Abstract
As discussed in the authors’ previous article, KPMG has introduced an internal social collaboration platform called the Hub across its international network. The Hub has now been adopted by a large number of users across multiple member firms. It aims to help KPMG professionals connect, communicate, collaborate and create more effectively together. Business benefits observed include reduced time taken to collaborate on ideas, initiatives, proposals and increased speed in responding to client and market opportunities; improved access to expertise and experience around the KPMG international network, increased engagement and the ability to deliver targeted, contextual communications. The Hub also allows client service teams to benefit from these improved ways of working in highly secure, private subject areas so that client matters can be openly discussed but are accessible and visible only to those who should legitimately have access. This new way of working together requires awareness of the professional obligations of each KPMG professional in regard to data privacy and client confidentiality. This is addressed by the change management programme accompanying the Hub, which includes each user’s acceptance of the Rules of the Road, a set of behavioural guidelines to help users understand the conduct expected, which is also monitored by the central Hub team. The change management programme underpinning the implementation of the Hub is centred on the belief that a new set of organizational capabilities, rather than a toolset or technology platform, is being delivered. Helping Hub users understand the behaviours that the Hub is expected to help cultivate is an important part of that change management programme. This will remain an important tenet of the ongoing, multi-year journey of both the Hub implementation and the realization of the benefits to be delivered.
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Introduction
In our earlier article (Business Information Review 30(3): 140–143), we discussed the recent implementation of the Hub, an enterprise-wide internal social collaboration platform, across the international network of member firms at KPMG (Hughes and Chapel, 2013). We discussed how social collaboration supports the Knowledge strategy at KPMG and how the selection of the Hub, powered by tibbr from TIBCO, is being made available to support KPMG people in collaborating, communicating, connecting and creating together.
In this second part of the story of the implementation of the Hub, the focus turns to the status of the project and the anticipated value and how actual business benefits are being observed and monitored.
Aim of the Hub
The business imperative for implementing social collaboration in KPMG is to help deliver an organizational culture shift which will enable people across the international network to connect to share ideas, expertise and opportunities and ultimately embed these types of behaviours as easy, worthwhile and expected ways of doing business every day. Collaboration is the lifeblood of our business, and is critical for our success and our ability to meet the needs and expectations of clients. Additionally, new hires expect an infrastructure where finding and connecting to others is the norm and is easy and intuitive. However, the aim of the Hub is not to deliver a set of tools or a platform on which to work, the aim is to build an organizational capability, and a new way of working together, which we think is a game changer.
Status of implementation
The Hub is available to all member firms across the KPMG network. This means that once the Hub is active in a member firm, KPMG professionals are able to use it to work collaboratively and to connect to and communicate with others in that member firm and with all others across the international network using the Hub. Since KPMG is an international network of individual member firms, and not a single corporate entity, deployment in each member firm requires risk and security approval and senior business sponsorship. It also needs to be funded locally. Attaining the appropriate level of sponsorship and support within a member firm is critical. Adoption by each member firm starts with a conversation to secure that support and sponsorship.
The discussion that takes place with senior leaders in a member firm centres on tangible benefits to help them understand the business value that the Hub will deliver. It draws on the experiences of those already using the Hub. Material benefits observed by early adopters form the basis for these conversations as real-life examples resonate with colleagues. They include: Demonstrating how teams across networks can reduce the time taken to collaborate on ideas, initiatives and proposals and increase the speed with which client and market opportunities receive a response, e.g. a major client asked for a portfolio of particular experiences that needed to reflect their international footprint. Posting a request on the Hub – incidentally a first time post by the particular individual – produced nine high-value responses over the course of a couple of days. The range and quality of the responses would have taken considerably longer to identify without the Hub and, arguably, would not have been possible since most of the responses came from outside the requestor’s existing network and arose from referrals of others and sharing across the Hub. Similarly, a Senior Manager in the Financial Services sector posted an urgent request for recent examples of KPMG’s strength in Data Analytics for a client meeting the next day. She immediately received numerous examples from three member firms, and was introduced to a number of new colleagues who were able to help provide the information that the client needed. Showing how easily and quickly expertise and experience from across the international KPMG network can be identified and connected, e.g. a board member in a KPMG member firm needed to locate individuals with particular experience in the retail sector as a result of a meeting with a major international food retailer. After posting a request for relevant colleagues to make contact he was introduced, during the same day, to new contacts in KPMG in the UK, the US and the Netherlands, all of whom had the specific, niche experience required by the client, which would have been very difficult to identify and tap into quickly without the Hub. Providing examples of how much easier it is for leaders to push updates and insight to broad audiences, e.g. partners in particular parts of KPMG have reduced the volume of email sent and received and increased staff engagement in real-time discussions by insisting (and then leading by example) that team-wide questions and information updates are dealt with in the Hub. This encourages team discussions on communications that were previously one-way and increases efficiency by reducing the volume of email traffic. Demonstrating that collaboration in client service teams is faster and more secure using the Hub’s private subjects. Many client service teams, spread across multiple geographies, are now using the Hub to contribute to client deliverables, prepare for client meetings and share ideas in complete confidence that their discussions are secure and not accessible to anyone who should not have access. Sharing evidence of improved employee engagement as a result of the Hub being available via mobile devices, enabling real-time collaboration, from any location. The Hub is available for use on KPMG-managed mobile devices. These are devices (both KPMG owned and those owned by individuals) which have the approved mobile security software applied. One of the most vibrant and busy Hub subjects was initiated by a Vice Chairman of KPMG in the US and his team, where hundreds of people across the US are sharing new ideas, leading practices and connecting with each other, largely through use of the Hub via their mobile devices.
Using recent, real examples provides a compelling and persuasive argument to help member firm leaders understand why implementation of the Hub in their territory will enable professionals to be part of a wider conversation and immediately start benefiting from connections and knowledge that is created and shared.
These and many other success stories are also shared with professionals within member firms as part of the awareness and communications programme that accompanies the launch of the Hub to help generate interest and excitement and also help new users understand how the Hub can be used and can benefit them.
How the Hub is being implemented?
In order to achieve as much consistency in the implementation of the Hub across member firms as possible, and to realize maximum efficiencies, the roll out of the Hub is being coordinated by the central Global Knowledge team. It is accompanied by common deployment toolkits for implementation, launch, awareness-raising, communications and other common activities. This increases the speed of adoption as it reduces the need for member firms having to conceive and invest in their own programmes. However, the management of each member firm deployment of the Hub is owned and managed locally so that it has context and is relevant for those ‘local’ Hub users. It requires a sponsor and local business owner who take responsibility for communication and driving adoption. These are key individuals who also work with subject managers in those member firms to provide support and encouragement to this vital role, which is a mandatory element in the set-up of all new Hub subjects, to oversee the use of the subject, onboard users (especially in the case of private or semi-private subjects), help direct answers to queries and spot opportunities for serendipitous connections across subjects and the wider network.
As part of planning for adoption, each member firm team is provided with toolkits including communications templates, imagery, sample promotions materials, and awareness-raising video clips (which are shared with end-users at their desktops, but also played in office reception areas and in elevators and in staff break-out areas, to achieve maximum coverage).
At the centre, the team leading and overseeing the Hub programme is comprised of four key areas: business alignment (aligning Hub strategy with business strategy and goals); change management (delivering meaningful support to make the Hub ‘real’ for users); risk, legal and security (working through issues relating to data privacy and client confidentiality) and technology integration (realizing the ambition of integrating the Hub with as many elements of the standard KPMG toolkit as possible and ensuring seamless access from the desktop and mobile devices). Additionally, a wrapper of project management ensures that all ongoing issues are being addressed and member firm adoption is being encouraged, supported and monitored.
How is the Hub being used?
In order to help encourage use, and to help users understand the value to be derived from the Hub; four major business use cases have been identified. Each use case is focused on a business capability: Leadership engagement and effective targeted and elective communications which take advantage of the ability for leaders to communicate in a more conversational style as responses can be actively encouraged and widely shared across all who have access to the subject to which they are posted. This could be all Hub users or restricted to those who have access to a particular subject, e.g. ‘UK Partners’ or ‘London-based Admin teams’. Subjects of interest are open subjects available to all Hub users who chose to follow them. Their content and lists of followers are openly available and they facilitate the widest possible conversations, but must not be used to discuss any sensitive or client-related matters. Subjects of practice are access-controlled subjects and are visible to all, but only accessible by invitation or on request, once the subject managed has approved access. They tend to be used by those who have a particular interest or expertise, as this helps ensure that contributions are focused, relevant and expert in nature. Since they are relatively closed they can encourage greater and more open contribution from those who do not participate in very wide discussions. Those types of groups, or subjects, are closest to the traditional Communities of Practice (Wenger et al., 2002). The role of the subject manager in these instances is not just to monitor participation and help users of the subject, but to help to create energy, encourage participation and help to identify and drive shared goals. Secure client discussions can take place in private subjects. These areas are entirely private and secure and are completely invisible to all users except those who have access, which is completely controlled by the subject manager who can invite users to the subject. This is the only use case of the Hub which can include client confidential information.
As each new user begins to use the Hub, they access the launch page for the first time, read through the Rules of the Road and watch a short instructional video highlighting both the exciting new ways of connecting and the key risk and security issues that each user must be aware of and respect as they use the Hub. Working in a highly regulated environment there is room for potential tension between the flexibility and openness of communication that social collaboration offers and the strict rules and regulations controlling the management and sharing of particular types of information. In planning the implementation of the Hub, providing the environment in which KPMG professionals can connect and collaborate together while respecting and adhering to the regulations controlling information security and data privacy was one the most important milestones of the project.
To ensure relevancy and currency right across the network of member firms, the Rules of the Road were designed to be simple to understand and follow. These are behavioural guidelines with which users are asked to agree before becoming a Hub user. This agreement is recorded, and without acceptance of the Rules of the Road, it is not possible to gain access to the Hub. In addition to reminding users of the need to comply with professional obligations relating to data privacy and client confidentiality; and the need to protect proprietary information, copyright and intellectual property; and to be honest and respectful at all times; the Rules of the Road also encourage users to be active on the Hub and to feel comfortable in being themselves and in entering into informed debate and discussion.
Effecting behavioural change
In order to help realize the potential benefits of the Hub, and underpinning the change management and communications plan that has been put in place, a series of desired employee behaviours have been developed in order to help Hub users understand what is required collectively to make the Hub a success. As discussed in part one of the story (Business Information Review 30(3): 140–143), much was learned from proof of concept exercises and earlier experiments with social collaboration, including the knowledge that adoption and use will be ‘viral’. Helping users understand what is required of them and cultivating great examples of use and sponsorship and role models help make these expected behaviours real and place them in a KPMG business context.
Amongst the desired behaviours and outcomes that are documented and shared are: people from across the organization join the Hub and access it regularly to increase visibility to our engaged leaders who are visible and vocal on the Hub and encourage others to join in; people contribute actively (reading, staying current, posting, responding and sharing) and see a clear return on the investment of the effort taken to contribute to the Hub (therefore, incentivizing ongoing commitment and contribution); people bring others to the Hub and encourage their participation, nurturing the Hub so that it becomes integrated into everyday business and becomes the primary place to collaborate and work together on client issues and business questions; people freely help others, and the organization becomes increasingly well connected; people proactively think of how the Hub can help and do something about it, the Hub becomes the go-to destination for quick responses and allows for leverage of the wisdom of the collective network; people are professional and compliant with KPMG policies when using it, and receive ongoing communications and training so that business benefits and professional obligations are reinforced and users are aware of expected behaviours.
In order to ensure that these behaviours remain relevant and current and to check that the appropriate level of support is provided to help achieve them, effective feedback loops to gather user opinion, collect and demonstrate evidence of success and identify areas for improvement are being used, via the Hub.
Collectively, these behaviours and the perceived benefits contribute to the aspiration that the Hub enables and supports core organizational capabilities (i.e. collaboration and communication) and is not viewed as merely a platform or another technology tool, which will undermine its value and also make adoption a less convincing proposition.
In summary
The social collaboration journey in KPMG is still in its infancy, although there are already many lessons learned that are providing the impetus for ongoing refinement of the programme. Increased learning will be generated as remaining member firms adopt the Hub and the organization develops an increasingly sophisticated user base. Continued adoption of the Hub and realization of the value and business benefits to be delivered will be a multi-year journey and will require continued commitment from the team driving the programme at the centre, sponsors within member firms and the individual users. Momentum continues to build as the organization begins to change the way it works and experiences different ways of bringing its people together. Summarizing our key learning to date: Delivering social collaboration into the enterprise takes time, but getting it right will be a game changer. It is still less than a year since the implementation of the Hub began so KPMG’s social collaboration journey is still in its early days as there is a huge amount of learning to be derived. Many of the assumptions made about the way that the Hub would be used and adopted have been confirmed, but just as many have been challenged and revised to reflect reality. Communicating the value and benefit requires consistent messaging and awareness of success stories. The most valuable asset to encourage and support adoption is ‘war stories’ from colleagues. This makes the Hub real for others and helps them envisage actual and practical examples of how it can improve effectiveness and efficiency. Success requires sponsorship and advocacy to deliver the required culture and behaviour change and communication of the benefits. Internal social collaboration is unlikely to be adopted ‘virally’ across the organization. Senior sponsorship and support not only encourages others to take part, but also acts as the permission or endorsement that some people need. Role models help people visualize both how the Hub can be used, and the benefits of using it and embed social collaboration with business groups. However, another lesson learned is that it is natural to expect acceptance and adoption in some areas over and above others, but to be ready to cultivate and support all areas with a robust communications and adoption programme. Stay committed to the premise that the programme is not delivering a set of tools, but paint a picture of the delivery of new, relevant organizational capabilities. An over-arching goal of the Hub project, from the outset, has been to deliver organizational capabilities so that KPMG can deliver a more effective service to clients, with a speedier response to client and market opportunities. Painting a picture of these new capabilities, rather than talking about the availability of a set of tools engenders more engaged and positive conversations with sponsors, champions and users. It also makes for a more interesting programme of work as alignment to delivering business objectives not only helps to create positive press for the Hub, but leads to a much more satisfying and energetic environment for both the users of the Hub and for those who have responsibility for the ongoing momentum and adoption of the Hub as our journey continues.
About KPMG
KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We have more than 152,000 outstanding professionals working together to deliver value in 156 countries worldwide. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (‘KPMG International’) a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.