I have created a post (Part 5.0) which contains the list of major documents that are necessary to run an ARIS Competency Center but this can be applied to any major competency center.
When you are buying a tool or creating a competency center - it is a method to secure the knowledge so that if any particular employee leaves the company then the tool does not become useless. The idea is that knowledge can be inherited organically without elaborate KT etc.
But there is a bigger role of these documents - what is that role?
Answer: Help the enterprise to get the ROI out of the tool. if we cannot achieve this then we have really not achieved anything. The ROI can be financial, which is very tangible, but it can also be in terms of social and other economic affect which does not affect the balance sheet directly.
Example: If you can provide a report which identifies all the hardware associated with a particular value chain or sister enterprise in 3 minutes instead of 17 days of research then you have really helped accomplish something. Remember its all about the output from the tool so the competency center should be geared towards supporting the outputs more than anything. If your customers do not get any ROI then they have no reason to provide any input.
Some of the companies I engage with do not have a requirements document or a ROI sheet. The chances of success of ARIS in such environment are pretty thin.