Active Sales Knowledge  In many companies, Sales require a particularly wide spectrum of quickly accessible information.

Here, it is essential for success that

• knowledge regarding the products and services being offered
• knowledge regarding the customer and his requirements
• knowledge of the market and the competition

all come together. At the same time, the company needs to be sure that the information released is always correct and up-to-date.

However, you often hear the following from the Sales division: "I can't find any documentation for Subject X," or "I never knew we already had stuff on Subject X," or "There are dozens of presentations on Product Y, all of them slightly different. Which one should I use?"

Add to this the fact that Sales is the most important channel of access to the market: nowhere else can the company get to know the needs of the customer so well. All too often it is left to chance whether the information the Sales division learns about the customer finds its way back into the company and into the conception of products and marketing materials.
ASK uses Knowledge Network to place subjects and material in their context. Each bit of information that exists will be located – and not only that, but in a current version that can be used directly.

ASK means an end to uncontrolled growth and unnecessary copies. A central, redundancy-free pool of sales materials with automatic updating of the materials used sees to this. Knowledge Network also ensures that feedback and new suggestions are passed on to somewhere where they can be picked up on and introduced into the materials. This way, ASK gives the Sales division a voice and fosters the creation of materials that are tailored to requirements.

Finally, Knowledge Network comprising a company's products, themes, customer needs and competitors is also an ideal instrument to use for optimizing the research of new information on the World Wide Web and in news sources.