Empiricom is a software company with a particular vision. We help organisations discover and manage what is arguably the most valuable of all their assets: human knowledge.We do this by using our patented method of computerising a person’s problem-solving knowledge of a given subject. That’s right: we’ve found out how to capture all of a person’s decision-making ability for any given area of their expertise. Crucially, we gather this information in a structured format which converts straight into code which computers can use.
Once the knowledge is in the computer, at the click of a mouse it can be made available via a web browser to whoever needs it. The end user can then interact with it to solve a problem they’re having. Exactly as if they were in a consultation with the original human expert. When the solution is reached, the computer provides the same advice and guidance as the human expert would.
We believe this approach has the potential to dramatically increase access to quality advice, and change the way we help each other solve problems. Here are just a few examples of the applications of this technology:
- A web-based advisory service can use it to capture the expertise of leading practitioners and immediately build interactive self-help for end consumers.
- A law practice could use this to ensure all its junior partners are consistently applying the firm’s interpretation of a particular aspect of law, however complex.
- It can be used to build up repositories of solutions to common problems faced by an organisation. You can think of this as being like an interactive expert Wikipedia, helping people to get quick resolutions to known problems. It avoids the tedium and inefficiency of working out all over again an answer to an issue which has been solved many times before. It also avoids the hit-and-miss nature of using a conventional search engine for the answer.
- It’s often the case that organisations have too few experts and too many demands being made on their time (for example, in answering queries from junior colleagues). Computerising solutions to common issues can help reduce those distractions and allow experienced staff to return to mission-critical and/or revenue-generating activities.