The Employee Connection keeps Cisco's 26,000 employees in the know with features such as an employee and resource directory, an automated expense reimbursement tool, technical documentation and patent tracking. Compaq estimates that the intranet has cut the time it takes to distribute this information by 50 percent. The site gives important technical information to the sales force and disseminates company news to the 18,000 employees worldwide. It also takes care of employee expense reports and links workers to an IT help desk. The 2,500 registered users, primarily technicians and service managers, can enter an engine's serial number and call up a list of all relevant published material, including useful troubleshooting guides and repair manuals.
Employees use the site to document best practices and processes for completing client engagements.
Now customers are experiencing fewer follow-up calls and ordering delays, and they can generate prices based on their own corporate standards. It's also handy for training new employees. This online exchange for commercial, industrial and other aggregate energy transactions matches 50 of the United States' top 90 energy suppliers with energy buyers in Internet auctions, and it allows buyers to execute contracts quickly and less expensively than through direct sales or telemarketing. Put together a million knowledge objects and a search engine, and you may just have a powerful intranet that makes your profits shoot up faster than your head count. You turn around, you look into KnowledgeWeb, and you find all the documents produced the last time you had the same issue.