Cardno needed a way to quickly and easily identify employees, across its 8000-strong global workforce, with the required skills and qualifications to respond to competitive tenders...Enter OBS who was chosen to build Cardno People Profiles, a SharePoint-based global knowledge management system.

1. OBS CUSTOMER CASE STUDY | PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Cardno
GLOBAL
INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
8000 EMPLOYEES
“The increased connectivity
between people all over the world
has meant that we are gaining
business and saving valuable time.”
SharePoint Knowledge
Management Solution
About Cardno
Cardno is an ASX-200 professional infrastructure and
environmental services company with expertise in the
development and improvement of physical and social
infrastructure for communities around the world. The
company employs approximately 8,000 people in 290
locations across 85 countries. The global team offers
integrated services from professionals who plan,
design, manage and deliver sustainable projects and
community programs.
Capturing opportunities
Due to its rapid growth and with employees possessing
a wide range of skills across many geographically-
dispersed locations, Cardno has found it a challenge to
share knowledge and services. The company has been
keen to build on existing cross-selling capabilities and
avoid using external contractors to fill perceived skills
gaps when in-house talent is available.
Jackie McPhee, Corporate Marketing Manager, Cardno
said: “We were looking for ways to increase revenue
and wanted improve the global resources available to
staff to find colleagues with particular skills or
industry knowledge. This is particularly important for
merger partners joining the growing company and any
new employees.”
“Our staff members need to find each other
seamlessly, based on things such as skills, experience,
location and languages. They then need to be able to
contact each other and, ultimately, include current
details in tender documents or to put forward service
teams to our clients.”
Knowledge sharing: Cardno People Profiles
Cardno decided to look for a partner to help them
build a platform that would facilitate knowledge
sharing. They instigated a bid process and took
submissions from five different organisations before
choosing OBS to undertake the project.
Jackie said: “Cardno had an existing relationship with
OBS and this was helpful. They provided strong
guidance on how to proceed on the knowledge
management front.”
OBS worked with Cardno management to fully flesh-
out the idea from the start. The team held workshops
to work out what Cardno wanted to achieve and how
it could be delivered.

2. “We knew what we wanted to achieve from a
business perspective but we weren’t sure how
to get there. OBS understood the business
imperatives and guided us through each stage
to make this project happen.”
Jackie McPhee | Corporate Marketing Manager | Cardno
Jackie said: “We knew what we wanted to achieve
from a business perspective but we weren’t sure how
to get there. OBS understood the business
imperatives and guided us through each stage to
make this project happen.”
OBS helped to design and deliver a solution called
Cardno People Profiles, based on Microsoft
SharePoint.
Jackie said: “Our global knowledge management
objective is to connect Cardno people. Cardno People
Profiles is the first step in that project. It provides a
user-friendly way to store and search for information
about Cardno staff on the global intranet.”
Each staff member creates and maintains an
individual profile that includes their contact details as
well as a profile summary, industry expertise, skills,
country experience and foreign language proficiency.
It includes a photograph of the person and the ability
to attach Cardno-branded CVs and qualifications.
The system’s search functionality lets users search
based on a variety of parameters and refine the
search as needed to find the exact Cardno expert they
need without delay.
Its integration with Microsoft Lync also makes it
easier for staff to make contact with each other and
check availability.
Immediate take-up and results
Since its launch to Cardno’s 7,000 English-speaking
employees in late 2013, Cardno People Profiles has
been widely adopted. This was helped in part by a
company-wide competition in which $5,000 prize
money was offered to the team that had the highest
percentage of completed profiles.
Jackie said:
“OBS set up
a tracking
and reporting
system for the
solution, which
allows us to measure
things like the most
common search terms, most
popular profiles and so on. That
system told us that approximately 85 per cent of staff
members had completed their profile before the end
of 2013. That was a great result in just six months and
much better than we had anticipated.
“The marketing team is using the solution to prepare
tender documents and bids. This is because they can
access Cardno-branded CVs at the touch of a button
from Cardno People Profiles, then add the CVs
directly into the documents. Even if it’s a global bid,
it’s quick and simple for them to find the people that
should be involved.”
Gaining business and saving on costs
Cardno’s rapid global growth has made it difficult for
all employees to fully understand the depth and
breadth of services the company offers. Now, with
that information immediately available, Cardno can
access opportunities to cross- and up-sell, and
significantly reduce the number of unnecessary hires
or contractors.
Jackie said: “There are so many highly-skilled
professionals in this organisation and being able to
utilise their skills effectively is a key outcome of this
project. The increased connectivity between people
all over the world has meant that we are gaining
business and saving valuable time.”