The Challenges of Locating Experts in a Global Research and Development Organization

Common thought often crosses scientist's mind: there must be someone in the company who knows more about what I need. Researchers have always wished for a "magic people button" to locate fellow researchers and developers with specific skills and expertise who can resolve and answer their questions. Conceivably, and given the technological advances, it seems easy to build a tool in which, with the click of a button, it is possible to find the right persons with the precise attributes. However, in global Research and Development (R&D) organizations, there is a real challenge around building the harmonized infrastructure, granting the proper access, feeding the accurate data, and finding the experts. The staff number is high; their skill sets are diverse; scientists do not know each other given the geographic and time-zones barriers; additionally, regional and local laws and regulations can make it very difficult to upload and share personal information. More importantly, scientists do not see tangible motivation, whether in terms of personal rewards or overall benefit to the organization, to upload their personal and professional data. Despite these difficulties, we were able to build an innovative tool to connect technologists across R&D, namely, the Expert Locator (EL); a proprietary solution that potentially can make the knowledge locked in the heads of people accessible and available to the entire organization. It consisted of an opt-in module where information and expertise can be shared to tap into the organization collective intelligence and "Brain Power". Critical content and required skill sets were pre-agreed upon with the scientists. Data as affected by geographic boundaries, regional and local regulations, pro-active participation, benefits to the organization, and evolution with time was successfully recorded and published; it is important to report that initial enthusiasm and momentum always drive the participants numbers up; however, with time data tend to show a slow down, and sometimes a plateau shape. New initiatives need to be put in place to restart and revive the EL in order to redress the curve upward. One key success factor of the EL was the usefulness of the "SEARCH" tool to find and collaborate among scientists. At the beginning of the project launch, initial data indicates a modest use of the "Search" feature. With time, search hits increased due to added value of the search outputs.