2004 WINNER
Julie Adams (l) and Barbara Harvey of Accenture
Far too many organisations fall into the trap of believing that
Knowledge Management is all about technology. Accenture
demonstrated that it is really much more about people. The
global scale of demand for Knowledge Management in
Accenture is quite daunting but the winners turned scale to
their advantage, finding expertise and resource wherever in the
world it is available, with the right experience, at the right hour
and at the best value. The scope of their Knowledge
Management extends significantly beyond technical support,
into client service, new business and thought leadership.
Though big organisations often seem to have money to burn,
Accenture is running a very tight ship in this area, managing to
use a high calibre team of experts to bring together a whole
collection of resources, internal and external to the
organisation. The judges were impressed too at their
willingness to measure success – both in relation to outputs,
but also in terms of satisfaction of the end users.
RUNNER UP
Last year’s winner Ernst and Young have again demonstrated their exceptional abilities at Knowledge Management.
In this post Enron era, all professional firms have been grappling with the increased demands of risk management. E&Y have used their Knowledge Management skills to underpin this demand from the firm.
It has needed considerable organisation, innovation and teamwork and the team involved in creating their Quality and Risk Management Community HomeSpace has demonstrated all of these.
The team has had to work across numerous internal departments and gain their support and commitment. The judges were particularly impressed by the use of internal communications in achieving awareness and buy-in.
Also some Knowledge Management projects seem entirely internally focused, but this one is commended for the involvement of clients too.
Overall - a tremendous demonstration of how Knowledge Management can enhance a firm’s performance in an area increasingly critical to success.
3RD PLACE
Pinsents particularly impressed the judges by the extent of integration they demonstrated. Knowledge Management is obviously itself fully part of a wider management approach in the firm to invest in people, processes and technologies. Knowledge Management has both benefited from this and significantly contributed to this effort, as has the closely related work on CRM.
The team demonstrated well the considerable support provided to their people through Knowledge Management, not only in relation to technical knowledge, but also in wider commercial understanding and business skills.
Client service and business development come through as the driving forces behind this investment and the judges are convinced that both will benefit greatly from the excellent Knowledge Management project they have presented.