A Pharmaceutical Company Builds a Foundation for Knowledge Management

The client, one of the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical companies, recognized the need for a more comprehensive knowledge management infrastructure. Earlier attempts at delivering new applications revealed an incomplete architecture. Platforms required to deliver insight to the client's scientists either didn't exist or were not sufficiently integrated. The client's knowledge management department engaged West Pole to help design, plan, and build the foundation for its revitalized commitment to knowledge dissemination.

Sourcing, Describing and Routing Information Without Restriction

West Pole worked with the client to identify key user requirements that were not being met through the legacy infrastructure. Synthesis of the findings uncovered a need for greater flexibility in sourcing and managing information. In particular, the team recognized the need to coordinate search and proprietary metadata across multiple applications and document types. In response to these needs, West Pole leveraged its KM expertise by contributing program management, technical architecture leadership, and human interface design to facilitate the conceptualization, design, and implementation of a core knowledge management platform. The objective for the platform was to enable control, customization, and routing of information generated by knowledge workers at all global facilities.

Setting the Stage to Unleash Untapped Value

West Pole guided the client through a difficult investment in infrastructure and also supported the concomitant business process reengineering effort. However, the "heavy lifting" is rapidly delivering value to the organization. The improved systems and processes route information, sourced anywhere, through truly integrated delivery applications that provide significant insight and time-savings to scientists. Moreover, the integrated platforms yield important measurements of information value for strategic analysis by client decision makers. As a result, the department is poised to provide greater total value to the organization for many years to come.

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