presentation given at the VIC KMrt in Sept 2012 to provide an overview of how we set up our internal community and to gain feedback on where to go next

1. Building a connected community
Note: this presentation has
Lyn Murnane been de-branded to enable
Knowledge Manager sharing. All content was created
by me and is correct at time of
creation – 4/9/2012

2. Overview
• About our Community
• Setting up our Community
• Moderation
• “Selling” our Community
• The growth of our Community
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3. My company?
• A leading provider assisting international students to find
the right overseas study option for them.
• Placements in AU, US, CA, UK & NZ
• Also manages and part-owns the english language testing in
Australia – the leading test of English language proficiency
for study and the preferred test for migration
• My company is owned and governed by 38 Australian
universities and SEEK Education
• 27 countries – 500 education counsellors
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4. Some background
• Significant investment made to developing a CRM and KB
which went live in June 2011
• A fully integrated lead management, application
management, visa processing and student relationship
management system
• Provides consistent workflow and data capture across the
whole network
• It delivers a platform that enables the company’s multi-
destination student placement strategy
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5. Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base is a central database of information containing
– Institution profiles, campus and location information,
– Program, course fee & entry criteria information,
– Student testimonials
– Client training/power point briefings, as well as video’s, photos
• The Knowledge Base contains over 128,000 answer pages
– 99% are automated (Standard templates of data collected about institutions
and programs) – updated 6 monthly and as required.
– About 1700 manual answers
– Data is sourced from publically available information on web sites
• Knowledge At The Point of Action, or KAPA means Counsellors can get
relevant information when they need it
– Access via student workspace
– Access via applications workspace
– ‘Push’ of KB links in matching
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6. The gaps...
• The knowledge base has a formal feedback function for
counsellors to provide updates or corrections
• We have an excellent support team who communicate
updates and changes to systems and data as required
• We had significant training materials and supporting
documentation stored in a number of locations globally
• Counsellors would email the Service Desk or known SMEs
to ask questions about data and processes but only if they
knew the SME, or knew to ask the Service Desk
• We had starting building a community portal for our
students but its rollout was significantly delayed
Where could we store shared information?
Where could I ask questions of my global peers?
Where could I ask how my peers handled random enquiries?
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7. We co-opted the community portal!
• We gave our system a tagline to encourage
adoption
– “if it’s not in OSCAR it never happened!”
• We asked our users who they thought
‘OSCAR’ was
• The globe character was the most popular
response
• We worked with our Service desk to build a
new look portal for our counsellors
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8. OSCAR Connect was born
• A place where OSCAR users can share and gain knowledge and
information
• A learning resource to help peers discover best practices, specifically
about using OSCAR and related counselling processes
• A place to submit and share ideas about potential improvements to
OSCAR
• “It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the
group that the members learn from each other, and have an opportunity
to develop themselves personally and professionally” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice
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9. Governance & Moderation
All content is overseen by
a moderator.
Guidelines for users are
available from homepage
of OSCAR Connect
Key concepts
• Respect all
• OSCAR related only
• Examples of what to post
and what NOT to post are
included in guidelines
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10. How did we sell OSCAR Connect?
• A new project – OSCAR 2.0
• We built audio / video briefing
packs, the 1st presented the
OSCAR character. OSCAR voiced
all briefing packs.
• We stored the briefing packs and
training materials, as well as
news items in OSCAR Connect
• We did not email out briefing
packs but sent links to OSCAR
Connect and encouraged our
Regional OSCAR champions to
read, and then share the content
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11. OSCAR reputation
• A user is given points for participating in
OSCAR Connect
Originally new posts and
comments had a higher
value.
Now rating a post or
comment provides higher
points
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12. OSCAR ‘bling’
• Depending on points accumulated, a different
‘bling’ icon is displayed next to a user’s name
By viewing the change in Member
numbers, I can see who has changed
from ‘lurker’ to participant.
Last week I had 310 Members and only 1 new
user so 7 people felt ‘moved’ enough to
comment this week.
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13. Sample discussions & Ideas
generated Well received
idea that
received votes
& comments –
easy
deliverable
that was
implemented
at end May
Counsellors
sharing their tips &
best practices with
their peers
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14. Most Popular Connections – May 2012
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15. OSCAR Connect growth – Since 18
March 2012
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16. Then and Now
• May 2012 • Sept 2012
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17. Current State of Play
• OSCAR Connect has been allowed to grow organically
• We have tried to be led without defining an ‘end state’
• Responsibility for requesting and assessing system
changes now responsibility of the network
• A key group of users (Super User Group) around the
global network has been appointed to decide on these
changes – network led and owned not Corporate led.
• Challenge of coordinating a global group over multiple
time zones
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18. Super User Group
• Has a dedicated SUG space on OSCAR
Connect
• There are 3 discussion boards
– Release Management
• A section showing upcoming BAU
changes/releases that require SUG sign off before
they go in to production
• A process has been developed to support this
– SUG Works in Progress
• A section of current agenda items/discussion
items that are connected to our weekly meetings
– SUG Ideas / Future Agenda items
• A section where we can all submit ideas (voting
req’d) for upcoming meetings that you would like
to see addressed
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19. Questions
• Before we move on .....
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20. Activity – What’s next for OSCAR
Connect?
• How do we • What are our • Do we need to
encourage next steps for define an ‘end
further OSCAR state?
participati Connect?
on in
OSCAR
Connect?
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