Cognician Adopts AI-Powered Knowledge Management With Dashworks

Cognician, a leading behavior change activation software provider, implemented Dashworks to address knowledge management and discovery challenges.

By unifying internal knowledge scattered across work apps and knowledge sources, employees now have a powerful AI assistant that allows them to ask questions and instantly get accurate answers.

We spoke to Jeff Kayton, Operational Support at Cognician, about their journey to solve knowledge management and their evaluation and adoption of Dashworks.

The Need for Better Knowledge Management

As Cognician grew, so did the amount of accumulated knowledge spread across multiple repositories, leading to several challenges:

• Scattered Information: With data dispersed across various platforms like SharePoint, Asana, HubSpot, and Stack Overflow, employees were wasting time and experiencing frustration. They needed help to efficiently locate necessary information.
• Inefficient Search: Existing search functionalities within these platforms can be inadequate, failing to deliver precise results and often requiring extensive manual effort.
• Knowledge Silos: Limited access to information within specific teams or departments can hinder collaboration and knowledge sharing, impacting overall organizational performance.
• Onboarding Challenges: New hires face a steep learning curve due to the complexity of Cognician's work, and occasional difficulty accessing relevant knowledge resources.

“When you have such vast knowledge, it takes time to organize and control it.” 

Jeff and Cognician's CTO, Robert Stuttaford, identified the need for a dedicated knowledge management system. During his search for suitable tools, Jeff explored Glean and Dashworks. Glean's extensive setup time and high cost made it unsuitable for Cognician's needs. And,  drawn by Dashworks’ user-friendly interface, ease of setup, and AI capabilities – and with a recommendation from a trusted contact at Code for Africa – Jeff decided to trial Dashworks as a potential solution. 

“SharePoint search is not optimal, so we needed help with the search. That's where Dashworks came in.”

Instant Adoption of AI Knowledge Assistant

Dashworks was introduced to address these challenges by offering a more robust and intuitive search function that integrated seamlessly with Cognician’s existing tools, like Asana, Notion, and Microsoft Teams. The AI-driven capabilities of Dashworks allowed for a deeper search experience and exact answers, enabling employees to retrieve information faster and more accurately.

“As soon as we went to do a query in the Asana app, we got some encouraging results. When you do a query with Dashworks, you get better results and can go deeper into the Asana subtasks.”

"Our colleagues said the same thing – they can find things in Asana easier because of Dashworks."

Following a successful trial, Dashworks was rolled out to the entire company. Cognician utilized Dashworks' admin controls to tailor Dashworks’ behavior and prioritize information sources based on specific needs. Ongoing feedback further refined its understanding of Cognician's unique knowledge base.

The Cognician team's adoption of Dashworks was straightforward and required minimal adjustment. Most of the team adapted quickly, appreciating Dashworks’ ability to simplify their workflows and reduce the time spent searching for information.

“Some in our team didn't even ask any questions about the setup. They just signed up from the invitation and went ahead and started using Dashworks.”

Use Cases

Key use cases quickly emerged. Account and project managers leveraged Dashworks to manage multiple projects, access customer information, and respond to inquiries.

A significant aspect of Dashworks’ value was also its impact on new employee onboarding. New hires could ramp up more quickly thanks to easy access to necessary documents and procedures through Dashworks.

“We've got four new hires now, and it's interesting to see them learn. They are learning at a faster rate than new employees who didn’t have the Dashworks advantage. Because, with Dashworks, you see a new term and just ask 'What does this term mean?' and you get the answer.”

Dashworks has also empowered employees to find answers independently, freeing experts' time for more strategic tasks.

“I regularly responded to questions like 'I need to find this document' or 'I need to do this task'. The number of people who come to me now with questions has dropped significantly. And the only difference between now and three months ago is Dashworks.”

Enabling the Future of Work

For Cognician, Dashworks is a vital part of its strategy to embrace AI technologies to work smarter and provide differentiated value to its clients. While AI is still an emerging space, Cognician believes human-AI collaboration, with tools like Dashworks, represents the future of work.

“Our approach is that AI is a tool. Our recommendation to our team is to learn as much as possible to use this tool, and tools like it, and cope with what happens in the future. So, as we stand now, I think our team is quite knowledgeable about AI. So when we started using Dashworks, the majority of our team was excited to have a tool in the business to use.”

By thoughtfully integrating AI into its workflows, Cognician continues to empower employees with knowledge to drive successful client outcomes. Dashworks acts as a crucial enabler in this journey.

Conclusion

For Cognician, Dashworks has simplified knowledge access and management, and contributed to a more collaborative and efficient work environment. The tool’s ability to provide quick and accurate information has improved productivity and operational efficiency. 

“Our leadership team has been very happy with installing Dashworks, because it's definitely provided a solution to our need. And that need is finding things quickly.”

As Cognician continues to leverage Dashworks for knowledge management and operational support, its potential for broader applications within the company remains substantial, with plans to further explore Dashworks' capabilities in streamlining other aspects of its operations.