Retaining and Sharing Acquired Knowledge Through Custom Knowledge Base Solutions

Challenge

Although the consultancy’s vast store of collective knowledge and expertise could add substantial value throughout the enterprise, a geographically dispersed business model encouraged segmentation rather than accumulation. The firm needed a way to aggregate its expertise and intellectual property, thereby making it more readily available and reducing the risk of losing important knowledge when field experts departed the firm.

At the same time, the consultancy wanted to capture additional, non-structured information, such as resumes, letters of understanding, and other previously non-integrated data. Both these new resources needed to be rolled into an existing but poorly structured and inaccessible knowledge base (KB) to create a centralized, companywide data respository. The goal was to make all information readily searchable and accessible across the organization.

Solution

The Abel Solutions team immediately recognized that the response to this challenge would involve more than the out-of-the-box, document-upload process already inherent in SharePoint. Abel developed a dedicated solution with a customized, user-friendly interface that targets two possible resource flows. With the solution, users can upload project-specific data from outside SharePoint, or they can provide data directly from within the SharePoint project site. In either case, the system will leverage existing information recorded about the project in other applications and associate key metadata fields, such as client, account, and service area, with the documents being uploaded.

Abel also used a provided list of company requirements to develop a customized search interface with specialized query and results filters. For example, the consultancy wanted to enable users to narrow results by specific criteria, such as industry, solution type or business function. From there, users would be able to drill down even further, requesting deliverables from a specific target such as geographic location or functional group.

Results

Based on comments from consultancy representatives, it was evident that reactions to the new system bordered on ecstatic. Comments such as “it worked like a charm,” and “I look forward to uploading my latest deliverable tomorrow” echoed across the firm’s 17 offices as employees explored the new functionality.

The new system gives employees not only targeted results, but also a high-level snapshot of what is in each document, making it easier for requestors to select the appropriate document from search results. The system also provides a document-content summary that highlights user search terms.

According to the consultancy’s project team, interest in the new solution was so intense that Tech Support began fielding questions the day it went live. More than 40 people attended the two instructional Webinars on the new system and the firm reports consultants are now eager to contribute.