Who or what is hAiner? Why we call it your company's brain

A brain does two things: it collects experience, and it links that experience so it can be recalled at the right moment. In most companies, both are scattered. Part of the knowledge sits in documents, file shares and systems. The more valuable part is in the heads of people who have been there for years.

hAiner brings the two together. It turns a dormant document archive and your employees' experience into knowledge that is alive: it grows when someone learns something new, and it answers when someone asks.

Most of the companies we get to know have a file share, a wiki or SharePoint. And yet the decisive question still ends up with one person. Who knows why the line runs slower with certain material? Which customer only wants quotes discussed by phone? What was the reason for that special release back then?

This knowledge is rarely written down because nobody thought it worth writing down. It is created in daily work and passed on in daily work. That works as long as the people are there. Over the next few years, in many companies, exactly the colleagues who field these questions will retire.

Why this knowledge is so hard to secure, and what approaches exist, is covered on our topic page Securing experiential knowledge.

hAiner works in four steps that interlock.

It asks. hAiner conducts AI-guided interviews with the people who know things. Ideally by voice, also via the mobile app, and in short sessions rather than one long workshop. The questions build on what is already known and go where the gaps are. Every statement is stored with the person and the time it was made.

It works with what already exists. hAiner uses company knowledge from every source it is connected to, such as file shares like SharePoint. The connection runs through a search index. The documents stay where they are; hAiner does not copy them into a new system.

It links. Interviews and documents form a knowledge network attached to the things your business revolves around: employees, machines, vehicles, substances, customers, orders. A statement about a machine setting can therefore be found even when you ask about the machine rather than the colleague who made the setting.

It answers with evidence. Every answer names its source: the document with its storage path, or the interview with person and date. The original can be opened directly. If hAiner finds no reliable answer, it says so and names the person who might know. We consider that more important than a fluent answer without a basis.

Your people respond faster. Anyone with a question no longer has to phone around or search three folders first. This applies especially to new colleagues who do not yet know whom to ask.

Teams work from the same knowledge. Maintenance, production, sales and service draw on a shared foundation. What one department has learned is available to the others.

Procedures are easier to follow. Anyone about to carry out a work step gets the relevant rules and experience alongside it instead of having to look for them. In daily work, processes rarely fail for lack of will, but because at the decisive moment nobody knows how they were meant.

A sales representative takes over a long-standing customer from a colleague who has retired. Before the first meeting, she asks hAiner what she should know about this customer. hAiner finds the latest quotes in the file share and notes from the interview with her predecessor: decisions are made by the technical director, not by purchasing. The customer wants quotes discussed by phone beforehand. And there was trouble over delivery times last year.

Every note shows its source. She goes into the meeting prepared instead of finding these things out during the conversation.

(Illustrative example, not a specific customer case.)

hAiner is not another wiki. Nobody has to create or maintain pages to get knowledge into it. And hAiner does not replace the conversation between experienced and new colleagues. It makes sure that conversation is not lost when one of them is no longer there.

hAiner pays off above all for companies where one or more of these points apply:

• Experienced employees will retire or leave over the next few years.
• Important decisions depend on experience that is not written down anywhere.
• New colleagues take a long time to work independently.
• There are file shares and documents, but people rarely find what they are looking for.
• A wiki was introduced and is hardly maintained any more.

Typical sectors are manufacturing, maintenance, technical service, trade and insurance.

hAiner will not change your company overnight. But it makes sure that what your most experienced people know is still there tomorrow and helps everyone today.

If you recognize your company in the points above, book an introductory call with live demo (45 minutes, free of charge). Afterwards you will know whether hAiner fits your business.