Knowledge Accelerators
A Scientific Approach to Learning

Due to globalization and unrelenting economic pressures, companies are seeking out areas that may potentially hold the means to gaining an advantage over competitors. One such area that is most often overlooked is knowledge management. Larry Prusak—a leading researcher, author and consultant in the field of knowledge management— aptly says: “The only thing that gives an organization a competitive edge, the only thing that is sustainable, is what it knows, how it uses what it knows, and how fast it can know something new.” Florida-based Knowledge Accelerators has been on a journey to help clients move from “managing knowledge” to “accelerating knowledge adoption” to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology. The company captures, processes, validates, and delivers knowledge objects that are optimized for technology adoption in training, support and employee performance support systems.

Keith Gibson, CEO of Knowledge Accelerators, says, “The best way to boost knowledge adoption is to treat learning not as a series of training events, but more like an advertising campaign aimed at attracting more customers. The learner is a customer of the knowledge.” This is Knowledge Acceleration. Acceleration facilitates faster response to technology changes and the associated implementation costs for new technology, processes, and procedures within an organization. This unleashes a variety of benefits including lower implementation costs, IT support costs, greater employee output, and instant access to knowledge while nurturing continuous learning. The productivity realized allows organizations to increase revenue without adding additional staff. This is the real win!

Knowledge Accelerators started in 1997 with an idea to deliver a scientific approach to the art of learning. This involves industrial engineering of the knowledge workflow. A system must be able to capture, process, validate, and deliver knowledge, at the speed of business. The company’s Continuous Learning Center (CLC) provides pre-packaged micro-learning modules that offer a comprehensive set of campaign tools with learning paths for novices as well as experts on the desktop and mobile productivity applications. Along with CLC, a “Knowledge Factory” software platform supports the rapid conversion of text-based content into video animations in multiple languages.

End users see the process, listen to the steps, and perform the task before they forget

A distribution manager delivers changed and new content to many consumption endpoints as the change is released. This is vital in a world where Microsoft Office 365 and other cloud supported software have moved to continuous refresh cycles. The Common Content Library has over 200,000 how-to videos that are available in multiple languages, translated and voiced with native speakers. “End users see the process, listen to the steps, and perform the task before they forget!” adds Gibson.

To illustrate how Knowledge Accelerators has been revolutionizing global software training, Gibson discusses a client engagement. Knowledge Accelerators helped a large technology company by providing CLC and integrating over 20 existing knowledge platforms into it. Knowledge Accelerators developed content so that the client could accelerate technology deployment. Besides, the client was able to improve their customer satisfaction rate and provide better services at lower costs and faster delivery times. Similarly, another client experienced 86 percent end-user participation from employees in their transformational learning campaign that was designed to boost the adoption of a new workflow. The client recorded learning at a rate of two and a half hours a month per person, which is significant considering that the campaign was a self-administered, opt-in model.

While other solution providers are building passive systems that function as repositories of knowledge, Knowledge Accelerators engineers the knowledge delivery systems to “accelerate what a company knows, so that they can know what they need to know, when they need to know it, and find it waiting for them when they are ready for it.” The company is also engaged in preparing organizations to support machine learning and artificial intelligence engines. “We are invested in major AI projects and believe that this technology will help tremendously in creating a continuous learning environment,” concludes Gibson.