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Copyright © 2005 Accenture All Rights Reserved.

Governance: Developing and

Operating a Model for a GlobalCompany

Tom Barfield, Global Knowledge Management Lead

November 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 thatcreate 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

Consulting

More than 90% of the world’s topcompanies benefit from our insights andsolutions.

Technology

Our experienced professionals bring thelatest technology to deliver solutions, nomatter how complex or risky.

Outsourcing

Using data networks and a suite of powerfulonline applications, we can help clientsfocus on their core business.




Accenture Emphasis on KM

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

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

Harvard Business School case study on Accenture KM.

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

http://www.apqc.org/portal/apqc/site?path=root

http://www.astd.org/ASTD




Accenture Organization Structure

Comm. &High Tech

FinancialServices

Government Products Resources

Global Strategic Delivery Approach

Alliances

Business Consulting Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution Units

Technology & Outsourcing Capability Group—Service Lines and Solution Units

Affiliated Companies




To create a world class knowledge sharingculture and environment which contributesto Accenture’s success

"The execution of our entire business strategy to be a market maker, architect and builderof 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 worldworks and lives."

-- Joe Forehand, Accenture Chairman

Drive value from knowledge to enhancerevenue, reduce cost and foster innovation

KM Mission

KM Vision

Knowledge sharing at Accenture enables usto 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 KMsupporting orgs.

• Web-enablementbegins

• Site aggregation

• Expert Locator

• KM org merges withLearning, Methods,Tools

• OperationalEffectiveness

Centralization;Integration

…

• Lotus Notes toMicrosoft

• Evolved KMstrategies andinfrastructure

KX Takeup

EnablingInfrastructure

KnowledgeSharing

KnowledgeEnabling

KnowledgeWorker

“Build it, and they will come”

“Knowledge is aby-product”

“Knowledge isactively managed”

“Knowledge-enabledEnterprise”

1993 - 1996 1997-2000 2001-2002 2003-2005

BusinessDrivers

ResultGlobalcommunications

Organizationalmemory

Relevant qualitycontent, when and

where needed

People guided andenabled by personalized

knowledge, tools & learning


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Accenture’s evolution has required

key aspects of our KnowledgeManagement approach to change

Area Yesterday Today Tomorrow Userexperience

Multiple applicationswith an organization-centric index

Single application with atopic-centric index

Knowledge integrated intokey processes

Technology

infrastructure& support

Each organization

operates their ownknowledge applications,development andoperations teams

Implementation of

centralized infrastructureand shared services fordevelopment andcontent management.

Continued implementation

of shared services andintegration of knowledgelearning and collaborationenabling technologies.

Governance Small centralcomponent

Strategy andinfrastructure decisionsdriven by local teams

Centralizedinfrastructure and

strategy driven by arepresentativegovernance modelrepresenting seniorAccenture leadershipand leadership fromacross KM groups

Extended governancedesigned to ensure that

learning, knowledge andHR organizationalintellectual assets areshared and adopted.



Governance challenges facedby Accenture’s KM organization

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

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 immediateleadership, 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 toovercome

ApplicationDevelopment

• 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 processesand standards – and these were inconsistently applied

Design &Navigation

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

Taxonomy • There was no common content taxonomy.

• Each team structures and indexes its content categoriesautonomously

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

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



Key success factors

1. Start with a vision

2. Create the governance team

3. Develop roles/responsibilities and guidingprinciples

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 KMsystem – create smaller sub-groups to handle thedetails (Examples: Search, topic pages, contentmanagement processes)

• Ideal sizes – Working group ~ 5 people

– Advisory board ~ 10 people• Every team does not have to be on every workinggroup

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

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

CapabilityDevelopmentSteering Team

KM Advisory Board

Working Groups



3. Develop roles/responsibilitiesand guiding principles

• Members of each group need to understand the responsibility ofthe 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 futurevendor upgrades

– Assign an Advisory Board member to play a leadership role oneach working group

Lessons Learned:

• Make it the responsibility of the Advisory Board member to ensuretheir leadership agrees with decisions




4. Define a decision makingprocess

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

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

• Spend meeting time discussing the materials vs. presenting

• When a decision is going to be made give Advisory Board members oneweek 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 theirteams

Lessons Learned:

• Identify a quick win for the governance board – we chose search as the first part of theinfrastructure to centralize – this demonstrated that working together produced betterresults then working independently

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

• 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 thegroup

• Don’t be afraid to change any element of the governance model or the whole thing. If itisn’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 tomeet the ever changing business needs and strategies

3. Our investments are more focused on the mostimmediate strategic needs

4. Make the most efficient use of people, money andresources

5. Enhance our users' satisfaction by offering themconsistent design, development and delivery of ourservices




What is Accenture’s KM team

working on now?

Initiative Expected Outcomes

Perform audience analysis andsegmentation

Better understand who our most important audiences areand 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 whomDevelop consistent metrics andperformance support indicators

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

Validate that we have all thegovernance pieces in place

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

Th i i h K l d




The main entry point to the KnowledgeExchange is via the Accenture Portal -portal.accenture.com

What is the Accenture Portal? • The AccenturePortal is thechannel to delivertools, services,information andknowledge to allAccenture people.

• The AccenturePortal: – Enables quick

access toinformationfrom across theorganization

– Helps userperform tasksefficiently.

– Brings togetherrelevantinformation inone centrallocation.




Knowledge Exchange mainpage - kx.accenture.com

• The main entrypoint toknowledge andpeople via searchand browse

• Contact others via – Communities

of Practice – Discussions – Find an

expert

• MaintainKX/Expert profile

• Contribute contentto the system




Search

• The search looks atall documents storedin Accenture Portaland the KnowledgeExchange

• Recommends keytopic pages

• Search resultsorganized by tabs tosearch across othercontent areas

• Robust advancedsearch

B C i i il




Browse – Content is primarilyorganized by Topic

• Business &Industriesexamples – Automotive – Banking

• BusinessProcesses &Services examples – Marketing – Supply Chain

• Technologiesexamples(displayed) – Architectures

– Security – Database

• Productsexamples – SAP – Peoplesoft – Oracle

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