REDMOND, Wash., and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 22, 2000 — KPMG Consulting LLC, a leading provider of Internet integration services, and Microsoft Corp. today announced a suite of joint knowledge management solutions based on the Microsoft® enterprise platform. The solutions are designed to give organizations the ability to better compete through improved business processes and enhanced collaboration internally and with trading partners, as well as increased speed in leveraging knowledge for strategic advantage.
The joint solutions, which combine KPMG’s consulting and integration services with such Microsoft technologies as Office 2000 and Microsoft Exchange, include these:
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Program Management Office (PMO) enables information technology (IT) departments to capture, codify, track and share information across the enterprise through the use of flexible, intuitive tools.
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Customer Management provides enterprise knowledge, enabling professionals to maximize customer value. This includes change management, consulting services, integrated systems architecture, creation of customer-centric data warehouses, and links to systems that affect customers.
Other joint solutions currently in development include the following:
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Mergers and Acquisitions is designed to help newly merged or acquired companies more quickly assimilate intellectual assets and resources to minimize disruption.
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Research and Development helps to link research initiatives and corporate strategy to improve time-to-market, resulting in a better return on investment.
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Supply Chain Management focuses on capturing the flow of knowledge about money, goods and services for increased efficiency and competitive advantage.
“Companies increasingly are concerned with how to capture and leverage the best information and knowledge in order to compete better,”
said Steve Cranford, senior vice president, Knowledge Management, KPMG Consulting.
“By teaming with Microsoft, we can help our customers successfully integrate the required strategy, people, processes and technology they need to advance in a knowledge-based economy.”
“One example of KPMG Consulting’s commitment to leading-edge knowledge management is KWorld, the global intranet featuring online messaging, collaboration and a knowledge-sharing platform,”
Cranford said.
“KWorld is the first system of its kind built entirely from standard Microsoft components based on Microsoft Windows NT® Server, including Microsoft Exchange, Site Server, and Microsoft Office, Outlook® and Internet Explorer.”
In addition to leveraging the intellectual capital of its employees, KPMG Consulting also will be able to assist its clients in developing and implementing their own knowledge management systems based on the Microsoft platform.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates described KWorld as a true
“digital nervous system.”
During a keynote address at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond, Gates pointed to the success of KPMG and KWorld in tapping into the company’s corporate memory and providing targeted information to the right people at the right time.
“The Microsoft software platform is uniquely positioned to support the diverse needs of companies wanting to leverage and effectively manage their knowledge assets,”
said Jeff Kratz, marketing manager of Knowledge Management at Microsoft.
“Our relationship with KPMG adds value to those executives who need help in sorting out where to gain the best return on theseknowledge assets in addressing their strategic business objectives.”
KPMG Consulting and Microsoft have produced a co-branded CD titled
“Knowledge Management – First Step.”
The CD contains background on knowledge management, information about KPMG Consulting and Microsoft solutions, frameworks and methodologies, case studies, white papers and more. A copy of the CD can be obtained by writing to [email protected].
About KPMG Consulting
KPMG Consulting LLC is a leading provider of Internet integration services. More information can be found on the Web at http://www.kpmgconsulting.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows NT and Outlook are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
