From Failing Call Centers to World-Class Support: Implementing Enterprise Content Management for Global Technical Support.

About the Client

Company K is a leading provider of network antivirus and internet content security software and services.

Industry Context

By the mid-2000s, antivirus software was becoming increasingly commoditized as free and bundled alternatives proliferated, pushing security vendors like Company K toward a broader solutions orientation spanning antispyware, antispam, and content security rather than a single antivirus product. That expanding, more sophisticated product line meant technical support organizations needed deeper, more up-to-date knowledge to resolve increasingly complex customer issues, while new distribution partnerships with ISPs and device manufacturers multiplied the distinct audiences — direct customers, channel partners, OEM engineers — who needed access to accurate technical content. That combination made the challenge as much about content management and audience segmentation as raw case volume.

Current Situation

The company’s inbound call center operations were failing as caseload growth outpaced the existing technical support organization’s capacity. While the company had plenty of technical content available, its quality was mediocre, and it was difficult to find on the website. Customers were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the long cycle times it took to resolve their issues. Company K launched an initiative to upgrade its support infrastructure, focusing on case management capacity and responsiveness, and selected Iknow, in partnership with Accenture, to design, develop, and implement a world-class customer support infrastructure.

• Support capacity lagging behind demand. Inbound call center caseload was growing significantly faster than the existing technical support organization’s capacity to handle it.
• Poor-quality, hard-to-find self-service content. Web-based self-service was inadequate — technical content existed but was of mediocre quality and difficult to find on the website.
• Rising customer dissatisfaction with resolution times. Customers were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the long cycle times it took to resolve their issues.
• Business pressures outpacing existing support infrastructure. Commoditization, growing product complexity, and new channel strategies all demanded a fundamentally higher level of customer support than the existing infrastructure could deliver.

• Design, develop, and implement a world-class customer support infrastructure.
• Build a robust content management process integrated with the new product development process.
• Develop a taxonomy for simplified content indexing and retrieval.
• Build a knowledge repository, content search, and content-display system serving four distinct end-user groups.

How Iknow Structured the Work

Iknow structured the engagement around a comprehensive solution addressing both content management processes and technical infrastructure across four core elements, reflecting Iknow’s knowledge base and intranet design methodology for building a support experience grounded in process, taxonomy, technology, and organization together rather than any one in isolation.

Key Activities & Decisions

• Content management process design. Iknow developed a robust content management process integrated with the new product development process, encompassing all of the necessary business functions and departments for the creation, review, and approval of technical customer support knowledge.
• Taxonomy development. Iknow developed a taxonomy for simplified content indexing and retrieval.
• ECM platform implementation. Iknow built a technical environment incorporating a leading commercial enterprise content management (ECM) application suite.
• Global content organization design. Iknow established a global content management organization, with both distributed and centralized functions responsible for global content creation, publishing, and delivery.
• Knowledge repository and search system build. Iknow, working collaboratively with Company D and Company K’s development staff, built the knowledge repository, content search, and content-display system.
• Multi-audience interface design. Iknow created four separate interfaces with specific functionality for four end-user groups: customers, internal technical support staff, sales engineers, and business partners.

Stakeholders & Collaboration

Iknow worked collaboratively with Accenture and Company K’s own development staff throughout the design, development, and implementation of the new support infrastructure.

Serving Four Fundamentally Different Audiences From One Knowledge Base

Customers, internal technical support staff, sales engineers, and business partners all needed access to related technical content, but with very different needs, permissions, and levels of technical depth — a single generic support portal risked serving none of them well. Iknow addressed this by building four separate interfaces with specific functionality for each group, all drawing from the same unified knowledge repository and taxonomy rather than maintaining four disconnected content sets.

Keeping Support Knowledge Current as the Product Line Grew More Complex

With Company K actively expanding its product portfolio through acquisitions like InterMute and Kelkea, support content risked falling behind the pace of product change if treated as a downstream afterthought. Iknow addressed this by integrating the new content management process directly into Company K’s product development process, embedding knowledge creation, review, and approval into how products were actually built rather than bolting documentation on after the fact.

Quantitative Outcomes

• Solution scope: Four core solution elements delivered: content management process, taxonomy, ECM technical environment, and global content management organization.
• Interfaces delivered: Four distinct end-user interfaces built: customers, internal technical support staff, sales engineers, and business partners.
• Platform delivered: A unified knowledge repository, content search, and content-display system built and deployed globally.
• Engagement duration: 10-month assignment.

Qualitative Outcomes

Company K achieved several significant benefits, including fewer open technical support cases, shorter case durations, higher end-user satisfaction, and greater scalability of the technical support infrastructure — all of which contributed to lower overall technical support costs. Those gains came during a period when Company K was actively expanding its product portfolio through acquisitions and had just installed a new CEO, making a scalable, well-organized support infrastructure especially valuable as both product complexity and its customer base were growing quickly.

Timeline to Impact

Iknow delivered the full four-element solution and four end-user interfaces within the roughly 10-month engagement, with reductions in open cases, case duration, and support costs following as Company K’s technical support and customer base adopted the new infrastructure.

Core Skills

• Knowledge base and intranet design
• Taxonomy design and development
• Enterprise content management (ECM) platform selection and implementation
• Multi-audience content architecture

Methods & Frameworks

• Content management process integration with product development
• Global content organization design (distributed and centralized)

Technologies & Tools

• Commercial enterprise content management (ECM) application suite
• Knowledge repository, content search, and content-display system