Medscheme is one of South Africa's largest multi-scheme administrators and health risk managers. The organisation employs around 3 000 people and offers a range of integrated services that take care of the needs of medical scheme members.
The challenge
Medscheme wanted to replace its proprietary intranet as it had identified several problems with the system:
* The existing intranet was not user-friendly, so people were not using it;
* It was difficult for users to find the information they were looking for;
* The organisation needed to eliminate local storage of information and move it to a centrally accessible location;
* There was limited capability for online collaboration within and between business units; and
* The system was rendered stagnant as a result of these factors.
Serving entire organisation
In August 2006, Mint implemented a solution that provided a document management and knowledge management platform to serve the entire organisation. Mint and Medscheme entered into a service level agreement (SLA) for the maintenance and upkeep of the site. Post-deployment support was provided, along with user and administrator training.
"Many Medscheme employees are knowledge consumers. As a result, Mint needed to put in place a mechanism to enable the creators of knowledge to publish information to the consumers. This in turn allows the people who need information quickly to collaborate and share information, resulting in a work environment that empowers employees," said Grant Hodgkinson, MD of Mint.
The solution has created a company-wide knowledge and document management platform that allows users to manage and control their information securely and publish what is needed to the rest of the organisation for future use.
Communication and sharing throughout the organisation have been greatly facilitated. Medscheme's ability to take information created through collaboration and publish it for consumption by the rest of the organisation has been significantly enhanced. Document management and control capabilities have been created. This has allowed people to search for and find information far more quickly and easily.
Solution components
The solution runs on SharePoint Portal Server 2003, a portal product from Microsoft that enables enterprise-wide document storage as well as advanced search.
How does a knowledge management platform work?
The way an enterprise shares, gathers and distributes information among its employees, suppliers and customers has an impact on its return on investment (ROI). Mint implemented Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server at Medscheme, customising it to suit Medscheme's requirements, and enabling the company to leverage its storage and sharing capabilities. This allows the uniform distribution of information across the organisation, making content available to everyone as and when they need it, and thus enhancing productivity.
In addition, users such as call centre agents have easier access to relevant information through the Mint virtual document library. This allows the user to access topic-based content in an easy-to-use fashion, regardless of where this information is stored in the portal. Using this library, they no longer have to search through hundreds of documents to find the information they are looking for. Instead, they have pre-categorised results pushed to them, reducing the time they spend on sifting through search results. Product brochures, for example, which may be stored in different sections of the portal, can easily be searched by users who require a cross-section of product information.
Enhancing productivity
Leveraging Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Mint created a solution that gave users the following abilities:
* To quickly and easily a create a collaboration space in the specific section or area they are in;
* To collaborate in this workspace and create content;
* To associate metadata and choose location;
* To publish this content back to a specific section in the portal;
* To aggregate search results in a section specific to particular types of content; and * To access an enhanced search interface.
Specific functionality such as the Mint virtual document library and the publication process were built into the platform to enhance user productivity.
In addition, Mint also developed a security matrix around information access to ensure that access is granted to users according to permissions.
The solution has given Medscheme the ability to choose a location to publish completed information to a central location. At this point the user is compelled to associate metadata with the document and choose the portal area to which it must be published. This ensures there is always one version of the truth and that correct privileges and access rights are adhered to.
It also aids in enhancing the SharePoint search component of the solution. By using the metadata, the search results returned are more relevant to the search phrases. Through the structuring of the information, Medscheme can create a virtual document library that adds great value for those who prefer not to search.
"Medscheme chose to work with Mint because the company understood our needs and requirements. The company's approach and professionalism also impressed us. Medscheme ultimately wanted a service provider that would stay with us and continue to provide value-added services and fantastic support through a proven track record. Mint's price was significantly lower than those of its competitors, another factor that had a significant impact on our decision," said Francois Smith, project owner at Medscheme.
Benefits at a glance
* A centralised knowledge management repository.
* Enhanced document management capabilities.
* People have the ability to share collaborate, and communicate more easily.
* Easy access to content that was previously difficult to find.
* Greatly improved security.
* Better search capabilities.
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