Knowledge Management at Accenture

Q1. Give brieI history oI Knowledge Management & Learning initiatives at Accenture.

O n 90s
-Adopted a knowledge-oriented strategy: build a knowledge management organization under
the chieI inIormation oIIicer
-By the mid-1990s, the Iirm built thousands oI knowledge repositories on the Lotus Notes
platIorm: Knowledge Exchange

O rom 2000 to 2002
-Responsibility Ior KM was shiIted Irom C to the training and learning organization at
Accenture
-Learning & knowledge management were combined into a single new group called
capability development in 2001
-n 2002, the toughening Iiscal conditions, training budgets had been cut substantially Ior
Accenture employees

Q 2. Why there was a requirement oI strategic initiatives at Accenture although the company was
in seven consecutive MAKE annual awards?

O $everal Iorces were at work that would aIIect planning to revitalise training and
knowledge management. The worldwide slowdown in T spending and related services
in 2000-2002 Iorced corporate planners to take greater account oI the need to cut costs
partly by centralising operations.
O The new Accenture mindset required demonstrating value Ior all expenditure. or the
training organisation, that meant budget cuts, travel restrictions and an alternative
emphasis on e-learning.
O A movement Ior change had also been brewing in the T&D Iield Ior years. Teaching
proIessionals at Accenture had been exploring other options Ior delivering training,
starting with computer-based training in the 1990s and more recently with e-learning.
O Even within the classroom there had been quite an evolution Irom the traditional
instructor-led methods to goal-based learning, team learning and simulation. The
situation provided a natural bend towards the convergence oI KM, learning and
operations. This led to a new integrated platIorm Ior centralised operations.


Q3. Comment on the relevance and use oI components oI the Accenture KM strategy as
given in the Exhibit 2. Using vision statement what Iive critical goals oI KM were identiIied?

The components oI accenture`s KM strategy were:
1.Contributions-Make it easier Ior people to contribute content and setting a single
standard contribution Iorm to reduce accessibility problems.




2.Archival- Create an automated process Ior archival.Allow Ior as much automoation
as possible and allow Ior manual override.This was created to provide a Ioundation
expansion.
3.Topic pages- Topic pages are very important Ior providing context to users,reduce
content duplication,reduce proliIeration ,reduce topic page mantainance,to make topic
pages accessible both through search and browse.
4.Engagement proIiles To eliminate automated Ieed until a suitable replacement
could be identiIied,increase intergration between proIile and related contributions and
to create common engagement proIile accessible Ior all.
5.$earch-To support advanced search,integrate search practices across
applications,search all content including attachments and simple mantainance oI
interIace..
6.Usage reporting- t was to provide common usage reports and allow groups to do a
adhoc queries Ior special needs.
7.Collaboration-Create a common portal Ior people proIile and discussion.To provide
oIIline capabilities Ior submitting and responding to questions and enabling search
across people proIile and discussions.

Accenture has identiIied Iive critical goals Ior their knowledge management program
based on their vision:
They are:
ostering and sustaining a knowledge sharing culture
mproving the time to competency Ior new hires
Enabling and enhancing their sales capability
Ensuring and improving the R Ior KM, and
mproving margins and delivered quality on client engagements

Q4. Why it was important to have clear governance structure Ior new knowledge exchange?

Accenture being a large organization had several diIIerent service lines. t was thereIore,
diIIicult to determine exactly who would be responsible Ior managing the content oI
speciIic material. urther, these organizations had signiIicant autonomy and had
dedicated employees who wanted to do the right thing Ior their part oI the organization.
t was very important that there be a clear governance structure Ior the new Knowledge
Exchange to improve the consistency oI the experience.
Also most Accenture groups had their own portals, and there was one central 'Accenture
Portal that contained links to many decentralized portals, which created conIusion and
also caused data redundancy.
A clear governance structure was designed that incorporated senior representatives Irom
each part oI the organization to solve the consistency and redundancy problems.


Q5. Draw and improve 'Knowledge Exchange Architecture oI Accenture as given in the
Exhibit 1.





Challenges in implementing this system
O A strategy need to be developed to address change management
O Need to address cultural barriers Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
O Design a system to match what user`s want.
O Make them part oI the implementation team

RECMMENDATN$:

Training Ior the $ubmission using a standardized template
$earch Iunction can have advanced search and category search options.
Also browse contents by category
Ensure upper management is on board with KM goals
Create a team with stakeholders Irom key areas
mplement to speciIic pockets oI organization Iirst on a trial basis, then apply to organization
Edit existing content to ensure a proper base.
$tandardized close-looped processes Ior knowledge sharing, replication and measurement oI
results
Contact others Ior discussions or submit queries to be resolved by experts.

Q6. List the key insights oI end-user strategy given in Exhibit 3.
The new KM strategy was incorporated Irom an end-user`s perspective to ensure that the
design oI the user interIace allowed users to eIIiciently navigate to the right content,
resources and services.
t was made to Address speciIic business goals
4 $ingle point oI entry - A Web Portal
4 $imple End-User experience
4 mprove $earch and Browse eatures




4 Centralize development and operations oI the Accenture Knowledge and $impliIy
content management
4 To leverage existing and packaged soItware
4 To be simple, cost eIIicient and eIIective without an attempt to recreate all
existing Lotus Notes Iunctionality
4 To contain all high-value content
4 Elimination oI content duplication
4 mproved visibility to innovations across all groups
4 ncreased usability because oI a consistent user experience
4 Consistent archival processes that were no longer manually intensive

Q7. What initiatives Accenture took to create knowledge sharing culture and environment
in the company?

O Knowledge $haring Culture is about making knowledge sharing the norm. To create a
knowledge sharing culture you need to encourage people to work together more
eIIectively, to collaborate and to share - ultimately to make organizational knowledge
more productive.
O A technology strategy was undertaken that addressed both learning and KM
issues. The learning group developed a personalized learning management system
called 'myLearning. A key component oI this system was a new search
capability that integrated results across Accenture`s key content areas, including
knowledge and learning.
O The employees at Accenture rated training as one oI the most satisIying areas in
their annual surveys ans it was seen as a priority Ior KM.
O Users had been bought into the discussion via teleconIerence .
O Typology was being Iocussed on business processes so that it was easy Ior people
to Iind relavant documents.
O A new sharepoint implementation provided templates Ior user input system
adherance to which was voluntary.

Q 8. What ways BarIield applied to resolve the problem oI document obsolescence?

By creating ways in which the useIulness oI the existing documents can be increased.
Also, by devising strategies to integrate external data available through the web and other
sources, with Accenture`s content. $o that when an Accenture expert read or came across
misleading or ambiguous content on the external web page , the internal system would capture
his assessment and marry it to a Iuture user oI that inIormation, particularly iI a less experienced
employee was using it.
Also by manually editing and prooI reading the previous data.







Q 9. $ummarize the $WT analysis as given in Exhibit 5. Keeping in view your summary
suggest your own KM plan Ior Accenture.


$trengths :
1.To have a deep understanding oI the existing processes,capabilities and services.
2.Enable existing and new users to adapt to knowledge exchange,mylearning and other
methodologies.
3.Enhancing existing sales eIIectiveness program.
4.Understanding how to segment new hires into sensible groups.
5.nherent belieI oI the people in the value oI KM at Accenture.
6.They had a culture that believed in reuse,relationship and partnering and maintaining
consistency in resource and capability.

Weaknesses:
1.Existing inIrastructure made knowledge sharing diIIicult and there was insuIIicient
opportunity to share inIormation.
2.orientation training is geographically dispersed.
3.No metrics Ior growing competence was one oI the major issues.
4.When the employee leaves,Knowledge is disbursed.

ppurtunities:
1. Retention oI employees and job satisIaction.
2. Could learn Irom other company`s programs.
3. Establish leadership positions.
4. Create internal projects Ior measurement .
5. Using good competency programs as recruiting tool and working on retention and job
satisIaction.

Threats:
1.ConIidentially and copyright inIringement made it diIIicult to share knowledge with
clients.
2.Competitors could have better speed to competency program and they could loose
people or Iail to recruit them.
3.$hort product liIe cycle.
4.rigination oI another,counter KM system to replace existing systems.
5.neIIiciently applied capital.