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Working at GE Power, now a part of GE Vernova, offered me a front-row seat to the highs and lows of managing and understanding an extensive product and services lineup. As a part of the team focused on the newer gas turbines, namely the 7HA and 9HA, I found myself on a steep learning curve. The challenge wasn’t just in keeping up with the innovations we were creating but also in navigating the legacy of older products that still formed a significant backbone of our offerings. This was compounded when handling warranty claims from the field, which required a comprehensive understanding of the products, their specifications, nomenclature, and length of time in the field – a tall order when sifting through mountains of documents and databases.
These types of information sharing challenges are exactly why we built HallianAI. HallianAI is a fully scalable, enterprise-ready AI chat platform designed to democratize access to organized company knowledge. Imagine the transformative power of having an AI-powered platform that can provide immediate access to all available product information to anyone in the company, given the right permissions.
When employees have immediate access to detailed product information, they can solve problems more efficiently and effectively, boosting overall productivity.
"Which customers have installed a 7HA.01?"
"What are the key differences between 7F and 7H platforms?"
"List all the gas turbine products in chronological order of product launch. Include a 3 sentence synopsis of the product."
The Problem and Its Impacts
My struggle at GE highlighted a common problem in businesses: the overwhelming challenge of maintaining an up-to-date understanding of every product's lifecycle within the company. There are usually a few people in organizations that seem to have this knowledge, or at least know where to go to find answers. These employees become coveted by the organization because of their intimate knowledge of products, customers, and internal knowledge repositories.
This is contrasted with the new employee that is not aware of the product history, naming conventions, and technical details of the products. The gap in knowledge can significantly slow down problem resolution as these new employees struggle to find the answers to their questions. They either seek out a tenured employee to help them answer their questions, increasing the burden on these senior employees that could be focused on more pressing challenges, or they remain ignorant on their knowledge gaps.
With a repository of product knowledge at their fingertips, the broader team can handle more queries independently, allowing senior engineers to focus on tackling the more significant challenges that drive business forward.
Based on my experience in technical organizations, it can take anywhere between 6 and 12 months for employees to reach full productivity. Complex organizations and roles can take even longer. How much more effective would an onboarding be if any new hire could ask an internal AI tool any question about the products and services offered by the company? How much faster would new hires get up to speed? Twice as fast? Three times as fast?
This is exactly what HallianAI can do for the organization.
The benefits are significant:
Increased Efficiency: The business could benefit from having fully productive employees sooner, leading to faster achievement of goals, less waste, and better overall performance.
Cost Savings: Shorter ramp-up times could mean lower costs related to training and onboarding, as resources could be reallocated more quickly.
Competitive Advantage: Being able to quickly integrate new talent and leverage their skills sooner could provide a competitive edge, particularly in fast-moving industries.
How HallianAI Changes the Game
With the HallianAI platform, we can build a solution that directly addresses these challenges by making comprehensive product knowledge easily accessible. The platform can effortlessly:
Improve the technical knowledge of your workforce. When employees have immediate access to detailed product information, they can solve problems more efficiently and effectively, boosting overall productivity.
Reduce the burden on senior engineers. With a repository of product knowledge at their fingertips, the broader team can handle more queries independently, allowing senior engineers to focus on tackling the more significant challenges that drive business forward.
Accelerate the onboarding process for new hires. Having an organized, accessible database of product histories enables new employees to get up to speed significantly faster, contributing to projects with confidence and making meaningful impacts sooner.
Conclusion
The challenges I faced at GE taught me the critical importance of readily accessible product information in complex product and service focused companies. Thanks to the technology available now, such as the HallianAI platform, businesses can overcome these obstacles, ensuring that their teams are as informed, efficient, and effective as possible. This leap forward in internal knowledge management not only streamlines operations but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. For anyone grappling with similar challenges, the solution is clear: leveraging technology to democratize access to information can transform your team’s capacity to excel and innovate.