iConnect: Expertise Location at Deloitte
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1) Deloitte is a large global professional services firm with nearly 150,000 employees worldwide and revenues of $23 billion in fiscal year 2007. 2) iConnect is Deloitte's internal expertise locator system that uses natural language processing to create topic profiles of employees based on their email content to help connect people with relevant expertise. 3) The implementation of iConnect has faced challenges including performance issues, low usage rates, and a lack of integration into key business processes. Plans are underway to address these issues and re-energize the iConnect program.
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![Ray Rudd/Mary McDonagh/Christina Rye Stuart Rosenberg/Roxanne McClain January 2008 Re-energizing iConnect Current and Projected Activities KMChicago iConnect: Expertise Location at Deloitte Stuart M. Rosenberg Deloitte Services, LP [email_address] February 12, 2008](https://cdn.statically.io/img/image.slidesharecdn.com/kmchicagoiconnectv1-100215200212-phpapp01/85/iConnect-Expertise-Location-at-Deloitte-1-320.jpg)
iConnect: Expertise Location at Deloitte
- 1. Ray Rudd/Mary McDonagh/Christina Rye Stuart Rosenberg/Roxanne McClain January 2008 Re-energizing iConnect Current and Projected Activities KMChicago iConnect: Expertise Location at Deloitte Stuart M. Rosenberg Deloitte Services, LP [email_address] February 12, 2008
- 2. Agenda Deloitte in Context Nature and Complexity of Work Deloitte ’ s Connections Model: Theory and Practice Product Reviews: iConnect Business Issues Addressed Walkthrough Factors to Consider Benefits/Results
- 3. About Stuart 11 years with Deloitte 4 years as a Consulting client service practitioner 4 years in internal IT project/product management Broadvision (Portal) eRoom (Collaboration), PlaceWare(LiveMeeting), Microsoft Instant Messaging, Saba (LMS) 3 years as KM liaison to internal IT Currently leads KM Solutions team Responsible for developing business requirements in support of KM initiatives Coordinating with internal IT regarding scope/functionality decisions, issue resolution, and
- 4. About Deloitte Global Profile: Nearly 150,000 people More than 140 country-based practices FY07 Revenues of US$23 billion U.S. Profile: Nearly 42,000 people in the Deloitte U.S. Firms Offices in more than 90 cities FY07 Revenues of US$9.9 billion Total Revenues (US$billion) U.S. Global Fiscal Year 2004 $6.88 $16.2 Fiscal Year 2005 $7.81 $18.2 Fiscal Year 2006 $8.77 $20.0 Fiscal Year 2007 $9.85 $23.1 Deloitte is a true knowledge organization. Our most important assets walk out the door every night **projected
- 5. A Structured Path to Enable People Connections iConnect (Phase 1) Focus: Person-to-Expertise Phase 2: Talent Networking Focus: Person-to-Colleagues Focus: Person-to-Affiliated Groups Phase 3: Social Networking Analysis Focus: Powerful Tools & Analytics to Enhance & Optimize Personal Networks
- 6. iConnect: Seeking connections is nothing new Evolution of Approaches* Typical Focus Outcome Water-cooler Individuals; Simple; Office-based networking Local Clarity; Who you know Limited Business (service) directories Dispersed groups; Less clarity; Leadership listings Silo- or Entity- Limit & aging of “ Yellow Pages” oriented information Skills matrices Cross-silo/-entity focus; Little clarity; Business issue matrices Manually updated Uncertain Ask-the-Network (or not quality of “ Six Degrees of Separation” updated!) connection Automated Expertise Locator Individuals; Simple; Silo- / Entity- Clarity; agnostic; Far-reaching; Fully Automated Connection Quality * Abbreviated! From: Discussions with John Callahan, Deloitte Services, U.S. Firms Chief Knowledge Officer
- 7. iConnect: Shotgun or rifle? Business Issue: Is there a better way to connect suppliers and customers of knowledge?
- 8. iConnect - Internal Expertise Locator Profile Creation Emails are analyzed Nouns phrases extracted and ranked Personal, Private “Topic portfolio” developed for each employee Information Request Search for topic matches (unexpected are more valuable!) Craft wrapper email Blind Brokering Recipients are not identified to requestor Requestor is identified to recipients Follow-on interactions Email, IM, Web conferencing, Telephone, Face-to-Face Fully automated profiles combined with brokering approach are the keys
- 9. Profile Creation: Step 1 For those individuals selected for topic portfolios, the system decomposes the text within their sent e-mails . Noun phrases are identified and extracted to a topic portfolio database. The prior portion of e-mail threads is ignored, since not necessarily relevant to the individual’s topic portfolio. Noun phrases extracted from above would include “methods content”, “physical environment”, “kx.deloitteresources.com”, “www.deloitteresources.com”, “SSO gateway”, among others.
- 10. Profile Creation: Step 2 For sent e-mails that have attachments , the noun phrases from within those files are also extracted. The e-mails themselves and the attachments are: Not “read” Not understood Not copied Not kept Not re-creatable Not monitored Not counted Not analyzed other than for purpose of extracting noun phrases Additional noun phrases extracted from e-mail above would include “Marketplace integration”, “Phase 1”, “Document Libraries”, “Business Requirements”, “CMS templates”, “DeloitteNet environment”, “Travis Taylor”
- 11. Profile Creation: Step 3 ` Over time, the collection of noun phrases from sent e-mails builds a private , personal portfolio of topical expertise of the individual. Each extracted noun phrase then receives a strength rating within the individual’s portfolio based on factors such as how recently used (i.e., term strength decays over time), context of use (i.e., header vs. body, e-mail vs. attachment), frequency of use, among others. IP Valuation Moody’s Transfer Pricing Section 973 Depletion allowance Reengineering Graphical Representation of Topic Portfolio for John Doe John Doe’s Source e-mails Noun Phrases 8,000 – 12,000 terms typical
- 12. Profile Creation: Step 4 Over time, the noun phrases within an individual’s portfolios is compared against all other individuals’ topic portfolios . Again, each extracted noun phrase has a comparative strength, but this time it is across all topic portfolios . BUT, there is no reporting capability within Tacit to print out this relative strength weighting, as that would violate the privacy of any individual portfolios. Person 1 Person 20 “ John Doe” Person 400 Person 5,000 Person 9,000 Sample illustrated distribution for the weighted noun phrase “IP Valuation” Subject Matter Expertise
- 13. iConnect: Search terms return topics
- 14. iConnect : Topics determine recipients
- 15. iConnect: User composes an e-mail via form. Request and replies are managed directly in Outlook. Note: User does not know the identities of those to whom the e-mail will be sent.
- 16. Step 4: Outbound email requests are received in Outlook in the same manner as any other message. No other application need be invoked.
- 17. iConnect: Considerations Risk management Does the project support or challenge current policies? Infrastructure Interacting with corporate email is a 5-alarm event! Privacy/Confidentiality Top of mind, but balanced approach Culture/Trust How will the average employee perceive the tool? Communications Simplify, Simplify, Simplify Business Process “ Over there” is nowhere
- 18. Project Timeline – A Summary 2005 Q1: Reconnect with Tacit and CEO; Presentation by David Gilmour at KM All Hands Meeting Q2: Tacit Presentation at KMGC; Due diligence begins; ITS, OGC, Risk Management, NOP all engaged Q3: Project “green light” from Executive Committee Q4: Contracting discussions begin; Briefings for FSS leadership teams and other key stakeholder groups 2006 Q1: Contracting continues (and continues); detailed project planning begins Q2: Contract signed; Hardware ordered; project moves into high gear Q3: Initial infrastructure enabled and profiling begins; FSS-specific live webinars; performance issues encountered Q4: Launch at Annual P/P/D meeting to P/P/D community; Quick Adopter’s enabled 2007 Q1: Senior Managers and managers enabled; on-going performance issues Q2: Upgrade application to newly released version; performance improvements observed Q3: Analysis and relaunch project work; review findings with core ITS team Q4: Relaunch strategy discussion
- 19. User behavior at each step in the iConnect process needs to be understood as a driver of messaging and necessary changes Unique User Visits (UU & V) Conduct Search (S) e-Mail query (Q) Outbound e-Mail & Replies Received (O & R)* Value Derived ($$) iConnect Process Metrics Messaging Focus * - Data not currently available V/UU Survey of experience & value derived S/V number of audience modifiers used Q/S, Q/V Survey of experience & value derived, change management R/O, Average age of reply Survey of experience & value derived Query Education FSS leads endorsement FSS leads endorsement One Deloitte/ collaborative culture Awareness Systems & Process Integration Areas to examine
- 20. Visits, Unique Users and Outbound eMails and Replies * Deployed to Senior Managers and Managers
- 21. Why isn’t iConnect a success yet? Hypotheses People don’t trust the process Discomfort using a tool that’s not fully understood Ineffective communications Culture not as collaborative as assumed Right tool, wrong users iConnect not yet integrated into business processes Analysis has relied on anecdotes due to reporting challenges
- 22. Re-energizing iConnect: Four Key Threads Increased general iConnect visibility E-mail template redesign Multi-channel promotion (search results, D Street) Messaging/marketing (manager level as priority customer Focus on enabling business processes Integration with AERS RFI and BSX processes “ Hi-touch” outreach to targeted business groups Reduce “fear factor” caused by unknown recipients Enhance end-user UI controls Tacit feedback and enhancement incorporation Enhance reporting to help convert “browsers to buyers” Increase eligible user base Resolution of stability issues Enable additional 20K profiles Enable additional 4K searchers
- 23. About Deloitte Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss Verein, its member firms and their respective subsidiaries and affiliates. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is an organization of member firms around the world devoted to excellence in providing professional services and advice, focused on client service through a global strategy executed locally in nearly 140 countries. With access to the deep intellectual capital of approximately 135,000 people worldwide, Deloitte delivers services in four professional areas, audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services, and serves more than 80 percent of the world’s largest companies, as well as large national enterprises, public institutions, locally important clients, and successful, fast-growing global growth companies. Services are not provided by the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Verein and, for regulatory and other reasons, certain member firms do not provide services in all four professional areas. As a Swiss Verein (association), neither Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu nor any of its member firms has any liability for each other’s acts or omissions. Each of the member firms is a separate and independent legal entity operating under the names “Deloitte”, “Deloitte & Touche”, “Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu” or other related names. In the United States, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP is the U.S. member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and services are provided by the subsidiaries of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, Deloitte Tax LLP, and their subsidiaries), and not by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. The subsidiaries of the U.S. member firm are among the nation’s leading professional services firms, providing audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services through nearly 40,000 people in more than 90 cities. Known as employers of choice for innovative human resources programs, they are dedicated to helping their clients and their people excel. For more information, please visit the U.S. member firm’s Web site at www.deloitte.com. Copyright © 2007 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. DCS321745
Editor's Notes
- When we talk about connecting people-to-people, we can look at the evolution of approaches this has entailed. (Elaborate.)
- Here’s an example of an issue our professionals face and that KM wanted to address – an “ask the network” example from the previous evolution slide. In our complex organization, finding the right person or subject matter specialist can be challenging. You know there’s someone out there who can help, but how do you connect with them? Practitioners used various methods such as “blanket” or “shotgun” emails fishing for assistance. The results of this method were unpredictable – you were often restrained by your current connections, or you loaded up the Inbox of people who are completely unfamiliar with a topic and couldn't possibly help. It prompted us to question – what’s a better way to help our employees tap into the vast firm knowledge? We knew we wanted to automate and simplify a process to connect people. We didn’t want to create and/or maintain another cumbersome skills profile tool. Many attempts at skills profiles collapse under their own weight because they have to be kept up manually. We found an innovative software application that leveraged something Deloitte employees excel at - email. The application is a product of Tacit Software, Inc., an entity based in Palo Alto, CA, which markets it under the name ActiveNet. We call it iConnect.
- iConnect is an automated system that utilizes sent email messages to build up an individual’s knowledge profile. We liked the idea of using e-mail because it is current, dynamic, and a rich source of information about the changing focus, knowledge, and experience of our personnel. If you are talking frequently about a subject, you are probably knowledgeable about it. iConnect identifies and extracts noun phrases from sent emails and attachments to create topic portfolios. In this way, topic portfolios reflect a person’s knowledge base. Over time, the collection of noun phrases from sent e-mails builds a private , personal portfolio of topical expertise of the individual. Topics receive a strength rating within the individual’s portfolio based on factors such as how recently used (i.e., term strength decays over time), context of use (i.e., header vs. body, e-mail vs. attachment), frequency of use, among others. When someone seeks information, they query iConnect using keywords related to the area of interest. In response, iConnect confirms that there are specialists whose base of knowledge matches the request. The system returns multiple topics to choose from based on the terms entered. Users select the topics that best represents what they are interested in, and compose an e-mail requesting assistance. iConnect then forwards the e-mail to the people behind the topics identified. Recipients of the request may choose to reply or not, with no disclosure of their action noted anywhere in the system. This "blind brokering" approach protects privacy while allowing individuals to reach out to others who may possess valuable information related to their work. When you receive a response from a specialist, his or her identity is made known -- and your collaboration can begin.
- If you want to implement an expertise locator capability, you need to be comfortable with these issues. Existing policies and practices