health
On-line with RaboCare for
a healthy prognosis
What'sNewS Issue 9' September 1998 J
In a dynamic and knowledge-driven market like health care - where we are
committed to grasping new opportunities, building an impressive track record,
and dimbing a ceaseless learning curve - it is essential that we utilize our
existing intellectual resources in the most creative and efficiënt way. Rabobank
International health care's new knowledge management initiative is called
RaboCare, a system aimed at insuring that the right information continuously
reaches the right people at the right time.
Meeting objectives
Managing knowledge
Collecting data
Accessing info
Going live
P»\V7e are still a relatively new entrant
W in this market,' notes Mark Broer,
international knowledge manager health
care. 'This is a tremendously diverse sector
that is comprised not only of health care
providers like hospitals and doctors but
also manufacturers of health care equip-
ment and pharmaceuticals, distrihutors,
and associated products and services.
Inside our own organization, we have an
equally broad spectrum of functional
expertise spread across a wide geographi-
cal range. AU of this can be a strength, but
only if we can coordinate these resources
and ensure everyone is working from the
same knowledge base. That's what
RaboCare is designed to do.'
■Developed in close cooperation with
"lobal IT, the new system, which will join
the entire constellation of our health care
professionals into a single electronic net-
work, will be made available to offices in
all key target markets starting in two
months' time. It is designed to meet three
essential objectives. First, it should become
health care's primary context for reference
and information exchange. Secondly, it
will be carefully designed in such a way as
to structure and manage existing resources
in an efficiënt and workable manner.
Third, it will help enhance the quality of
our knowledge base and act as a tooi for
continuous re-education, which is crucial
not only at the start but in every phase of
our engagement with this target sector.
Kpbviously, in a knowledge-driven enter-
^irise, the management of information
flows is central to competitive success. But
within health care, the amount of
presently available knowledge overall is
International knowledge manager Mark Broer
coordinating resources into RaboCare
limited; many of our health care profes
sionals have either banking or health care
backgrounds but little in common, and
locally-available knowledge cannot be
accessed world-wide. RaboCare is
arguably less ambitious than other systems
under development in the R1 network,
such as APFT's Renaissance project which
draws on a more extensive internal know
ledge base to custom-design specific prod
ucts for individual clients. But proprietary
technologies designed to facilitate better
information sharing lie at an organiza
tion's strategie core. The ambition is that
RaboCare will become an internal tem-
plate (or model) for business information
management, one that may prove useful to
other parts of the bank as well.
RaboCare will essentially offer two classes
of information. The first is generated inter-
nally. For instance, it will include a survey
of recent deals and a rundown of our
entire world-wide base of clients (both
actual and prospective), with information
on the specific segments of the market in
which they operate and what products,
services, and general business solutions we
have been able to provide for them. There
will also be reference copies of credit com-
mittee evaluations, where appropriate, as
well as other internally-generated reports,
for instance from our new London equity
team, which was recently hired away from
HBSC James Capel and which is active in
the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.
Finally, there will be profiles of our health
care professionals, indicating their areas of
expertise: this should streamline finding
the right team for any given project.
Another module will give colleagues access
to a wide range of externally-produced
material. Examples include strategie
newsletters like In Vivo and MedPro as
well as brokers' reports and other sources
of industry-wide data. At present, for
instance, we have valuable CD-rom data
bases and other research material which is
only available to those in the office where
these resources are physically located.
Once it is placed on the network, everyone
with a clear need for it will have access.
Finally, other features will include a bul
letin board, on which professionals can
trade ideas and experiences, and a list of
frequently asked questions. 'We intend to
arrange this system in a highly accessible
format so that, for every ten questions that
might arise, our professionals can find the
answers to eight of them on-line,' Broer
explains. 'For the remaining two ques
tions, we will set up a help desk.'
RaboCare will be unveiled at health care's
annual conference on 2 and 3 November.
In its first incarnation, it will be housed in
public folders accessible on the forthcom-
ing successor system to MS Exchange,
called Outlook 98. However, it is being
designed with a clear view towards migra-
tion into the Intranet environment, which
is potentially more dynamic, interactive
and user friendly, and more advanced ver-
sions may come on-line early next year.
Both Broer and Pieter-Jan van Herel of
global IT, who is coordinating the system
implementation, stress that the effective-
ness of RaboCare will ultimately depend
on the participation of irs users. Says
Broer, 'we can put up all sorts of informa
tion on the system, but the crucial factor
will be whether we can get high-quality
input from our health care professionals
around the world. In any networked envi
ronment, whether it is an organization or
an information system, it is worth remem-
bering that what you get is ultimately
determined by what you put in.'
