Andersen Consulting

1
Andersen Consulting

• Erika Feltus
• Jeff Webber
• BUSA 440

2
Current Situation

• Renamed Accenture in 2001 on New Years Day.
• Largest consulting firm in the world
• One of the largest computer services and software
  companies on the Fortune Global 500 list

3
Business Problems

• Information and Knowledge Overload
• Volume of knowledge growing too quickly
• Difficult System Use
• System was too complex
• Delegated duties to assistants
• Hard to Determine the Value of the System
• Unsure of return on investment

4
KM Implementation

• Knowledge Xchange system was first released in
  1993.
• Started by the strategy task force Horizon 2000
• Making sure the top of the company supported the
  system
• Partners were first group to be trained
• By 1996 all associate partners, managers, and
  consultants were trained to use it.

5
Technology Infrastructure

• Lotus Notes was the primary platform for the
  Knowledge Xchange system.
• System contained
• a series of data, information, and knowledge
  bases of interest to everyone.
• other information that met the needs of
  particular industries, competencies, or
  communities of practice.

6
KM Infrastructure cont.

• Knowledge Xchange System
• was used for less official databases at the
  individual and small group level.
• incorporated the Andersen Consulting e-mail
  system.

7
KM Design

• By 1997 there were well over 3,000 databases and
  1,000 of them were officially recognized and
  catalogued on the Knowledge Xchange System.
• Each database contained between a few to 65,000
  records.
• The databases resided on the Lotus Notes system
  that stretched across several hundred servers and
  was accessed by over 35,000 users within Andersen
  Consulting.

8
KM Design Cont.

• Knowledge Xchange Navigator
• Listed most relevant and universal databases
• Knowledge Xchange Yellow Pages
• Phone book of system databases
• Knowledge Xchange Front Page
• Customized entry point into the system
• Knowledge Xchange Document Finder
• Allowed for complex searches

9
Assessment of KM System

• Effective in storing knowledge
• Ineffective in sharing knowledge
• Time consuming
• In need of training programs

10
Recommendations

• Pre-filtering Knowledge Documents
• Designate partners and managers to edit incoming
  knowledge.
• Assigning Project Knowledge Managers
• To be responsible for finding applicable
  knowledge.
• Using Intelligent Agents
• A software program that intelligently sifts
  through knowledge.
• Contextualizing Documents
• Summarizing documents for relevance and ease of
  use.

11
Lessons Learned

• Strong awareness and training programs
• Top-down support.
• Central database hub.
• Incentive program.