The sharing of knowledge within communities of knowledge workers is the main objective of this Case Study, in particular the reuse of solutions from past work, the linkage between desk-based and field workers and across geographical areas and the optimisation of the use of specialist skills.

Other objectives are the improvement of informal knowledge processes, e.g. by suggesting actions to users based on previous ways of carrying out a process or by simplifying processes and making suggestions to users accordingly, and the development of knowledge management technology based on an understanding of context, with a specific view to including this technology in the next generation of BT’s knowledge management products and services.

It is currently planned that there will be at least three sets of users, each drawn from BT Global Services:

1. A user-base comprising technical specialists supporting sales and after-sales activity.  The user-base will comprise 100 travelling sales support people and 30 desk-based.  All support complex sales across multiple product lines
2. Around 100 legal and regulatory specialists
3. Around 100 marketeers

Data will generally consist of word-processed documents, presentation slides, email and spreadsheets.  Specifically, for the three communities described above, the data will include:

1. Documents relating to the various stages of the project lifecycle, e.g. bid documentation, project plans, presentations and reports
2. Documents and emails relating to the legal and regulatory status of particular bids and ongoing projects and documentation providing definitive regulatory and legal information
3. Market information, e.g. intranet pages or “pdf” files, and documents, presentations and emails relating to specific bids. For each of the individual communities, the total number of documents and emails will be in the tens of millions

The system will be based in standard office productivity tools, e.g. email, word-processing, presentation and spreadsheet applications. Recently a taxonomy-based knowledge management system has been introduced to aid the sharing of knowledge.  The ACTIVE system will need to complement this by adding superior functionality and offering a lower barrier to use.

The support organisations will be the Knowledge management support network in BT Global Services, who support the organisational implementation of knowledge management systems, and the Next Generation Web Research team, who will be responsible for the technical implementation of the case study.

BT Global Services comprises a large body of knowledge workers, e.g. consultants and pre and post-sales support staff.  There is a strong awareness at senior management level of the need for knowledge sharing and reuse.  This has led recently to the introduction of the taxonomy-based knowledge management system mentioned above.  Units within Global Services have as objectives the maximisation of collective skills and knowledge. There is particular emphasis on reducing the average time to create bids.  This will be one of the metrics by which the case study will be judged. All three user communities are highly motivated to reuse knowledge to save time and improve quality. As with the Accenture case study, this case study will need to show clear benefits and have low barriers to use in order to win general user acceptance.

The BT case study will provide a range of dissemination materials, e.g. papers and articles, presentations, videos and demonstrations.  The existence of several distinct user communities within BT will enable dissemination material to be tailored to those particular types of communities.  On the other hand, the general nature of the knowledge work carried out means that generic dissemination material will also be produced.  

BT’s Innovation web-site will be used to create an awareness of what ACTIVE technology can achieve for end-users. Members of BT Group CTO are encouraged to write and present widely, and the Next Generation Web Research team will undertake significant dissemination activities. Staff also undertakes frequent customer presentations and this will be another dissemination channel.

As with the Accenture case study, the social computing and formal semantics pillars will be used to support the sharing of knowledge and the identification of individuals with particular expertise.  Also as with the Accenture case study, the role of informal knowledge processes will be explored, both in defining context and as entities to be learned, optimised and reasoned over.  Within user community (1) above there is the concept of a standard sales journey.  However, in practice there are deviations from this, and one aspect of the work will be to understand the various alternative sales journeys, how they can be optimised, and how the most appropriate process can be chosen to fit the particular circumstances. In addition, this case study will place particular emphasis on the significance of context.  The use of context to present and prioritise knowledge is seen as an important component of BT’s future product roadmap.  This case study will explore the use of context and feed both ideas and technology into BT’s product evolution.