Knowledge Sharing and Decision-Making Services

This initial project was organized into five work streams.

1. Diagnostic Review. Iknow started the assignment by conducting a thorough review of the HC Department’s processes and practices. Iknow conducted 46 interviews with two groups of HC stakeholders. One group was internal customers of the HC Department and included almost all of DART’s senior leadership team. The second group was the HC Department’s staff. Iknow prepared two customized interview guides and conducted initial interviews that lasted between 30 minutes to more than two hours each. A second round of interviews was performed, when appropriate. Iknow prepared detailed interview summaries to capture a complete record of all of the information collected.

In parallel, the Iknow team reviewed and analyzed relevant documentation on DART’s policies, practices, standard operating procedures (SOPs), systems, and internal controls.

2. Document the Current-State and Future-State HC Business Processes. The objectives of this work stream were to capture the “as-is” business processes for the Human Capital Department in its entirety, to develop recommendations on the “to-be” business processes, and to advise on business process improvements, automation opportunities, and system configuration changes that could increase process efficiency, staff effectiveness, and data and transaction accuracy.

Iknow started this work stream by reviewing DART’s process descriptions, automated work flows, SOPs, and any other relevant documentation on the core HC business processes. Specifically, Iknow conducted detailed analyses of DART’s 34 SOPs and the 89 automated DARTnet workflows to understand HC’s role and involvement in each. This analysis also included undocumented HC processes and practices.

3. Develop a New HC Organizational Structure. The objective of this work stream was to develop a new HC organizational structure that would support the new processes, information flows, and controls. Iknow incorporated several best practices into the new HC organization structure, including introducing alignment of the organizational structure with the HC business processes, introducing the concept of “high performing” work-centric teams, and flattening the HC Department’s span of control.

4. Compliance Review. This work stream analyzed DART’s compliance with federal, state, and local human resources-related laws, statutes, rules, regulations, and guidelines. Iknow reviewed DART’s Administrative and Hourly Employment Manuals, reviewed DART’s implementation of FTA Complaint No. 13-0163, and studied the implications of the FTA’s Circular 4704.1 as part of the compliance review.

5. Implementation Plan and Timeline. Iknow planned and conducted a half- day offsite workshop to discuss the HC improvement ideas and develop an implementation roadmap and timetable. The offsite was held at SMU’s Cox Executive Education facilities.

Subsequent iterations of the plan resulted in a portfolio of 21 projects as part of the initial wave of the Implementation Phase. Some of the various projects included: Redesign the Employee Recruitment Process, Update the DART Hourly Employment Manual and the Administrative Employment Manual, Relaunch the People Center, Develop and Implement a HC Data Analytics and Reporting Function, and Design, Develop, and Implement a HC Records Management Program.

Iknow’s project approach involved three phases:

1. Diagnostic Phase. Iknow conducted a detailed review of the current CoP sites and KM repository to understand the key usability and content management issues that need to be addressed during the project. This work included:

• Review of previous user feedback.
• Content audit, including types of content, the numbers of items displayed, and the static/dynamic split.
• Extensive user interviews with all levels of firm's staff.
• Review of current content management procedures for the CoP sites.
• Technical review of how the current CoP sites were populated and administered in SharePoint, including the use of lists and libraries, Content Query web parts, and other web parts and menus.

2. Design Phase. Based on the diagnostic work, Iknow proposed a new SharePoint architecture and page design template for the CoP pages, including the required SharePoint components and functionality. This involved the following main tasks:

• Requirements definition, based on the diagnostic work, summarized in a document that was discussed with the senior management.
• “Wireframe” design preparation with several navigation options for discussion.
• A technical design document, summarizing the SharePoint features and functionality to be developed based on the selected wireframe design.

Iknow’s recommended site architecture made use of SharePoint’s “managed navigation” and “term-driven pages” features:

• Each site was based on a special “CoP” term set containing specified terms that had been copied from the main taxonomy.
• Each page within a site was “term-driven” – meaning that it was based mainly on queries of KM data using a specific term from the site’s CoP term set.
• The query-driven page content was organized into “tabs” based on different KM use cases (e.g., Selling, Project Delivery, Ideas, Research, People Search, and Projects) that were populated automatically with items that were tagged to the corresponding terms (topics and content types) and were flagged for inclusion on the site.

In addition:

• Each CoP site had a “search within site” feature that returned only items that were flagged for inclusion on the site.
• The sites had a free text/image area to allow custom content and branding for each CoP.

3. Implementation Phase. Working initially in a SharePoint development environment, and then migrating to staging and production environments, Iknow managed the development and deployment of the new sites. Activities included:

• New site template creation – using the designs developed in the previous phase.
• Content management process – working with each CoP to review content and select items for inclusion in the new sites, and reviewing tagging to ensure that content appears in the right places.
• Content management tools – developing, testing, and deploying PowerShell scripts to facilitate batch tagging and content promotion based on CoP input from Excel sheets, as well as SharePoint grid views for rapid editing.
• Testing – both internally in the team and with selected users, followed by remediation of any issues.
• Documentation – for both new site creation and site administration.

Iknow’s approach for completing the scope of work consisted of the following five tasks:

1. Onsite interviews with key DEW staff.
2. Analysis of the existing forecasting Excel spreadsheet.
3. Review of the DEW’s forecasting-related reports.
4. Review of documents received from Iknow’s data requests.
5. Analysis of a representative set of historical expense profiles for grant contracts.

Iknow conducted ten in-person interviews with the DEW’s finance and executive staff and reviewed the DEW’s forecasting business process, data sources, assumptions, and tools.

Iknow discovered that the variability in the current financial forecasts was caused by two primary factors:

1. Lack of appropriate models. The forecasting tools did not adequately characterize the DEW’s expected future revenue and expense streams.
2. Incorrect simplifying assumptions. Several simplifying assumptions used in the current forecasting spreadsheet contributed to the large variances in the forecasts.

Iknow also found that the current financial forecasting processes and tools could be improved by making explicit the financial modeling assumptions, incorporating more sophisticated modeling approaches, documenting the forecasting business process, and using better software tools.

Lastly, Iknow researched commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) forecasting/financial modeling/business intelligence (BI) software products and provided four product recommendations to the Chief Financial Officer.

Iknow summarized its analyses and findings in a written final report. The final report contained a series of recommended next steps.

Iknow conducted requirements sessions to identify and document the system’s desired functionality. Key system capabilities included:

• Real-time monitoring of content deliveries and article counts.
• Dynamic alarm methodology based on the historical publication and delivery patterns for each source.
• Multiple views of the data for reporting at the individual staff level, center level, and Group level.
• Predictive analysis.

Iknow prepared a business requirements document that included detailed written descriptions of the functionality of every proposed dashboard. The requirements document also included detailed wire frames that illustrated how the data would be displayed on each dashboard.

Iknow designed and implemented the following alerting logic:

1. Pattern discovery for historical content. Iknow analyzed the historical data for content arrivals and developed algorithms for determining the “best fit” patterns. More than 775 patterns were identified and assigned to the content sources. Patterns were grouped into “day of the week” patterns (e.g., Monday/Wednesday/Friday); “calendar date” patterns (e.g., arrivals occurred on the 5th and 20th days of every month); and “longer period” patterns (e.g., quarterly or semiannually). The average arrival times, article quantities for each delivery date, statistical metrics (e.g., standard deviations), and altering thresholds were also calculated from the historical data.
2. Delivery expectations for a specific date. Iknow developed an expected delivery calculation engine that generates a list of the expected content deliveries for a given date. The engine uses the identified arrival pattern for each source and creates a list of the expected arrivals.
3. Alerting. Iknow developed a real-time alerting engine that notifies a Content Operations Specialist when an individual content delivery assigned to him or her falls outside of one or more of its expected thresholds. Specifically, the system monitors each content delivery expected on that date and creates alerts for lateness (which includes missing deliveries), quantity deviations that fall outside of the high- and low-volume thresholds, and other types of delivery problems.

The historical delivery patterns for each source are updated daily. The expected deliveries for the next day are calculated late in the day on the previous day. The alerting engine compares expected deliveries with actual deliveries every 1 to 2 minutes.

Iknow performed the following tasks:

• Conducted multiple requirements gathering sessions with Content Operations personnel.
• Developed Content Operations-specific use cases.
• Identified and cataloged the source data elements.
• Defined the calculated variables.
• Developed and refined the statistical methodology for calculating late content deliveries.
• Developed the monitoring and alerting logic.
• Developed sketches, wire frames, and mockups of dashboard designs.
• Architected, designed, and built the BI universe.
• Architected, designed, and built the new database and database applications.
• Architected, designed, and built the 12 dashboards.
• Conducted user acceptance testing and refined the dashboards based on user feedback.
• Prepared a user guide.
• Conducted end-user training.

The monitoring and alerting system was implemented using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) Platform and Microsoft SQL Server. The primary products used from the SAP BI Platform were Dashboards, Web Intelligence, and Universe. The core features deployed were reporting, interactive analysis, dashboards and visualization, data exploration, and advanced analytics.

The new system was deployed on a virtual private cloud (VPC) environment, hosted at Amazon Web Services, and custom data and application integration was implemented between AWS and the company’s secure data centers. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) was used to perform data extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) steps.

Iknow’s primary deliverable was the design and development of customized dashboards for Content Operations end users, including the underlying solution logic, algorithms, and databases. Other deliverables included installing, configuring, and testing the SAP Business Intelligence Platform, integrating the new system with the company’s existing databases and applications, preparing the user guide, and delivering end-user training.

Two screen shots from the system are presented below. The first screen shot shows the late and missing content deliveries based on their expected arrival times.

Today's Activitiy Dashboard

The second screen shot shows the actual delivery performance for a specific source.

Source Detail Dashboard

Iknow began by conducting a thorough baseline assessment of current business process performance in the identified areas, using a combination of interviews and results of previous internal studies. This assessment yielded many potential improvements across all areas. For example, we found redundant process steps, lengthy review and approval processes, and opportunities for “lightening” controls on certain types of work, especially those dealing with low-value/high-transaction volume activities.

We then developed a methodology and selected specific tools for performing a more detailed analysis of the business processes. The tools included:

• Process flow mapping, using the IDEF0 framework.
• Risk identification and mitigation, including ways to reduce burdensome control requirements.
• Improvement idea capture and evaluation templates, used to identify and evaluate ideas for addressing process complexity, long cycle times, and high costs.
• Analysis of the potential impacts of making the identified process changes on cycle time, cost, and risk level.

These tools were employed by each internal working group. Iknow supported the working groups with guidance, advice, and coaching.

Iknow designed and led a three-day workshop where the working groups presented and further refined their process improvement recommendations, discussed risk mitigation strategies, and identified cross-functional implementation issues. Iknow introduced relevant improvement ideas from other organizations to help guide the working groups in developing their recommendations and performance improvement targets. More than 40 representatives from the organization’s key functions and region/country operations participated.

In the final phase of the project, Iknow developed a standard template to summarize the working groups’ recommendations, impact, and key implementation steps. Iknow also summarized the high-level themes for reporting to senior management and documented the supporting activities and technology platforms necessary to enable the process improvements. Some examples of the supporting activities included training, performance management, accountability, and decision making. The final recommendations were presented to the organization’s executive leadership and approved.

Iknow used three primary methodologies on this assignment.

• Business Process Mapping. The objective of process mapping is to graphically illustrate the sequence of activities and tasks in a business process. We used the IDEF0 process mapping standard so that we could have a consistent way to display and interpret the processes. Iknow created more than 50 maps that covered the six core processes and one common subprocess. More than 220 individual process steps were characterized; maps with up to four levels of process decomposition were created.
   
• Value Stream Mapping (VSM). The objective of value stream mapping is to graphically illustrate “where” and “how much” important process metrics change in the process. For example, if an important metric is processing time, then the value stream map would show where processing time accrues throughout the process. If the important process metric is defects, then the value stream map would show where defects are occurring throughout the process. Iknow constructed 24 VSM maps for the DSS.
   
• Improvement Project Portfolio Evaluation and Optimization. The objective of creating a portfolio of improvement projects is to provide a structured approach for evaluating the improvement ideas that surface throughout the project. Each project is evaluated uniformly against a common set of criteria, such as return on investment, implementation speed, likelihood of success, and level of impact on certain groups of stakeholders.

More than 60 individual and group meetings were held. Business process mapping provided the following insights:

1. The core business processes varied significantly in terms of number of discrete, meaningful steps, from as few as 5 steps to as many as 58 steps. The Intake Process and the Annual Renewal Process were the most complicated processes based on the number of process steps.
2. The processes were primarily performed in serial; not many process activities were performed in parallel. Additionally, the number of handoffs between DSS staff was small, indicating a minimal number of process loops.

An example of a process flow map is illustrated in the exhibit below.

Process Flow Map - Intake Process (Top Level)

Value stream mapping provided the following insights:

1. Process lead times were highly variable and ranged from 4 days to 63 days across the 22 representative cases analyzed that covered the Intake, Periodic Report, and Annual Renewal processes. Process lead times ranged between 7 and 29 days.
2. Process lead times were longer when the case’s supporting documentation was missing and worker follow-up was needed to complete the case. Requesting supporting documentation from a client and the additional processing tasks added roughly 14 calendar days to the overall process lead time.
3. Based on an analysis of the processes, long process lead times were NOT correlated to case complexity.
4. The value-added times ranged between 8 minutes and 2 hours per case processed.

An example of a Value Stream Map is illustrated in the exhibit below.

Value Stream Map - Annual Renewal Process

Iknow produced the following primary deliverables:

• Current-state business process maps and VSM analysis
• Future-state design
• Portfolio of performance improvement ideas
• Recommendations
• Process improvement plan and roadmap

Iknow began this assignment by reviewing a representative data subset and developing the categories for classifying the comments. Working with the company’s marketing, digital commerce, and business intelligence staff, more than 130 categories were ultimately selected. Next, the Analyze learn-by-example (LBE) capability was used to automate the processing of text comments. The software is able to read and analyze each sentence, determine its meaning and sentiment, and classify it into one of the defined categories.

Iknow worked with the company to test and validate the results from the automated classification and to establish the internal reporting process. Results were routed to specific executives throughout the company so that they could address the problems that fell within their spans of control.

The project consisted of the following six major work activities:

1. Content Source Analysis. Iknow worked with company’s Supply Chain Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify the specific types of information that should be collected and displayed, and the specific sources of that information. Iknow synthesized the information and created a data element-data source map. Iknow evaluated alternate sources and prepared recommendations on the specific external sources of information that should be acquired for the SI Platform.

Iknow developed standard data element-naming conventions and definitions to assist in aggregating data from multiple sources. Iknow also created business logic for resolving conflicting data.

2. Supplier Master Index (Key) and the Data Workflow and Processing Algorithms. Iknow developed a master key/indexing strategy for uniquely identifying each potential supplier. We created a relational database that integrated the company’s internal supplier naming conventions, D&B® D-U-N-S® Numbers, official company names, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry codes, and the names of product categories and commodity types. Iknow then designed the end-to-end process workflow for data acquisition, cleansing, matching, and disambiguation.

Note: This work stream was very important because each new piece of incoming data needed to be matched correctly to a unique company. While D-U-N-S Numbers are used to uniquely identify more than 100 million businesses worldwide, we estimated that up to 30 percent of the potential suppliers in the company’s SI database that are located outside the United States did not have a D-U-N-S Number. Additionally, NAICS codes are likely only available for companies operating in North America. Therefore, creating and updating a supplier master index and the supporting logic algorithms to resolve matches of companies with similar names was fundamental to the overall integrity of the system.

3. Intelligent Search (IS) Broker Creation. Iknow created the custom software code for acquiring the supplier data from the external sources. Iknow used the SAP BusinessObjects Intelligent Search product and built custom software brokers to access the specific websites and databases.
    
4. Text Analysis Rule Creation. Iknow developed a set of custom rules for the SAP BusinessObjects Text Analysis product. The custom rules are used to finely tune the natural language processing (NLP) algorithms so that only the desired entities, or data elements, are extracted and stored during the processing of incoming, unstructured text content.
    
5. User Experience Design and Development. Iknow developed high quality, user-friendly interfaces for the Supplier Intelligence application. The interfaces were web-based, multipage displays that contained advanced functionality for searching and displaying structured and unstructured data. Iknow designed the search, advanced search, faceted navigation of search results, and other search-related functionality. Iknow developed several display dashboards that present supply chain-related data in pie charts, bar charts, time-series plots, maps, and other display formats.
    
6. Business Logic and Technical Architectures. Iknow designed, developed, and tested the new Supplier Intelligence Platform following the company’s DoD-certified software development methodology. The Platform was implemented using a services oriented architecture (SOA). Core technical functionality and business logic included scheduling the raw data acquisition, performing data quality and data reconciliation activities, and loading the data into structured databases. Iknow also designed and developed an overall user experience that fosters interaction with an exploration of the data and provides the mechanisms for collecting human intelligence and other forms of feedback.

The Supplier Intelligence platform was implemented using the following software tools from SAP:

• SAP BusinessObjects Intelligent Search Language Processing
• SAP Business Objects Text Analysis (language: English)
• Text Analysis Language Processing (all other languages)
• SAP BusinessObjects DQM
• SAP BusinessObjects BI Package
• SAP Business Suite Business Expert Upgrade User
• SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search
• SAP Portal

Other commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) software products included Oracle databases and SAP ERP systems. The production system is hosted in the company’s secure data centers. The Platform and the supporting databases are accessible behind the company’s firewall.

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Some of the project’s major deliverables included:

• Software installation in development, testing, and production environments
• Business requirements document
• Functional requirements document
• UI design and implementation
• Database design and implementation
• Custom Intelligent Search brokers for each of the content source websites
• Custom rules for Text Analysis entity extraction
• Database application for managing the supplier websites
• QA and UA testing
• Training (end user training; technical training)
• Periodic status reports

The exhibit below shows a screen shot of the top of a Company Profile page. It contains general company data, a vendor profile, the primary address, and 12-month purchase order commitments.

Screenshot of a Supplier Profile Page (Top)

The second exhibit shows additional information presented further down on the Company Profile page. This screen shot includes primary competitors and a complete list of human intelligence about the specific vendor.

Screenshot of a Supplier Profile Page (Bottom)

The third exhibit shows NAICS Codes, US and UK SIC Codes, and Hoovers Industry Codes for the vendor.

Screenshot of a Supplier Capabilities Page