OutStart, the leading provider of software solutions for learning and knowledge sharing, today announced significant upgrades to OutStart Participate, its best-of-breed knowledge, expertise and community management platform. V2006 addresses key barriers associated with contributing and using the learning and knowledge that employees, customers, and partners need to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively. Key new capabilities include the organic contribution of knowledge to eliminate the typical knowledge creation bottleneck; connections to existing document, information and data repositories; and the ability to leverage the extensive learning objects contained within formal and rapid training sources.
With these expanded capabilities and newly created learning objects, the OutStart Participate system can act as the single source of on-demand learning and knowledge available through a self-service, just-in-time, just-for-me manner. OutStart Participate 2006 breaks down the bottlenecks in knowledge, contribution, and learning that have severely constrained systems in the past. The solution makes it easier to capture knowledge with connectors to sources such as the Internet, ERP and CRM systems, and document repositories, and contribution can grow organically using common products such as Outlook, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Internet Explorer. With Participate, features for escalation to community and experts, organic contribution and access to knowledge assures that almost any question will get answered quickly.
“By blending expertise and community management, analytics and self-service delivery models, OutStart is creating a new type of knowledge management solution that breaks down barriers between content sources, collaboration and even formal training,” said Allen Bonde, founder of strategic advisory firm ABG, Inc. and senior vice president at eVergance. “This type of e-Knowledge essentially turns the concept of KM inside out, with expertise distributed instead of centralized, and users getting information at the point of interaction, rather than by turning to a central repository. The end result is a solution that is more accessible and potentially a lot more useful for customers and everyday employees compared to more traditional approaches.”
Saving time and improving job performance
OutStart Participate 2006 vastly improves the proficiency of knowledge workers. Call centers and help desks, for example, can expand self-service to include community support, and offer a closed-loop process for insuring that questions are readily answered to reduce call volume, resolve inquiries faster, and improve customer satisfaction while significantly reducing support costs. Sales and marketing teams, can now find the information they need at a moment’s notice, communicate with peers and reach out to experts with ease. Product management teams are able to disseminate new product specifications and collaborate to internal stakeholders more quickly and efficiently, and significantly reduce the time required to support sales and marketing requests by capturing answers in the Participate system. The new features also enhance learning efforts by facilitating community discussions and securing rapid answers from experts.
“OutStart Participate extends the knowledge management ecosystem to include customers, partners and experts. All stakeholders can contribute knowledge using the tools they are accustomed to,” said Massood Zarrabian, president and chief executive officer for OutStart. “Having a unified approach to knowledge sharing greatly improves the effectiveness of key groups like sales and marketing teams as well as support personnel. Instead of spending time on fruitless information searches, employees gain key knowledge that is integral to their success.”
About OutStart
OutStart software powers solutions that help make people more effective in a fraction of the time and cost. Unlike traditional training or knowledge management approaches that take too long, cost too much and fail to address the entire need, OutStart’s applications address the way people learn through a combination of formal training, knowledge sharing and expert collaboration that is available on-demand. Customers like Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Cisco Systems, Steelcase, the U.S. Navy, Verizon and Westland Helicopters rely on OutStart to increase individual and organizational performance, improve knowledge transfer and lower operating costs. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., OutStart has offices throughout the US and Europe and can be found on the Web at www.outstart.com.
