{draw:g} Acquisition Spree Leaves Marconi in Need of Knowledge Management (KM) When Marconi went on a shopping spree and acquired 10 telecommunications companies over a three-year period, it faced a serious challenge: How could the $3 billion manufacturer of telecommunications equipment ensure that its technical support agents knew enough about newly acquired technology to provide quick and accurate answers to customers on the phone? And how could Marconi bring new agents up to speed on all the company’s products? Marconi’s technical support agents?500 engineers scattered in 14 call centers around the globe?field approximately 10,000 questions every month about the company’s products. Before the acquisitions, agents had relied on Tactics Online, an extranet where they and customers could search for frequently asked questions and text documents. As new agents and products joined the company’s ranks, Marconi wanted to supplement the website with a more comprehensive knowledge management system. As engineers from the newly acquired companies came on board, however, they were hesitant to share their knowledge about the products they had been supporting. "They felt that their knowledge was a security blanket that helped guarantee their jobs," says Dave Breit, director of technology and R&D for managed services in Warrendale, Pa. "With all of the acquisitions, it was essential that we all avoid hoarding knowledge and share it instead." At the same time, Marconi wanted to streamline its customer service organization by making more of its product and systems information available directly to customers and shortening the length of customer calls. "We wanted to leverage the Web for customer self-service versus increasing the number of agents," Breit says. "We also wanted to provide our frontline engineers [who interact directly with customers] with more information more quickly so that they could resolve more calls faster." Building on a KM Foundation