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Friday 9 Dec 2005

IM2005 AWARD FOR NETWORK RAIL KNOWLEDGE HUB

Region & Route:

National

The Network Rail Knowledge Management Programme, which has improved the working lives of 20,000 employees, has been recognised by the Information Management (IM) industry as a runner-up in the content management category at the recent IM2005 Awards. The Knowledge Management Programme enables individuals and teams to manage, develop and use knowledge and experience to deliver performance improvement.  The programme is delivered through a single user-friendly front end to the Network Rail intranet called The Knowledge Hub.  The Hub gives all 20,000 IT-connected employees access to the documents, reports, databases and standards they need to do their day-to-day jobs – helping to deliver a safe, reliable and efficient railway. The Programme was also shortlisted in two other categories at the IM2005 Awards: Knowledge Management and Intranet. Joe Van Valkenburgh, Network Rail’s Director, IM said: “I am delighted the hard work and achievements of the Knowledge Management team have been recognised – it is a credit to their dedication that the programme has been so successful. “There was a need for a facility that connected people around the company to information around the company.  By keeping all our information in one place, teams are able to share knowledge quickly and efficiently – in the safe knowledge they are working on the most up-to-date version.” The Knowledge Hub will benefit Network Rail employees by:

• Allowing them to share and re-use best practices
• Enabling them to locate information quickly
• Reducing duplication and improving document control
• Removing clutter in email inboxes

  The Knowledge Hub is part of a wider, longer term knowledge management vision for Network Rail’s IM department.  Over the coming years, the company will invest in systems to move this along, looking to allow employees to share information with contractors.