copyright © 2005 accenture all rights reserved. governance: developing and operating a model for a...

Copyright © 2005 Accenture All Rights Reserved.

Governance: Developing and Operating a Model for a Global Company

Tom Barfield, Global Knowledge Management LeadNovember 16, 2005

2Copyright © 2005 Accenture All Rights Reserved.

Accenture Overview

Accenture differentiates itself as a global leader with unmatched capabilities, experience and relationships. We help clients architect and deliver solutions that create value.

• Over $15 Billion in Revenue• Over 117,000 Professionals in 46 Countries• 91 of the Fortune Global 100• Half of the Fortune Global 500• 350 startups and spin-offs

• Over $500M in R&D expenditures• Over $500M in Training expenditures

ConsultingMore than 90% of the world’s top companies benefit from our insights and solutions.

TechnologyOur experienced professionals bring the latest technology to deliver solutions, no matter how complex or risky.

OutsourcingUsing data networks and a suite of powerful online applications, we can help clients focus on their core business.


Accenture Emphasis on KM

Winner of Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise award for eight years - placed second overall in 2005

Best practice site visit company for American Productivity & Quality Center’s study of the integration of organizational learning and knowledge

Harvard Business School case study on Accenture KM.

Named one of top 24 Companies for Enterprise Learning by American Society for Training & Development


Accenture Organization Structure

Comm. & Comm. & High TechHigh Tech

Financial Financial ServicesServices

GovernmentGovernment ProductsProducts ResourcesResources

Global Strategic Delivery Approach

Alliances

Business Consulting Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution UnitsBusiness Consulting Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution Units

Technology & Outsourcing Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution UnitsTechnology & Outsourcing Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution Units

Affiliated Companies Affiliated Companies


To create a world class knowledge sharing culture and environment which contributes to Accenture’s success

"The execution of our entire business strategy to be a market maker, architect and builder of the new economy is dependent on how we create, share and protect knowledge. Knowledge sharing is the essence of how we bring innovations to change the way the world works and lives."

-- Joe Forehand, Accenture Chairman

Drive value from knowledge to enhance revenue, reduce cost and foster innovation

KM Mission

KM Vision

Knowledge sharing at Accenture enables us to make our clients high performing businesses


The Accenture Portal; Capability Development

Accenture’s Knowledge Management Evolution

1992

Lotus Notes Build “KX” Global Rollout

• Infrastructure

• SCAs

• DB development (Libraries, Discussions, Methods)

• Growth of content

• Growth of KM supporting orgs.

• Web-enablement begins

• Site aggregation

• Expert Locator

• KM org merges with Learning, Methods, Tools

• Operational Effectiveness

Centralization;Integration

…

• Lotus Notes to Microsoft

• Evolved KM strategies and infrastructure

KX Takeup

Enabling Infrastructure

KnowledgeSharing

KnowledgeEnabling

KnowledgeWorker

“Build it, and they will come”

“Knowledge is a by-product”

“Knowledge is actively managed”

“Knowledge-enabledEnterprise”

1993 - 1996

1997-2000 2001-2002 2003-2005

Business Drivers

Result Globalcommunications

Organizationalmemory

Relevant quality content, when and where needed

People guided andenabled by personalized knowledge, tools & learning


Accenture’s evolution has required key aspects of our Knowledge Management approach to change

Area Yesterday Today Tomorrow

User experience

Multiple applications with an organization-centric index

Single application with a topic-centric index

Knowledge integrated into key processes

Technology infrastructure & support

Each organization operates their own knowledge applications, development and operations teams

Implementation of centralized infrastructure and shared services for development and content management.

Continued implementation of shared services and integration of knowledge learning and collaboration enabling technologies.

Governance Small central component

Strategy and infrastructure decisions driven by local teams

Centralized infrastructure and strategy driven by a representative governance model representing senior Accenture leadership and leadership from across KM groups

Extended governance designed to ensure that learning, knowledge and HR organizational intellectual assets are shared and adopted.


Governance challenges faced by Accenture’s KM organization

Vision • Each KM team independently sets vision and direction for their KM programs

Leadership • KM teams report to different organizations – leaders with differing priorities • Every team wants direct involvement in every decision• KM leadership needs to sign off on all decisions – getting into the details

Ownership • Silo’ed - each team felt loyalty to their specific internal unit and immediate leadership, not to the entire community.

• Individual teams assessed by their own sponsors vs. global vision

Relationships • Past relationship with large Global KM team was strained. • New smaller Global KM team had few relationships among the KM teams• Few relationships between the KM teams or players on the teams• Strained relationship between CIO (development) and KM teams

Compliance • Policies and standards exist only at the individual team level• There are not global audit mechanisms and explicit consequences for non-

compliance

Budgeting • Each team has an individual budget governing their team and applications


Operational challenges to overcome

Application Development

• Little trust in the development team• Development team off shore, far from immediate leadership

proximity• Little to no experience in new technology

Processes • Each KM team had their own content management processes and standards – and these were inconsistently applied

Design & Navigation

• 30 applications owned by as many teams, each one with its own unique content architecture and navigation structures

Taxonomy • There was no common content taxonomy.• Each team structures and indexes its content categories

autonomously

Logistic • Everyone works in separate locations around the world – most out of their homes. All meetings were virtual.

• Diverse global group – for several English is their second language causing communication challenges


Key success factors

1. Start with a vision

2. Create the governance team

3. Develop roles/responsibilities and guiding principles

4. Define a decision making process

5. Operate and evolve the model


1. Start with a vision

• Define the business problems• Ensure you have senior leadership sponsorship• Establish the vision

– “Build a one stop shop KM capability”

Lessons Learned:• May not get unanimous agreement on the business

problems– Some groups will say – “those aren’t problems for my

team”– Let it go – be careful about which battles to fight

• If possible have a driving factor – “If you don’t move off of Lotus Notes your application will be deleted”


2. Create the governance team

• Define the roles and responsibilities• Secure senior leadership support for the model• Choose the right members

Lessons Learned: • Keep senior leaders out of the details• One group can not handle the details of an entire KM

system – create smaller sub-groups to handle the details (Examples: Search, topic pages, content management processes)

• Ideal sizes– Working group ~ 5 people– Advisory board ~ 10 people

• Every team does not have to be on every working group

• Keep the high level Advisory Board small by having members represent more than one group

• If possible, have an in person meeting to start and focus on networking them together

Capability Development

Steering Team

KM Advisory Board

Working Groups


3. Develop roles/responsibilities and guiding principles

• Members of each group need to understand the responsibility of the group and of themselves

• Develop guiding principles to drive decisions – Examples:– End user capabilities take higher priority over content owner– We will not extend the software to the extent that it risks future

vendor upgrades– Assign an Advisory Board member to play a leadership role on

each working group

Lessons Learned: • Make it the responsibility of the Advisory Board member to ensure

their leadership agrees with decisions


4. Define a decision making process

• Develop a work plan for key decisions to be made – this is a living document

• Send materials to Advisory Board before meeting for their review – prefer at least 3 days

• Spend meeting time discussing the materials vs. presenting• When a decision is going to be made give Advisory Board members one

week to consider and validate support• Tally the vote at the following meeting

Lessons Learned: • Minimize presentations – a Word document usually suffices• Focus meeting time on discussion rather than on reviewing• Clearly state the expected outcome of each topic (info, discuss, decide)• Leverage collaboration technologies

– Centralized document repository (minimize email attachments)– Leverage online survey capability for casting votes


5. Operate and evolve the model

• Simplify communications – example:– Publish agenda and meeting materials in a central location– Take meeting notes directly in the agenda during the meeting– Save the notes in a central repository where members can access and use with their

teamsLessons Learned: • Identify a quick win for the governance board – we chose search as the first part of the

infrastructure to centralize – this demonstrated that working together produced better results then working independently

• Acknowledge when decisions are outside of our control. When this happens give your board members a way out when discussing with their leadership – so they don’t take the blame

• On controversial topics – make sure someone has your back – run the idea by a couple members ahead of time

• Dissenters – ask the group opinion. If the opinion is valid the group will rally for it. If not the group will rally against

• Learn when to take a discussion offline – don’t allow one person’s problem derail the group• Don’t be afraid to change any element of the governance model or the whole thing. If it isn’t

working change it


Benefits of good governance

1. Collaboration between KM teams is better than ever – we have learned to trust each other

2. Easier to evolve and re-shape our KM capability to meet the ever changing business needs and strategies

3. Our investments are more focused on the most immediate strategic needs

4. Make the most efficient use of people, money and resources

5. Enhance our users' satisfaction by offering them consistent design, development and delivery of our services


What is Accenture’s KM team working on now?

Initiative Expected Outcomes

Perform audience analysis and segmentation

Better understand who our most important audiences are and tailor our KM capabilities and services to their needs.

Improve our ability to connect people to people

Simplify the process for Accenture to know who knows what and who knows whom

Develop consistent metrics and performance support indicators

Improve strategic focus of our managed knowledge, eliminate inefficiencies, allow nimble adaptability of our strategy and services to a rapidly changing environment.

Validate that we have all the governance pieces in place

Ensure that we are making decisions as efficiently as possible (example: taxonomy decisions)


The main entry point to the Knowledge Exchange is via the Accenture Portal - portal.accenture.comWhat is the Accenture Portal? • The Accenture Portal is the channel to deliver tools, services, information and knowledge to all Accenture people.

• The Accenture Portal:

– Enables quick access to information from across the organization

– Helps user perform tasks efficiently.

– Brings together relevant information in one central location.


Knowledge Exchange main page - kx.accenture.com

• The main entry point to knowledge and people via search and browse

• Contact others via– Communities

of Practice– Discussions– Find an

expert• Maintain

KX/Expert profile • Contribute content

to the system


Search

• The search looks at all documents stored in Accenture Portal and the Knowledge Exchange

• Recommends key topic pages

• Search results organized by tabs to search across other content areas

• Robust advanced search


Browse – Content is primarily organized by Topic

• Business & Industries examples

– Automotive– Banking

• Business Processes & Services examples

– Marketing– Supply Chain

• Technologies examples (displayed)

– Architectures– Security– Database

• Products examples– SAP– Peoplesoft– Oracle


A topic page provides a window to all the best capabilities related to a topic

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