AskMe helps companies create network of answers
But a small Bellevue software company, AskMe, is beginning to change that. Boeing recently bought AskMe's software, which helps build so-called Employee Knowledge Networks. People within an organization use those networks to find answers to questions; the answers are stored in a database so that anyone with the same question later won't have to find someone to answer it.
In September, Boeing tested the software at its Space Shuttle Main Engine Group with 550 employees. It expects to equip all 5,000 employees at Canoga Park, Calif.-based Rocketdyne, a Boeing division, with the tool in the next eight months.
AskMe hit milestones last year that any software maker would envy: It doubled revenue, tripled its number of customers and became profitable.
This year, it says it is hiring. And last night, AskMe was named Most Promising New Company at the WSA's annual Industry Achievement Awards Dinner.
AskMe co-founder and Chief Executive Udai Shekawat said the company is successful because it solves an expensive, time-consuming problem for large companies.
Kiho Sohn, who heads knowledge-management initiatives in Boeing's integrated-defense systems at Rocketdyne, said employees spin their wheels when they try to find answers to the same questions.
"Typically people end up making 10 phone calls to get to the right person and answer," Sohn said. "That's very inefficient and time-consuming and can be a frustrating experience.
"If I'm the expert, I might get five or six phone calls asking for the same thing. If a system has been created to capture those questions and answers, a second person asking the question will have the answer already there."
Boeing tried to solve the problem itself by building a directory of experts, Sohn said. But the company didn't know how to identify experts, how many categories to create, or what to do when experts changed or left jobs.
That's when Boeing went to AskMe and agreed to test the software.
AskMe's software helps identify the experts by pulling together information from human-resource databases or internal documents, such as case studies or user manuals employees had written.
During Boeing's six-month trial period, 300 to 400 questions were asked and answered. When fully deployed in September, Boeing expects Rocketdyne to save several million dollars a year by reducing the number of hours employees spend looking for answers.
Getting employees to adopt the software is tricky, however. To encourage people to use the system, points are given to those who answer questions, Shekawat said.
Companies have the additional option of assigning awards or prizes to employees who get a certain number of points.
Answers can be ranked according to importance and accuracy of the information. The higher the ranking, the closer to the top it will appear when an employee conducts a search, similar to the way Internet search engines rank information.
It wasn't long ago that AskMe was better known for its Web site. The free site — first XpertSite.com and then AskMe.com — had accumulated a large database, answering questions of all kinds.
The company flirted with a number of ways to make money, including partnerships, advertising and e-commerce links.
Shekawat said it was clear by March 2000 that the future was to sell to large companies that needed the service, and so AskMe used the Web site as a prototype to learn what worked and what didn't.
Last November, the company pulled the plug on AskMe.com even though 20,000 to 25,0000 people a day visited the site.
AskMe has managed to land 12 major customers, including Proctor & Gamble — its first — Honeywell, Ford and Network Appliance. Some 80 percent of the customers that conducted a pilot have invested further in AskMe.
The software costs $375 a user, but there are bulk discounts for big customers.
Industry watcher Mike Gotta, senior vice president of the META Group in Stamford, Conn., said a strong number of customers returning for more services is a key factor when evaluating a companies in this industry.
However, he questioned whether a company could successfully roll out AskMe's software en masse to its entire organization without swamping employees with requests to add information to the system.
"Imagine, suddenly, that we said you are an expert, and now there's 10,000 employees available to ask you stuff," Gotta said. "How does an organization deal with that?"
AskMe is reinvesting 30 percent of its revenues in research and development, and is continuing to add perks to its product and making it easier to use. Its third-generation software is set to come out in the second half of this year.
Gaining customers and becoming profitable is just the beginning for AskMe, Shekawat said. "It's one small milestone," he said. "The best days are ahead of us."
Tricia Duryee: 206-464-3283 or tduryee@seattletimes.com