With 38,000 restaurants and more than 1 million employees and associates around the world, Yum! Brands is leveraging advanced collaboration tools to share best practices and improve operations. The company's vice president of IT, Dickie Oliver, shares his perspective on the collaborative culture that has emerged, and its impact on innovation, in an interview with CIOInsight's Dennis McCafferty.

Associates at many Yum! Brands properties, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations, have access to a messaging and collaboration system called iCHING, which allows them to exchange ideas around the clock and around the globe. They set up profiles of themselves, including their areas of expertise, and then initiate conversations to come up with improved products. 

"They share tips on how to make these products as quickly and easily as possible," Oliver said. "For example, an associate in the United Kingdom can type in a query and find data that helps develop a better way to serve customers."

The interaction has already paid off in terms of fostering new product launches. When the KFC team in Australia shared some of its product development insights on iCHING, other markets decided to introduce an Australian beverage line called Krushers. A team in the United Kingdom took some tips from the success of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme and came up with a similar offering.

Oliver's team strives to stay in close touch with the business units and urges them to drive technology investments. The company's organizational structure is decentralized, and decisions are encouraged from the bottom up. "Our store associates are dealing directly with customers. They know what they want. They know what's selling. They exchange ideas on this with our division managers, and that gets pushed up within our company," he said.

For more:
- see Dennis McCafferty's article at CIOInsight

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