CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7 - 30

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SEEKING REAL-TIME COLLABORATION

value of this tool. People were used to the concept of
a knowledge management forum. They would ask a

In 2007, HCL created an employee knowledge exchange

question and eventually someone with expertise would

platform called Value Portal, which enabled employees

answer them. It was slow, but it was transparent. Now

to present their best ideas for creating business value

we were asking them to trust this bot built into EDNA to

for their customers. The platform didn't only provide a

deliver them to the right person.

place to present those ideas; the employees also received

The response from employees varied from intrigue to

feedback on them and earned rewards when customers

skepticism. We knew we had to prove that it would work,

implemented them. The platform was so popular it's

so we started off by piloting it within some of our centers

now used for all customer engagements. Then, in 2012,

of excellence. Then we started holding chat clinics-

a group of HCL employees, on their own initiative,

eventually 70 of them-to explain EDNA to employees

created MAD Jam (Make a Difference Jamboree), which

and let them test the tool. They could see for themselves

celebrated the best innovations - as determined by an

how one employee in the U.S. could raise a question

all-employee vote - coming out of the Value Portal.

and another one in Chennai could answer it within a few

These platforms have been, and continue to be, a great

minutes. We were able to build trust in the system. As

source of value for HCL and its customers. But like

word spread, more experts joined the system and the

most traditional knowledge-sharing programs, they are

reliability increased.

asynchronous. We wanted to create a system that would

Within 60 days of launching Edna, it was populated

enable employees around the world to collaborate and

with 850 experts. The aim of the initiative was to enable

solve problems in real time.

just-in-time resolution of problems and queries in a way

When an employee encounters a challenge, the normal

that would approximate face-to-face collaboration. Using

response is to go to someone in his or her small network

older knowledge-sharing tools, employees looking for

of colleagues to work through it. But we wanted to

answers to problems could find themselves waiting for

help employees uncover and take advantage of hidden

days. The average response time with EDNA is less than

expertise within our 100,000-plus workforce that they

four minutes.

may not even know exists. So in 2012, we launched our

When an employee has a query, he or she uses the

Experts Discovery, Nurture, and Actualize, or

IM an Expert functionality that parses the question and

EDNA, program.

searches our existing integrated knowledge collaboration

We knew we didn't want to introduce a completely

platform to identify subject matter experts who are

new system that employees might reject. Instead, we

currently available to provide input. The analytics built

took advantage of our existing communications platform,

into the system uses a feedback system to automatically

Microsoft's Lync, and leveraged the "IM an Expert"

recognize the top-answering experts. Today, the average

instant messaging application. By taking advantage

answer rating is 4.1 on a scale from one to five, and 85%

of technology already in place, we not only boosted

of all questions are answered. In fact, EDNA was the

adoption rates but also sped up the deployment of the

winner of our internal Exceptional Employee Experience

implementation and reduced its cost.

Award at MAD Jam 2013 and a CIO Impact Award in
Frost and Sullivan's 2014 competition.

BUILDING TRUST IN A BOT

We did have to show employees what was in this for

While we didn't have to train employees on a new

does not deliver explicit rewards and recognition. But

technology, we did have to convince them of the

experts get exposure to the diverse set of problems

Estonia becomes the world's first country to
use Internet voting in a parliamentary election.

2008

2007

them. Unlike our innovation programs, the EDNA engine

More music is sold by iTunes
than by Wal-Mart.
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7
