What is the single unique asset that has the ability to set you apart from other businesses and organisations? Simple: it’s knowledge. Knowledge translates to people. And people, at their best, with their skills and experience fully optimised, translate to great service delivery to your customers.

So why does an investment in people (aka knowledge management) often take second place to an investment in systems and business tools? At Intergen, we believe the investments are inseparable.

We’ve established a strong reputation in the marketplace for savvy technology development and delivery – and will continue to do so. But our job doesn’t stop with the technology implementation. We ensure that we embed hands-on knowledge within your people, so you retain the knowledge you need moving forward. More recently we’ve made a very strategic investment of our own. Not surprisingly, that investment is in people. We’ve geared up our management consultancy services … with knowledge management the first item on the menu.

Enter Sally Jansen van Vuuren into the frame as Intergen’s Principal Management Consultant. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary academic and practical background in IT, business, and knowledge management, Sally is a resource that we think is pretty unique in the New Zealand market.

Sally makes a compelling case for why knowledge is your company’s most strategic asset. She joined Intergen having started Crown Law on a strategic journey to harness the benefits of its significant knowledge resources through a programme of behavioural, cultural, process, and systems related changes.

What follows is not a typical Intergen case study, rather a case in point for how knowledge can deliver great business value. You be the judge.

THE CHALLENGE

Crown Law is the legal advisor to government. Led by the Solicitor-General, the organisation has a significant diversity of business teams across the legal practice and corporate services areas. When Sally joined Crown Law, there were already over 90 projects under consideration within the organisation – but no overview of how these projects fitted into the bigger strategic picture of how the organisation’s businesses could be streamlined, or how stronger collaboration across these areas could achieve far greater business value for the organisation.

Crown Law’s Practice Manager, Diana Pryde, makes this summation of the facts:

THE PAIN

“We’ve allowed IT to drive the business rather than our business needs, people and culture driving our IT decisions.”

Diana elaborates on why Crown Law needed to establish a “knowledge umbrella” in order to gain greater integration across the business.

“In order to deliver on our Centre of Excellence Strategy (the three planks of this being that are our staff are truly valued, we provide excellent client service and we employ simple systems and processes) we needed to create a knowledge network that would change our whole behaviour across the organisation.”

Crown Law secured Sally Jansen van Vuuren’s expertise as a knowledge management specialist. Her 18-month appointment at Crown Law saw her conduct an extensive review of Crown Law’s business processes and culture, including undertaking workshop sessions involving people at all levels of the organisation. The review uncovered a lack of consistency in the way teams worked as well as the potential for greater collaboration across the organisation. The groundswell of opinion was hugely positive, with people keen to create urgency in developing greater collaboration and more simple streamlined systems.

THE GAIN

Diana Pryde says, “Crown Law now has an agreed pathway that values synergies between our people, and places great value on collaboration, mentoring, retaining knowledge. This way of thinking will allow us to address our business needs in a more strategic manner.”

Now Intergen is the One to Gain

As Crown Law continues its journey, Sally Jansen van Vuuren’s appointment as Intergen’s Principal Management Consultant is extending Intergen’s offering.

How does Knowledge Management sit within Intergen’s portfolio? Sally puts it simply: “We believe great technology development, in tandem with leading edge consultancy services, means we can do even better for our clients. We’re happy to coin the phrase “knowledge partners”. KM at Intergen comes in a range of flavours to suit your individual appetite - we won’t be prescribing one size fits all solutions.”

Sally heads Intergen’s new KM offering and she’s passionate about helping businesses facing growth and change, making sure that systems and technology development intersects with strategically valuing your people.

We’ll let Crown Law’s Diana Pryde provide our closing argument. “Sally is a leader in the KM field in NZ. She has an amazing set of skills, her background in IT, business and KM, and academic research making her a one-off person. She can think through linkages and really understands business issues. The passion she brings to knowledge management makes her a very convincing and confidence-inspiring person. I know she’s looking forward to offering other companies a more holistic way of focusing not just on technology, but on people.”

Keen to put a knowledge-based approach to business that adds significant value, high on your agenda? Intergen’s management consultancy team is keen get involved.