Britehouse subsidiary, 3fifteen has provided AngloGold Ashanti with a flexible and effective collaboration and communications platform.
AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents, a substantial project pipeline and an extensive, worldwide exploration programme. The company is listed on the New York, Johannesburg, Ghanaian, London and Australian stock exchanges, as well as the Paris and Brussels bourses.
AngloGold Ashanti has employees spread all over the globe and therefore needed a way to facilitate its global knowledgebase. AngloGold Ashanti partnered with 3fifteen to develop a platform that would enable its employees around the globe to collaborate and share knowledge. The solution provides more than this, enabling employees to manage secure online communities and effectively share experiences.
3fifteen is Microsoft Gold Certified in Information Worker solutions, Data Management solutions (BI), Business Process and Integration, Business Solutions (CRM) and Customised Application development, making it the perfect partner for the development of an effective, online communications platform based on Microsoft technology.
Manager: Knowledge Systems for AngloGold Ashanti, Karl Schoemaker says that the solution developed by 3fifteen, Just ASK!, is a portal application designed by AngloGold Ashanti and influenced by similar systems in other companies across the globe. Just ASK! was developed from scratch by 3fifteen on the robust Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 platform, and has recently been upgraded and migrated to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform. Just ASK! provides AngloGold Ashanti employees with access to a powerful online forum for the exchange of ideas and the coordination of groups.
Employees of AngloGold Ashanti are able to post questions on the portal. These can then be accessed by other employees who have agreed to share their knowledge, and have listed their areas of competency, based on their own experiences and knowledge. This allows for problem solving to take place across the organisation; as one's job title is not always a clear indicator of one's ability. Using Just ASK! individuals can contribute based on what they know, as opposed to who they are.
When a user posts a question to the system that matches the listed expertise of another registered user or group, Just ASK! notifies the listed individuals via e-mail. They are then able to log in and post an answer. Users can rate the quality of the answers they receive and in this way effectively add to the knowledgebase by enabling other users to quickly identify the best responses.
But Schoemaker says that once the testing of the application began, it became apparent that AngloGold Ashanti would benefit from extended functionality allowing for the creation of secure online groups focused on specific areas of collaboration.
In meeting this requirement 3fifteen developed an add-on to Just ASK! called 'Communities', based on the Knowledge Management concept of 'Communities of Practice' (CoP), thus enabling users to create secure groups in Just ASK! and post questions, documents, ideas and requests for membership to these specific groups.
Using this tool it is possible to create either public or private communities, and other users can request to become members of communities they would like to contribute to.
Thanks to this project, AngloGold Ashanti is now able to experience the full benefit of the company's rich knowledge environment and allow employees from across the globe to collaborate in real-time, instantly.
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