September 22, 1997

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: Knowledge Central Services vendors invest in intranets to speed data sharing By Mary Ryan Garcia rofessional services companies' products are knowledge and expertise, so it's no surprise that they're quick to exploit new technologies for sharing and disseminating information. The Big Six accounting firms and large consulting firms-which have a reputation as early adopters of IT-were among the first big users of Lotus Notes. Now, they're investing equally rapidly in Internet technologies to share information both internally and with customers an d suppliers. Coopers & Lybrand in New York is using the World Wide Web and push technology both to share information internally and to expand into Internet-based information services for clients. Andersen Consulting is using a Lotus Domino server to combine its existing Notes databases with its growing investment in Internet-based technology. Investing in leading-edge intranet technologies is even more important at these services firms than in other industries. "It's about establishing and creating an organization which allows and encourages a free flow of information," says Marianne Hedin, a research manager with International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. IT consulting firms aren't the only ones eager to use the latest technology to share information; the same enthusiasm is evident at Young & Rubicam Inc., an advertising and public relations firm in New York. "Our ability to leverage creative products across the world is very important to us," says James Scielzo, a senior VP and chief techn ology officer at Y&R, which is linking its 4,000-user Notes network with an intranet. Among the services firms, Coopers & Lybrand has been one of the most aggressive in using Internet technologies to link to customers as well as to share information within its own organization. This year, Coopers & Lybrand started providing its Tax News Network information service on the Web at www.taxnews.com . The $540-a-year service provides corporate tax professionals with tax news, business updates, chat forums, and commentary. The company also offers online training for tax professionals. "With our Tax News Network and extranet, our focus is on virtual communities for the corporate tax professional," says Susan O'Neill, Coopers & Lybrand's director of knowledge strategies. "We've created an electronic country club where they can go and interact with their peers. These communities are only open to people in Fortune 500 companies with the position of tax director." Coop ers & Lybrand is also working with push technology supplier PointCast Inc. to provide a cobranded PointCast service for people working in the telecommunications industry. Called Telecommunications Insider, the service will initially deliver four channels of industry-specific content covering legal and regulatory issues, and information from equipment suppliers. The company also has invested heavily in making the organization's collective knowledge available on its intranet, so its employees can access that information directly. Coopers & Lybrand used to operate 120 physical libraries around the country that contained the organization's collective knowledge about strategic technology and business areas. Those were recently converted to online "CyberLybs" on its intranet, which is called KnowledgeCurve. "We've taken the intranet picky-eater strategy," says Mik Chwalek, a knowledge-management consultant to Coopers & Lybrand. "Our intranet mantra is to be content-rich, navigation-lean, relevant, and fo cused." The CyberLybs contain a wide variety of information, O'Neill says. "There is third-party information we buy for our employees, which we think they need in order to be smart," she says. That includes information from Dow Jones and industry analyses from Goldman Sachs. The intranet also contains organizational data, employee benefits information, and databases of the organization's accumulated expertise on specific issues, industry-specific best practices, and client information, including key contacts. Coopers & Lybrand's reliance on shared databases of organizational knowledge is typical among services companies, which view such information as a key corporate asset, says Bruce Stewart, VP and research director for executive programs at IT advisory firm Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "The emphasis is on E-mail and document databases," he says. "Most of the firms have made Lotus Notes investments. There are databases for all practitioners, and databases available for disparate teams on client repair jobs." Andersen Consulting, a 49,000-employee consulting firm in Chicago, has built a worldwide network, called Knowledge Xchange and based on Lotus Notes. It includes 300 global and 2,500 local databases containing industry-specific information such as best practices, research, and Andersen's approaches to business functions such as supply-chain management, and partnering relationships. Andersen Consulting uses Knowledge Xchange as a repository for expertise that's developed for one project, then adapted and reused in others, says Charles Paulk, the consulting firm's CIO and managing partner. "If we're using a solution like SAP," he says, "we can capture what I call industry-standard templates that we've developed on the Knowledge Xchange, and deliver those anywhere in the world very quickly-so they can be customized to fill the unique needs of a client more quickly." With vast amounts of information in Notes databases, it's not surprising that Andersen is investing in Lotus' Dom ino Web server, which makes Notes information accessible via its intranet and Web browsers. "It's easy to see the benefit, in that all of our databases are on Lotus Notes," Paulk says. "From a technology viewpoint, the most important trend is further integration of our existing network with the Internet." Worldwide, the network consists of a frame relay WAN supporting more than 500 PC servers. Andersen spends $4,000 to $5,000 annually per employee on IT, Paulk says. With a highly paid professional work force that spends most of its time at client sites or on the road, services organizations are also big investors in mobile technology, particularly high-end notebook computers. "The difference between us and other types of companies is that we are globally mobile," says Mark Lutchen, global CIO at Price Waterhouse LLP in New York, which has a 1997 IT budget of $209 million. "We have to deploy 57,000 people in 119 countries. Our business is in the field with our clients." Adds Gartner analyst Stewa rt: "At professional services firms, the laptop is the standard vs. the desktop." And they're typically heavy-duty machines, he notes. "The firms often have upwards of a gigabyte of storage in the machines, as well as software development tools," he says. "The investment is often between $8,000 and $10,000 per laptop." Staying Connected At Price Waterhouse, Lutchen says, 85% of users have notebook computers; they typically work at client sites, providing auditing and accounting services. "These people need connectivity; they need to drink from the fountain of corporate computer resources," he says. "When they dial in, they can get access to any of Price Waterhouse's knowledge databases and have mobile, global support around the clock." The users are highly demanding, Lutchen says. "One of the biggest issues facing us right now is the insatiable demand on the part of users," he says. "They're looking for more power in terms of hardware, memory, speed, software functionality, and richness-al l of them packed into ever-smaller and ever-lighter packages. Somehow, we have to get them what they truly need-vs. what they always want-at a reasonable cost." Price Waterhouse's other initiatives include offering services, including computer-based training in SAP R/3, via the Internet. Its core competencies and research groups are researching and experimenting with new electronic-commerce technologies that it can later implement in client projects. Young & Rubicam's technology goals are similar to those of big services firms-and its plans are on a similar scale. The company has more than 10,000 users in 350 offices worldwide, linked by a worldwide frame relay network carrying video as well as more conventional data traffic. Y&R is linking its 4,000-user Lotus Notes network with an intranet; the combined network will carry a wide variety of information, including corporate procedural data, reference materials, document depositories, case studies, creative work, and other knowledge. With s o many corporate assets being moved to intranets, it's no surprise that services firms have big security concerns. "Security is very high on our list," says Y&R senior VP Scielzo. "We do not allow traffic from the Internet onto our internal network; we are firewalled from the Internet." Adds Andersen CIO Paulk, "We have firewalls, authentication, and encryption. Still, there is a lack of maturity of security protocols on the Internet." The rapid development of Internet products may help fix security problems-and will have other effects as well, analysts say, on services companies that have based much of their IT strategy on Notes. "By the end of 1998, Microsoft, Lotus, and Netscape will all offer products which are functionally equivalent for professional services' databasing needs," says Gartner Group's Stewart. Services companies "will have to decide whether to change horses." When that time comes, services companies will be more than ready to jump on the hottest technology available. "Professional services firms are early adopters of new technology," Stewart says, "And they're willing to pay the price of guessing wrong." View the Professional Services Chart in PDF format Back to the IW500 Menu Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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