Business Situation
What if the collective knowledge, experience and insights of your employees were the very things that differentiated your work with clients but was stuck in an outdated platform that proved so time consuming and difficult to use that they lost employees' trust and confidence?
This challenge is more commonplace for knowledge workers, who on average spend more than one-third of their day looking for information, only to find it unacceptable 50% of the time. Global management consulting firm Bain & Company (Bain) – for whom domain expertise and knowledge is the foundation of its client work – addressed this challenge head-on as its legacy knowledge management platform reached its end of life.
“Not only are we able to use our new knowledge management platform to better guide our clients, but we are tapping into that experience to provide strategic direction on how to capture, manage and disseminate knowledge within their own organizations.”
Solution
As Bain began to rethink what it wanted in a new knowledge management platform that could grow with the business far into the future, it took advantage of the opportunity to start from scratch. On the wish list: leverage the latest technologies – like Microsoft Azure, AI and the engine of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint – to build something truly revolutionary and customized. Bain chose to partner with Avanade to bring this ambitious vision to life.
Results
Within nine months, Bain and Avanade successfully released the first version of the new knowledge management platform, named Iris. Consultants, content creators and knowledge management specialists at Bain report significantly improved efficiencies. Employees say they are more productive, reporting a 60% increase in their satisfaction with the new platform compared with the legacy one since its launch.
By arming its teams with a more intuitive way to find the right information for clients, Bain has transformed both the workplace and client experiences.