Exclusive: KPMG selects Verity for knowledge management

NEWS Professional services group KPMG has chosen Verity to provide advanced search and content classification across its UK operation. It chose the California company ahead of a field of 12 including Cambridge-based Autonomy. Currently Verity searches html-based data plus some attachments. By the end of the month the K2 Enterprise 4.5 software will be used to provide automated classification of Oracle and SQL databases as well as Lotus Notes-based information. Iain Simpson, information architect at KPMG said: "Autonomy has its place but it's not appropriate for us because the things it's good at are the specialist things we do already. We were looking for mass deployment. "Verity understood our business. They didn't try and re-engineer our business," Simpson added. Verity was also an existing supplier which meant there was in-house knowledge of how the systems worked. The Verity implementation was a joint project between KPMG's 40-strong knowledge management group and the IT department. "We don't build servers," explained Melanie Goody, director of knowledge management operations. "We are interested in how people use the content." Goody said the success of the project would be judged on anecdotal feedback from users. "We do measure hits and things like that but that's not necessarily a measure of success. Sometimes 20 clicks is not good because it might mean users have been struggling to find what they are looking for." KPMG declined to discuss the financial details of the deal.