As technology has become ubiquitous, it is not uncommon for companies to work closely together using technology. Sharing data using email and downloads is quick and easy, but can often lead to problems when trying to co-ordinate sharing among disconnected teams - it's difficult to track who has which version of a document when everyone has their own copy. Technology for scheduling and tracking meetings is often great for internal meetings, but can't extend outside of a companies own organisation, making it difficult to involve partners at the same level as internal employees.
It is all too often down to technology-savvy individuals to bridge the gaps in technology to overcome these problems. This can result in lost productivity, overdue reliance on certain team members, and strained relationships with partners.
Working as a team
Collaboration solutions are designed to overcome technological gaps and ensure everyone can contribute to the team - whether that team is wholly internal, or spans organisations. By using familiar technology, and linking seamlessly to familiar tools, they remove the need for special technical knowledge to get things done.
They enable the sharing of data - as documents, lists, discussions, tasks etc - in a controlled environment that ensures nothing is lost in the sharing process. Updates can be tracked, work-flows can be assigned and alerts raised when certain actions occur. Security is maintained by the team members, without IT intervention.
We build collaboration solutions based on Windows SharePoint Services, which enables virtually any type of collaboration to take place within and across organisations.
Some Examples
Scenario 1: Internal Company Meetings
Each month, department heads have a meeting at headquarters. They travel from regional headquarters. The meeting agenda is determined by a series of emails to the meeting organiser, who then puts together an agenda, and distributes the resulting minutes to the heads after the meeting. It's down to the department heads to communicate relevant information to their teams. The resulting mass of emails, combined with multiple copies of the minutes, means there are mixed messages reaching team members, a "Chinese Whispers" effect leading to a "them and us" culture.
The solution involves Citric deploying a "meeting workspace" on the company intra-net. This allows team members to have a tracked discussion with their head, who can then suggest resulting agenda items to an agenda list that all heads can see - the agenda builds itself. The meeting minutes are then posted on the meeting site, ensuring everyone has a master copy, without deluging the email system. Tasks resulting from the meeting are tracked on the site, ensuring everyone is aware of who's doing what, and when those tasks have been done. In addition, a master discussion is used to track feedback from everyone on the meeting outcomes, to ensure the meetings are worthwhile.
Scenario 2: Working with a Partner
Company A is a big marketing company with lots of IT resources. They want to work with Company B to market some widgets, which Company B makes. Company B is good at making widgets, but doesn't use computers much, although they do have an internet connection.
Citric deploy a "team workspace" as an extra-net at Company A, so documents can be securely shared with company B, for either company to update and approve. They can also assign tasks to each other, arrange meetings and discuss issues, all without deploying any special technology at Company B, and in total security. And when Company C come along to distribute the widgets, Company A can grant access to the same material and functions in as little as 5 minutes to Company C. Likewise, when Company D approach Company A with some cheaper widgets, a new workspace is set up for them without Company B having a look-in!
Scenario 3: The Important Document
Tom, Dick and Harry are 3 friends from university who have each done very well for themselves and now live on different continents. Tom has an engineering firm in America, Dick has a recruitment company in Europe, and Harry has a retail chain in Australia. They decide they want to create a new holding company that looks after their various assets for tax and pension purposes. It's important they draft a company formation document that includes input from all three, without them needing to travel or spend hours on the phone - they're busy people.
So instead they ask Citric to set up a secure "Document Workspace" for them, which is hosted on Citric's servers, meaning it can be ready that day. Each friend logs in and adds their ideas for the company, so the others can add their comments. A template is uploaded, and tasks assigned to each friend to do a section. Because only one person at a time can "check out" the master document, no changes are lost - and previous versions are automatically kept in case the latest changes are no good. The resulting document is assigned a "review work-flow" to ensure each friend approves the document, before finally being submitted to the lawyers - all co-ordinated without anyone leaving their desk!
Scenario 4: Finding and Aggregating Information
GlobalHyperMegaCorp is a management consultancy firm that has around 500 employees who work on projects in small teams. They store documents on the file system, and each team maintains its own area on the network. This is generating thousands of files, and nobody really knows which ones are needed, or whether teams are re-creating documents that exist already. There's no easy way for one team to find out what another team is doing. Management are concerned that duplication of effort is occurring and productivity lost.
Citric deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 at GlobalHyperMegaCorp. This gives the company an instant intra-net portal, allowing each team, and each team member, to let everyone know exactly what they do. In each employee's personal site, they automatically see connections to other employees who are working on similar projects. The search feature allows employees to quickly find documents and people on the network that can help them do their tasks. Important documents, such as procedures, manuals and forms, are published to a central area on the portal for everyone to find and use. The reporting features of SharePoint are used to track project budgets across the company by tapping in to each team's budget spreadsheets, and give management a better overview of where the company is headed. Productivity is increased, wasted effort reduced, and managers and employees feel happier about the improved communication at all levels.
What Next?
We could keep listing scenarios till we're blue in the face - what we've realised is that every company, regardless of size, industry or location, can benefit from collaboration solutions - because in order for companies to succeed, people have to work together. The better they do, the more success the company gains.
Windows SharePoint Services is the best platform for achieving this, because it takes advantage of technologies you already have, and that you, your team and your partners are familiar with. In fact, recent versions of Microsoft Office (since Office XP) are designed around this technology.
Citric have been working with SharePoint technologies since the first version was released (it's now in the third generation) and we design, deploy, customise and maintain our solutions - we do the lot, including hosting if required. For futher information on the platform, please click here, or call us today to dicuss how SharePoint can help your business.