As part of an ongoing effort to increase the quality and speed of service to its dealer network, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI, in July went live with AskMe Enterprise expertise management software from AskMe, Bellevue, WA. AskMe Enterprise has begun helping thousands of North American field service people find the right experts within Ford, obtain timely answers to dealers' questions and thus provide dealers with a higher level of service.

Before launching the system, AskMe prepopulated the software's database with frequently asked questions, program guides and other relevant documents that contained "knowledge." Once the system was turned on, field service could tap into that knowledge. For example, if a Ford marketing program includes a tax rebate program, a dealer may be aware of tax rebate limitations in his territory and ask the Ford field representative what to do. Instead of calling someone at Ford headquarters, the field person would type the question into the AskMe system and up would pop matching and related questions and answers as well as the names of experts on the subject. If the question has been asked before, the expert doesn't have to keep repeating the same information, and dealers seeking answers can get them in an hour versus days.

In addition, Ford says its North American Customer Service Division employees and their global counterparts — business development specialists at such Ford organizations as Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar and Range Rover — will use the Employee Knowledge Network to discover and exchange expertise and leverage best practices internationally to create more successful marketing programs. If the answer to a question has worked out successfully in real life, it might be nominated to be a best practice. AskMe would then route the answer the appropriate people for approval and certification. If accepted, it would be henceforth presented as a best practice.

Within its first week of deployment, 100 percent of targeted Ford employees used the AskMe system and several best practices were submitted.