SRM with traceability enables all your information to connect in understandable and shareable ways, allowing you to easily share meaningful updates and insights through reports or dashboard analytics. This helps you inform anyone who needs to be updated about your project or your engagement efforts quickly and easily without having to dig for scattered information (in inboxes, notebooks or spreadsheets); instead, with your SRM, you're confident you're sharing all the vital pieces in an organized format that makes sense for everyone.
4. Focusing resources
Traceability in an SRM doesn't just help you see what happened during past engagements, but also what might be required moving forward. Having the ability to delve into your information and understand the whole story can help you identify potential issues or areas where you might need additional resources, which in turn enables you to mitigate risks and plan the next logical steps for your stakeholder engagement plan.
To learn about the expert tips to get the most out of your stakeholder data, check out our blog →
5. Building stakeholder trust and relationships
An effective stakeholder engagement plan is a collaborative process that requires you to work towards building trust and fostering long-term relationships with stakeholders. To achieve this, ensure that your entire team is accountable and transparent, so everyone is on the same page. By utilizing an SRM with traceability that offers a clear trail of who in your team is connected to your logged stakeholder information, everyone is more accountable for their stakeholder engagement efforts, tasks, and actions, as your team can easily understand information like:
- Who has been communicating with stakeholders?
- What has been said and when?
- What promises (or commitments) have been made and by whom?
- The details of any issues brought forth and any expectations on timelines
To learn how an SRM can help to build stakeholder trust and relationships, check out our blog post →
Keeping you and your team accountable and aligned with previously discussed topics will help ensure that your team and stakeholders are on the same page and working together more effectively. This will help to create more trust, stronger relationships, and better results for your stakeholder engagement plan.
Optimizing traceability with SRM software
Just because information connects in an SRM doesn't mean it's user-friendly. Traceability is complex, and for it to work effectively for the end user, considerable thought needs to be invested in the software design. People use software differently, so ensure your SRM utilizes workflows that cater to the diverse needs of your various users. Choose a platform that is accessible and understandable for everyone on your team!
Discover how we've optimized the user experience in our SRM, Jambo →
Jambo Stakeholder Relationship Management software encompasses all the benefits and features discussed in this blog. To learn more about how Jambo can help simplify your stakeholder management efforts, check out our one-minute explainer video or book a 15-minute discovery call with a Jambo expert!
