“Companies should not be afraid to make a transition into the digital world,” Sagi Eliyahu, CEO of KMS Lighthouse recently told The Jerusalem Post.
KMS Lighthouse is a global leader that provides innovative knowledge management solutions for enterprise organizations.
Eliyahu sat down with The Post for the special magazine edition interviewing business leaders in summarizing the past year and discussing future trends. The KMS Lighthouse CEO provided his insights into digitization and knowledge management, as well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on how organizations conduct business.
“We provide a solution for organizing company knowledge,” he said. “An organization inputs the knowledge they need into our system according to their needs and specifications and decides how to consume this knowledge.”
Simply put, KMS Lighthouse offers solutions for an organization to manage its knowledge in one centralized and digitized platform, allowing for increased productivity and efficiency as employees can easily access and update information with the click of a button.
This solution is optimal for customer service and services-based industries, Eliyahu said, but today, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, it is providing a holistic solution for companies in many fields. KMS Lighthouse supports large organizations’ efforts to create a seamless experience for all employees by working strategically with their Human Resources department and learning & development leaders.
“In services, knowledge is critical because you need to know the answers to customer questions right away. This is the most obvious example of why knowledge is critical,” he said. “Our platform is able to provide this information that is needed quickly and accurately.”
As such, KMS Lighthouse works with leading organizations including many Fortune 500 companies across numerous sectors - from banking to insurance to automotive and health fields.
“We work with very big companies and help them decrease the time it takes to train employees by 50%,” he said. “Additionally, we assist with decreasing their error rate.”
“Many times, you are sure that you know the correct answer, but maybe this answer has changed, or the procedure has updated, and it is no longer correct – so we help to develop a uniform answer across the company, across borders, so that everyone can provide the same, accurate information,” he added.
Eliyahu said that the coronavirus pandemic has had a positive impact on the company.
“Two years ago, we had 35 employees and today we have 120 together with a grown in annual recurring revenue of some 200%- so this can give you an indication of just how great a need there is for our solutions.”
He said that the transition for many companies to a remote-work model created many unforeseen difficulties in training and managing employees.
“All the usual methods of training that were available before the pandemic suddenly became irrelevant,” he said. “How can you train an employee who is working from home and who you’ve interviewed over Zoom?”
This transition, he added, happened overnight.
“We started to see very high demand from companies globally, all facing these same problems. Employers realized that the way they had worked until now is no longer relevant,” he said.
Additionally, he said another trend that has accelerated, is the rate of employee turnover.
“People are transferring from job to job in all sectors,” he said. “We saw this with Generation Z and now it is only increasing.”
As such he said, companies need a new approach. “Businesses need to look ahead to see how they can train new employees quickly and efficiently, especially with such high turnover rates. This is not a trend that will change.”
Another inclination accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, he said, is the need for digital transformation.
“Regardless of employees, the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the importance and the understanding of digital transformations,” he said. “Though, if you don’t have a quality knowledge management system, you will not be able to undergo this digital transformation.”
He cited leading global market research firms such as Gartner and Forrester, that have issued reports arriving at this conclusion. “Digital transformation starts with knowledge management and projects that did not invest in this before going digital will fail.”
Today, he said, there is a lot of talk about how the future is in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning – “this is the technology behind our product, and this is what is needed to make the transformation to digital,” he said.
To that end, in November 2020, KMS Lighthouse acquired Reps AI, an artificial intelligence company, in order to improve its abilities in AI and automation.
“Companies need to prepare for an upgrade in technology for solutions that weren’t available 10 years ago. Who talked about AI 10 years ago?” he said. “Today though, this is the future and companies should stop and reassess and not be afraid of the process. What was right three years ago is not right today.”
Still, despite the growing need for digital solutions, Eliyahu said that this past month he managed to fly to the United Kingdom and the United States for business.
“Suddenly you realize just how much the interpersonal meetings were missing,” he said.
“Looking to the future, I think we will still need to fly abroad, and meet with clients, this is something that is missing for a lot of people - to give someone a hug or look in their eyes,” he said. “Today we do everything online and I think that is here to stay, it won’t change. The challenge is in having the courage to take the leap forward.” •
This article is taken from The Jerusalem Post Annual Executive Magazine 2021-2022. To read the entire magazine, click here.
This article was written in cooperation with KMS Lighthouse