Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

What is knowledge management?
Knowledge is the most essential asset owned by any accounting firm or tax and accounting department. A firm’s unique skills and experience are what set it apart from competitors. To maximise the value of knowledge within an firm, it must have the ability to identify who has the most useful knowledge, and then record that knowledge, share it and save it. For knowledge to become a lasting asset, an employee must be able to easily find it and access it when it’s needed again. This is essential the goal of knowledge management (KM) software.

What is CCH KnowledgeConnect?
KnowledgeConnect is a software solution that offers the means for firms to manage knowledge creation and knowledge access in a way that can result in increased value to customers, operational excellence and product innovation. Knowledge workers can locate and benefit from documented knowledge within the firm, access expertise on-the-fly by easily asking and answering questions and capturing the exchange for future use, and collaborate on critical business issues.

Will this program increase the level of email being sent within our firm?
Email will not increase as a result of KnowledgeConnect. The questions associates are already posing through email would now be funneled through KnowledgeConnect, ensuring the capture of a wealthy repository of firm knowledge.

Once employees begin obtaining adequate answers from KnowledgeConnect and the systems with which it is integrated (IntelliConnect, Document, etc. – with a paid subscription), you may find that KnowledgeConnect actually decreases the emails you get. Staff will now readily find answers through KnowledgeConnect.

How will we get people to use this? Asking someone a question seems a lot easier.
Building a knowledge base and transforming your culture takes time. CCH offers best practices consulting to help your firm integrate KnowledgeConnect into your daily workflow by recommending policies/procedures and incentive programs for optimal implementation and ongoing usage of KnowledgeConnect. The changes are worth the investment: an environment with an ‘evergreen’ knowledge base and welcomed collaboration is appealing and fosters productivity.

Won’t this encourage more people than necessary to answer questions? And who decides which answer is best?
This may be a challenge when KnowledgeConnect is first rolled out. However, domain experts will emerge over time to ensure knowledge workers are not duplicating efforts. Many questions do not necessarily have a straightforward answer, so having a multiplicity of perspectives brought to bear on the issue will result in a greater understanding, optimal decision-making and increased confidence in a tax position, for example.

In the implementation phase, CCH ProSystem can work with you to develop the administrative framework and the policies and procedures that will guide the use of the tool and monitor the development of the expert content that will become the firm’s knowledge bank.

Who do I call for support?
Please call 1300 654 913, option 2.

Is KnowledgeConnect integrated with any other applications?
KnowledgeConnect is integrated with CCH ProSystem Document and CCH IntelliConnect. However, there is no need to have all these solutions to effectively use KnowledgeConnect. Additionally, it integrates with Microsoft® Office and SharePoint. The long term integration roadmap includes other complementary solutions from CCH or 3rd party vendors.

My entire firm’s content is in Microsoft® Sharepoint, how do I transfer it into CCH KnowledgeConnect?
Custom conversion and import of data from existing knowledge management systems is available. These conversions are highly customised and are dependent on your specific situation.

Why should I buy this solution when I already have document management software and an online research database?
Mostly likely, your firm already has systems in place to house workpapers, research, returns, etc. A good system for managing and storing the various work products, client documents and correspondence is essential for your workflow. Research from third parties is essential as well, offering an abundance of information from explanations, sample workpapers and productivity tools, to laws, regulations and cases. However, these critical tools are NOT a substitute for the internal knowledge of the firm. Partners, associates and employees all have a wealth of expertise on different subject areas that you won’t find in these other sources.

Knowledge management is really about capturing your intellectual property — years of experience on specialty areas, niche practices, industries and those grey areas that traditional research may not cover to the depth required by your practice. It’s the kind of knowledge most workers have difficulty accessing.

Will the system run slower as I add more content?
Our Best Practices training will show you how to catalog your knowledge without compromising speed or productivity.