People with questions are used to turning to the Internet, and also to colleagues. UK-based Lend Lease, parent company of Bovis Lend Lease, is combining the two in ikonnect, a knowledge management service that starts on the Web and ends on the phone.
"Its really a nontech initiative," says Bob Webb, Bovis Lend Lease executive vice president, who conceived the idea. Rather than filling a database with information and urging the companys 10,000 employees to find it on line, ikonnect started without any database, just people with inquiries. Facilitators in New York, London and Sydney, Australia, receive e-mails from the ikonnect.com Website and usually call the sender to ask specifically what they want. Then the facilitators contact one or several other Lend Lease employees who have answers and hook them up. "We promote conversation," says Webb. "We want people to be talking to people."