Transforming 80 years of know-how into instant answers with ASKME

SD Worx is Europe’s leading payroll and HR services provider, with roots going back 80 years. Over the past four decades, they have built and continuously refined a wide range of complex, custom-built software systems. Since so much business expertise and in-depth (often legal) knowledge gets integrated into these solutions, complexity has grown exponentially. Documenting everything is one challenge; being able to locate and retrieve critical information from these vast, scattered repositories is another. 

Today, SD Worx manages a library of over 100,000 documents, stored in multiple formats and spanning decades of development. This makes it hard for new and existing employees—ranging from developers and testers to payroll consultants, legal teams, and other business functions—to quickly find the information they need. Combined with constantly evolving legislation across multiple countries, maintaining these solutions and staying legally compliant is an ongoing effort. SD Worx needed an approach to simplify access to all that knowledge. 

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In short… 

Showing, in short, the challenge, solution and result

Challenge 

Over its long history, SD Worx has developed numerous software solutions to handle payroll, HR tasks, and legal compliance. These range from COBOL-based legacy systems (some dating back 35+ years) to newer .NET, C++ and self-service platforms.

Along the way, countless updates have been made to keep up with changing laws and regulations—and each update generates new or revised documentation. Over time, over 100,000 documents have accumulated, covering everything from functional use cases and UML diagrams to Word files and legal notes. 

The result is a knowledge landscape spread across multiple repositories, versions, and formats. Finding the right information can be daunting for new hires or even veteran employees who move between projects or business units. SD Worx realised they needed a more efficient way to discover and retrieve critical documents and code references, all while ensuring that every detail aligns with legal requirements.  

Solution

Working closely with SD Worx, AE developed a centralised, intelligent, and easy-to-use Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA), known internally as ASKME. This product, which emerged from an initial Proof of Concept and later evolved into a pilot, leverages AE’s Accelerator Kit to rapidly incorporate user feedback. ASKME was designed as a multilingual IVA, capable of scanning and indexing data from multiple sources. 

AE came up with a technological answer to our key question: “How can we make our solutions understandable and easy-to- maintain for current and future development teams?”

Patrick Maes – Program Manager SD Worx

 

Key features 

  • Automated ingestion of documents: It pulls from various file types, version histories, and repositories, ensuring nothing is overlooked. 

  • Natural Language Search: Employees can type questions in their preferred language (Dutch, French, English, etc.), and ASKME returns concise answers referencing the underlying documents. 

  • Legal & compliance awareness: Given the importance of accurate legal context in payroll and HR, the IVA keeps track of the latest regulatory updates to ensure employees always find the most relevant information. 

  • Source linking: Users can dive deeper into the original file or codebase if they need more context. 

  • Continuous learning: Because of its modular build, ASKME can keep improving and expand to new data sources as SD Worx grows. 

Currently, ASKME is in an advanced pilot phase, with deployment gradually rolling out across different teams. This phased approach helps validate new features, refine indexing strategies, and adapt the solution to the wide variety of user needs at SD Worx. 

 

Join our upcoming webinar  Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVA's) Learn how IVAs act as intelligent bridges between users and complex workflows. Understand the tech, the strategy, and what to consider when building one—plus key lessons from AE’s own experience.  

 

Results 

Users have been pleasantly surprised by the quality and speed of the answers ASKME provides, especially given the high volume of documents and the diverse jargon—ranging from technical code references to highly specialised legal terminology.  

Having quick access to the right information translates into: 

  • Less time searching for relevant documentation across multiple platforms.

  • Reduced onboarding and training efforts for new hires, who often must familiarise themselves with decades of specialized knowledge. 

  • Improved legal compliance by surfacing and cross-referencing updated legislative information in real time. Higher productivity overall, as employees can focus on core tasks instead of sifting through outdated or scattered sources

How AE made the difference 

AE’s lean and agile methodology allowed for fast integration with SD Worx’s existing systems, whether legacy or modern. By co-creating with the end users, AE and SD Worx started with a Proof of Concept, learned valuable lessons about data ingestion and search optimization, and evolved it into a working MVP.

Ongoing user testing and feedback loops then shaped ASKME into the pilot solution it is today, continuously refined to ensure it meets the real-world needs of a large, diverse organisation. 

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