We have a lot of knowledge swilling around, so it's crucial that we have the right technical processes to organise it properly so that people can retrieve it and use it,' says Jackson. For example, each community home page includes a welcome page covering internal and external news relevant to the community, such as information on client activities. There is also a discussion forum, a calendar of events, and a list of key subject matter experts with their prime areas of interest. Links are included to key web sites, whether of clients or competitor organisations, as well as internal browsable databases. One of the sections within every individual's objectives for the year concerns sharing knowledge.
People have submissions targets they meet.
We centrally manage the counting of submissions every month, so we can track what's happening in service line areas. The need to submit knowledge is also increasingly embedded in processes, for example, as a separate audit work step. Established in 1867 to offer insurance cover for co-operative enterprises, CIS now provides more than 4.5 million customers in the UK with comprehensive financial planning services. The new system enables customer histories to be created from the first point of contact and to be accessed by all customer-facing staff. Siebel eFinance specifically allows all CIS representatives to access a customer's multiple financial product holdings within a single system, and so respond more efficiently and accurately to customer requests.