ERNIE AND K-MAN ARE HERE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS:
WHAT'S NEXT, ASK MR. D & T?

KPMG Peat Marwick has an online information system for use by its partners and employees, which the firm has labeled Knowledge Manager or K-Man. By clicking the K-Man icon, KPMG people gain access to the firm's data basis on industry information, subject matter libraries, conference discussion groups, and real-time news feeds.

In late May, Ernst & Young unveiled its new Internet/intranet service called Ernie. Unlike K-Man, which is for internal use, Ernie is designed to be an information source to business organizations in the entrepreneurial phase of their existence--big enough and fast-growing enough to need a wide range of information, but too small to have their own staffs develop the information. Available at a subscription price of $6,000, it allows subscribers to have access to the people and resources of Ernst & Young to ask questions, peruse a frequently-asked-questions data base, and have a news-clipping service.

Ernie had his introduction to the public in late May at news briefings that included live remarks from E&Y's chairman Philip A. Laskawy via video conferencing from Spain. At the briefing E&Y professionals easily answered questions about how Ernie works and procedures in place to maintain quality control over the answers Ernie gives. The answer as to why its Ernie and not Emma was not as smoothly handled, except to say that a "name" consultant was used and they wanted
to have a image or
persona with which
the system could be readily identified. *