Knowledge management as a competitive advantage: Euranova’s wager

1. Knowledge Plaza
the place beyond search
USE CASE
Knowledge management
as a competitive advantage:
Euranova’s wager
About Euranova
“ Knowledge Plaza
has become the concrete
embodiment of the collaborative
Founded in September 2008, Euranova is a consultancy specialized in
technological innovation, and which now has 15 employees. Activity revolves
around two axes: advanced technology consultancy and research and
development.
spirit implemented within
Euranova. People within the Euranova pursues an innovative approach based on: diversification (training,
Euranova network have intuitively technology projects, and management of excellence), partnerships
perceived that their inputs to (academic, open source and preferred private actors) and collaboration
the project were efficiently (internal and external).
tackled inside the plaza, and
that they were clearly invited to
take part in the action through The context
it.
Euranova’s business is all about knowledge, and its use in different
After only six months, almost a environments. This implies that its staff has an inquisitive nature and a
thousand knowledge elements continuous desire to learn.
have been captured, tagged From the outset Euranova sought to differentiate itself from its competitors by
and structured inside providing a work environment conducive to learning and interaction. The
Euranova's plaza. Thanks to objective: to have better trained, more efficient consultants, but above all, to
this, Euranova is able to create a dynamic, innovative and creative culture.
provide the relevant support
and added value promised to This approach was intended not only to promote the development of its staff
“
its clients and collaborators. but also to directly benefit clients also involved in the collaborative process.
This posed an immediate challenge due to the nature of Euranova’s activities,
Hervé Bath, and the geographical distribution of participants.
co-founder of Euranova
www.euranova.eu

2. Stated requirements The solution : Knowledge Plaza
The primary need was for Euranova to have a solution Euranova chose to implement Knowledge Plaza as
for managing knowledge, collectively, interactively and the solution in support of its knowledge intensive
openly. A knowledge base providing more than the business.
sum of individual knowledge within it, and one that
Knowledge Plaza is a collaborative platform for
everyone, in whatever location, could use.
information and knowledge management, integrating
Collective. To meet this need and to capitalise on powerful search capabilities.
the development of information and knowledge, This solution allows the sharing, organisation and
Euranova wanted a single platform. enrichment of different types of information in varying
formats (files, emails, favourites, contacts).
Interactive. Interactive functions such as comments
and assessments were essential. Knowledge Plaza is a real documentary production
tool, always available through processing to
Openness. Euranova wanted to interact with its dissemination, combining the wealth of social
clients via this platform, so needed to maintain networks with the characteristics and features of
perfect control of security, access and the degree of "Web 2.0".
information visibility.
Benefits associated with
using Knowledge Plaza
For individuals For management
• Knowledge base: increasing skills through access • Alert on changing internal information status, close
to each other’s knowledge and stimulation of monitoring of all information produced
everyone’s natural curiosity
• Status alert on exchanges relating to a client’s
• Invitation to participate in the discussions, which case: close monitoring of changes in missions
increases the sense of mutual responsibility rather
than that of hierarchy • Human resource management and personal
development: space sharing between each
• Space for sharing personal information on interests consultant and their direct management
and hobbies, which also contributes to building
mutual trust • External communication: feeding the Euranova web-
site with news and information through Knowledge
Plaza
For the group For the client
• Capitalization of knowledge • Added value: experience, collective skill set and not
purely individual
• Transparent internal communication
• Access to a reserved shared space in Knowledge
• Sense of belonging Plaza for better interaction
Knowledge Plaza™ is a Whatever solution
www.knowledgeplaza.be
info@whatever-company.com
+32 10 23 59 30