How to find the right internal expert — without going through three meetings

The problem everyone has experienced

You have a problem to solve: a system migration, a complex RFP, a delicate HR situation. You know someone in the company has faced something similar.

But who?

You ask your manager. They tell you to contact So-and-so. So-and-so refers you to another department. That department tells you the right person changed roles last year. You send an email "to the whole team." Three days later, you might have an answer.

This scenario plays out in virtually every company with more than 200 employees, every single week.

Skills silos: an organizational blind spot

In most organizations, skills and experiences are invisible. Everyone knows what they do. Nobody really knows what others do — especially in multi-site organizations, hybrid work environments, or fast-growing companies.

The consequences are numerous:

Unintentional duplication: two teams developing the same thing in parallel without knowing it
Repeated mistakes: a team making exactly the same errors that another team already worked through
Unnecessary external hiring: looking outside for what already exists internally
Extended timelines: finding the right person sometimes takes longer than solving the problem itself

According to a McKinsey study, employees spend an average of 19% of their working time searching for information or trying to find colleagues who can help them.

Skills mapping isn't enough

Many companies have invested in skills mapping tools — matrices, frameworks, enriched HR systems. These are useful for career management and workforce planning.

But when you need to find someone who managed a remote team restructuring two years ago, no competency matrix helps you. These concrete experiences, these already-lived situations, aren't captured in HR systems.

What you need isn't a directory of declared skills. It's quick access to the real, contextualized experience of your employees.

When the expert is unfindable — and what it costs

Imagine: your sales lead needs to prepare an RFP for a prospect in the banking sector. They know someone on the team has worked in that industry. But they don't know who.

They spend a day asking around. They finally find the right person — two days before the deadline. The response is rushed.

Or worse: they find nobody and start from scratch, even though the expertise existed.

This waste of collective intelligence is one of the most costly for an organization — precisely because it's invisible. It shows up in no dashboard, triggers no alert.

One question, one answer, the right person

That's the idea behind Eloise's "expert matching" feature. When Eloise can't answer a question herself — because the answer requires contextualized human expertise — it identifies who in the organization is best placed to respond.

Employee: "Eloise, who in the company has already worked with logistics vendors in Southeast Asia?" Eloise: "Based on profiles and documented projects, Camille (Supply Chain team, Lyon) and Thomas (former Asia Expansion project, Paris) both have this experience. Should I connect you?"

In seconds, the connection is made. No unnecessary meeting. No email chain.

How Eloise identifies the right experts

Eloise doesn't guess. It draws on real information:

📝 Employee profiles filled in your tools (HRIS, Slack, Teams)
📁 Projects and documents each employee has contributed to
🗣️ Past exchanges (with appropriate permissions) that reveal expertise

The richer your internal documentation, the more precise the matching. And Eloise improves continuously.

Concrete benefits for the organization

🔍 Find an expert in 30 seconds instead of 3 days
🚀 Accelerate projects by reusing internal experience
💡 Reduce duplication and errors by sharing what's already been learned
🤝 Strengthen cohesion between teams that didn't know each other
📉 Reduce external hiring for skills that already exist internally

Signs your organization needs this

If in your company:

Nobody really knows who did what on which project
New hires "reinvent the wheel" because they don't know who to ask
Expertise disappears when an employee leaves
Teams work in silos, even when they could help each other

...then intelligent expert matching can transform your organization.

Discover how Eloise maps your internal expertise and connects the right people.

Schedule a demo