Qaeré uses a hierarchical classification of entities of interest to an enterprise, organization or administration. We use this classification to categorize and catalog the various elements of Qaeré.
Qaeré has common classification to ensure that all its elements (employee skills, inquiry categorization, KnowledgeBase entries etc.) are supported by a common ‘'classification grid’. This prevents situations where one user might enter the term “Accounts Payable” while another may use “A/Cs Payable”, which would prevent a matching in the system.
Categorizing according to a common classification grid also prevents the kind of issue faced when using search engines – the search engine may return 5 million results, with the one you want on page 347! Driving the inquiry with a standard classification means searches are done with pinpoint accuracy.
Qaeré offers two classifications:
The latter is only used when an organization is using Qaeré as a stand-alone system for use by its organization only. If an organization is going to use Qaeré in a broader environment, and invite feedback from other organizations, it makes sense to use the delivered standard classification. In this way you can be sure that your organization and other organizations are all operating from the same classification grid.
Different standard delivered classifications are available depending on which sector your organization falls into. The sector definitions are:
Employee/Retiree Profiles are used to capture basic information about the system users, as well as to catalog their areas of expertise and experience. The latter will enable the Inquiry/Response algorithm to identify the most appropriate employee/retirees to answer a particular inquiry.
The Profile has three elements:
The General Information Section contains the following information:
The Past Experience Section contains the following information:
The Skills Section contains the following information:
Qaeré is based on one party formulating an inquiry and having the system determine who the most likely respondents are, based on their skills and experience
When formulating the inquiry, care should be taken to ensure that the inquiry:
Avoid using acronyms, since they may not be universally understood
Qaeré allows the inquirer to attach documents to the inquiry, if needed, to clarify and embellish the inquiry
In order to ensure that the inquiry reaches the appropriate respondents, the inquiry is categorized using the same classification as is used to describe Skills in the Employee/Retiree Profile.
Since the inquiry and respondent skills are both categorized using a common classification, the algorithm will be able to match the inquiry with the most qualified respondents (a bit like Match.com!).
The inquiry can also have Keywords attached to it. These Keywords will then be matched against the Keywords stored against Skills in the Employee/Retiree Profile, thereby providing a further basis for matching inquiry to respondent.
Some inquiries may be intended for a broad audience, whereas others may only be relevant to the organization itself. Qaeré provides the facility of allowing the user to select the distribution profile to which the inquiry is sent. This is done before the inquiry is sent out.
Qaeré provides the following distribution parameters:
The inquirer can also designate the maximum number of respondents to whom the inquiry should be distributed. This will prevent the inquirer from becoming inundated with too may responses.
Based on the categorization of the inquiry, the keywords, the distribution parameters, the maximum number of respondents, and the skills contained in the Profiles, an algorithm will now determine the set of respondents most qualified to address the inquiry
Once the set of respondents has been determined, the system will now:
In order to provide privacy, the name of the respondent will only be revealed to the inquirer if the respondent is part of the same organization or group. If not, the nickname will be used.
Whenever a name or nickname is used, there will be a hypertext link that a user can click to obtain more information on the inquirer and/or respondent. The rule of nicknames will apply to this functionality.
Once a respondent has received the email designating him/her as a selected respondent, he/she will click the url link in the email to be taken to the response area.
The respondent will have 2 options:
There is no limit to the number of responses that can be given. The response functionality of Qaeré resembles a blog, where all respondents and the inquirer can exchange opinions and data.
The inquirer has the option to allow the blog to remain until he/she feels that the inquiry has been satisfactorily answered, or that it is unlikely that a satisfactory answer will be obtained.
The inquirer has the ability to determine which of the responses are most useful, and should be maintained as a permanent record in the organization’s KnowledgeBase
Each response has a checkbox that the inquirer can click to include that response in the KnowledgeBase. Responses not selected will not be transferred to the KnowledgeBase, but will still remain in the inquiry history.
Once the inquirer has selected the best response, he/she will “Close” the inquiry. Two things will not happen:
The method by which the KnowledgeBase is populated has been discussed in the previous section. This section will describe the KnowledgeBase and explore its uses.
The KnowledgeBase is a permanent repository for previous inquiries and their selected responses. Since the inquiry was imported into the KnowledgeBase with all its categorization and keywords ,it follows that the KnowledgeBase is driven by the same classification as the rest of Qaeré.
Since the KnowledgeBase is a permanent record, it can be searched at any time, using the same search parameters as were used to categorize the inquiries. In this way, employees can use the KnowledgeBase as a first port of call before instituting an inquiry.
For data privacy reasons, the KnowledgeBase is attached to a particular organization. It can only be accessed by current employees of that organization. This means that retirees and other persons not currently employed by the organization cannot access the KnowledgeBase.