Information Standards Success Stories

• provided a consistent look and feel to the Intranet content
  
• presented and communicated clear and effective information
  
• enabled quick transfer of all paper documentation to online material
  
• enhanced internal customer satisfaction
  
• facilitated easy edits for future maintenance and updates, and
  
• created a platform to measure results in customer satisfaction, employee performance, and ISO 9000 certification.

The general consensus is that employees at AAA Michigan found the new reference material much easier to find and were more likely to use the information.

Information Mapping the ACNielsen Way

Introduction

ACNielsen is the world?s leading market research, information, and analysis firm. ACNielsen?s clients rely on the company?s information and insights, proprietary research methodologies, and professional services to make better business decisions, manage marketing and sales activities, and improve performance.

Background

Every organization has a knowledge management system, even if it is informal and paper-based. How is your knowledge currently created, distributed, stored, shared, accessed, and managed? Do you have clear roles and responsibilities, a well-defined approval process, a central repository for information, and clear policies for tracking versions and updating or destroying outdated information? If your system is ineffective now, you will need to prepare for significant organizational and cultural change.

Initiatives

In October of 1997 ACNielsen was operating in over 100 locations under many business names and in multiple languages. As the company grew and acquired more businesses, it became clear to senior management that they needed to make progress towards achieving a more common culture so they launched initiatives aimed at creating "One Company Indivisible." Programs that were launched included

• development of a core set of product standards and business processes
  
• implementation of templates that provided a common "look and feel" to clients, and
  
• implementation of an Intranet system that allowed global sharing of information and best practices.

Vanessa Russell, Vice President Global Quality at ACNielsen, recognized that the success of the initiatives required a common documentation approach that would help create a foundation for knowledge sharing. "We saw Information Mapping?s approach as a best practice for analyzing, organizing, and presenting information," said Vanessa. "We felt that Information Mapping training could help ACNielsen to document the right information, achieve the highest levels of documentation comprehension, make documents faster to read, and facilitate document updates and revisions."

In a survey conducted with program graduates

• 68% of respondents agreed that the Information Mapping approach reduces writing time
  
• 85% agreed that it improves organization and flow of writing, and
  
• 75% agreed that it reduces time for revising and updating of documents.

One survey respondent said that Information Mapping "has a highly professional impact with clients. I believe it has helped me to win some significant contracts." Another commented that the use of Information Mapping "has become a way of living and?really makes the information become clearer and easier to read." At ACNielsen Information Mapping is now a part of the corporate culture, or the "ACNielsen Way."

Sprint Instructor Improves Business Communications

Susan Radle, an Educational Consultant within Sprint's University of Excellence, was certified a year ago to teach Information Mapping's Mapping Business Communications? seminar (MBCO). The University of Excellence has adopted the Information Mapping Method as a standard for training materials corporate-wide.

Susan, who led an interdepartmental team in the design and delivery of a comprehensive new manager training class for Sprint Business, and held a key role managing the development, production, and application of the Sprint Management Process for sales and sales support managers, has taught the Information Mapping Method to over 300 employees nationwide.

Susan described MBCO as "an extremely powerful course in Sprint's Management and Professional Education curriculum. Students learn applications that can be applied immediately back on the job. My students use the method to write letters, procedures... even voice mail messages. This seminar has helped students become more efficient when writing day-to-day business communications." One student even sent Susan a letter stating "Mapping changed my business life."