Asian Paints uses social software to share knowledge and expertise

Transcription

1 Asian Paints uses social software to share knowledge and expertise IBM Connections helps tap collective intelligence to meet challenges and improve decisions Overview The need An internal study diagnosed a need to improve collaboration at an organizational level. This required a platform to share information, find expertise and spread knowledge. The solution The company deployed IBM Connections social software, integrated with IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Sametime software, to 3,800 employees in India. The benefit Access to expertise and information sharing enabled freer, better collaboration; increased productivity; improved sales processes; and accelerated business processes, problem solving and innovation. Asian Paints Ltd. is one of the largest paint companies in India and the 10th-largest decorative paint company in the world. Founded in 1942 and headquartered in Mumbai, the company has offices in more than a dozen countries servicing consumers all around the world. Besides Asian Paints, the group operates subsidiaries Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings, SCIB Paints and Taubmans. Silos prevent knowledge sharing Asian Paints aims to become one of the top five decorative paint companies. Achieving such growth means optimizing business processes by taking advantage of the collective knowledge, talent and experience of its employees. This requires effective collaboration and communication, difficult for a company whose operations and staff are dispersed around the world in numerous time zones and diverse cultures. In India alone, Asian Paints has more than 100 offices and more than 700 salespeople and managers. The sales process involves working with a network of dealers who sell Asian Paints products to end customers. In 2010, Asian Paints conducted a diagnostic study that analyzed existing collaboration and how to improve it. Collaboration occurred regularly, the study found, mainly over the telephone. But the study noted that

2 A social business... Embraces networks of people to create business value and exhibits three underlying tenets. It is engaged, transparent and nimble. Engaged Improves sales processes and problem resolution by surfacing expertise and enhancing information sharing among the sales team Transparent Lowered barriers dividing the company s diverse, geographically dispersed workforce by enabling freer interactive communications Nimble Accelerated business processes and encouraged innovation through increased collaboration and productivity Entry point Workforce optimization The idea is to get as many people as possible connecting and getting to know each other. Once the visibility of employees capabilities rises, we begin to know the experts we can bring into our projects and help us solve problems. broader collaboration and sharing of expertise might improve if employees were not separated by the boundaries of their departments, job roles and geography. Sales staff members, for instance, found it difficult to share best practices and innovative ways of supporting dealers, and they had no way to post issues of concern to the entire sales team. What s more, employees had no place to post their profiles and learn to know others in the company, a prelude to broader collaboration. Sales staff members expressed a desire for an interactive forum where area mangers can address issues raised at the branches, and for better communication between branches and the head office. Top managers, including the chief executive officer (CEO), sought an interactive way to reach employees beyond and static web postings. The general feeling was that people were strictly bound to their roles and their departments, says Deepak Bhosale, Chief Manager - IT (Social Collaboration and Customer Facing Applications), Asian Paints. There was little knowledge exchange, and the idea was to build a companywide knowledge base an organizational memory. The diagnostic study concluded that for Asian Paints to progress, we needed to have better collaboration within the organization. IBM Connections software opens the door To address this challenge, Asian Paints implemented IBM Connections version 3.0 social software, which empowers business users with Web 2.0 tools for interactive communication and collaboration. The software was rolled out to the 3,800 employees in India with the assistance of Sogeti, an IBM Premium Business Partner. Deployment Deepak Bhosale, Chief Manager - IT (Social Collaboration and Customer Facing Applications), Asian Paints Ltd. 2

3 Solution components Software IBM Connections IBM Business Partner Sogeti began in November, 2010, and completed without issue in January, 2011, with an upgrade to version 3.01 in July, The software was integrated with IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Sametime software for messaging and unified communications. IBM Connections software supplied the collaboration and social networking features that Asian Paints was missing. Searchable online communities of interest, meeting places, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and file sharing make information easier to access and share. Searchable profiles connect employees with experts across the organization, as do blogs, wikis, self-service forums and searchable histories of problems solved. Collaboration and messaging tools link on-premises and remote employees in real time, raising their productivity in teams and as individuals. New features in IBM Connections V3.01 software include Ideation Blogs for sharing and rating new ideas and Media Gallery for storing and sharing media files. Key to a successful implementation was giving employees reasons to start using the IBM Connections software helping them discover, as Bhosale says, What s in this for me? The company promoted the capabilities internally and also devised activities to help employees find the value of social collaboration on their own. The CEO started a blog and employees enthusiastically responded, causing many to explore other software features. Communities of interest related to work sprang up. To jump-start collaboration, one-click widgets use social analytics to pinpoint people with common interests and needed 3

4 expertise. A profiles contest encouraged staff members to fill out their profiles, with prizes awarded for the best ones. A widget collects birthdays from the profiles as another means to encourage employee interaction. The idea is to get as many people as possible to start connecting and getting to know each other, says Bhosale. Once the visibility of employees capabilities rises, we begin to know the experts, the people we can bring into our projects and help us solve problems. Increasing the visibility of knowledge and expertise across the organization will improve our processes and help us achieve our business goals. Visibility is enhanced by the integration of IBM Connections and Lotus Notes software with the Sametime application and its presence awareness feature. This makes it easy for staff to see the current availability of another person online and link quickly to the person s profile when communicating. Early statistics revealed broad usage of IBM Connections software, suggesting employees are deriving considerable business value from social networking. Some 3,800 employees spread across 17 locations have access to the application. After only six months, 3,500 users were accessing 744 wikis, 167 communities and 176 active discussion forums. Some 1,624 team members were collaborating on 55 distinct projects. Sharing expertise and improving processes Business value is visible across the organization. IBM Connections software is heavily used in the sales department, which finds it an excellent tool for solving challenges by sharing innovations, expertise and best practices. Sales goals, contest results and the latest sales figures are posted 4

5 and discussed. In a virtual open house, sales staff members post problems and see them quickly addressed by the collective wisdom. Area managers blog about innovative ways to help dealers sell more, and interest is high. Recently an area manager blogged about a meeting he conducted to explain ROI to the dealers, says Bhosale. Within an hour the blog had close to 200 hits, with many managers saying they would like to conduct such a meeting for their dealers. IBM Connections software became a focal point for the annual sales conference, for the first time making the event transparent to the whole company. Sales data was posted, speeches listed and blogs written, giving all employees the opportunity to learn and interact. The entire organization participated, Bhosale says, which increased knowledge and team spirit across the company. The IT department took to IBM Connections software right away, conducting its annual planning exercise online and using the activities and to-do list features to accelerate the process. Human resources (HR), too, benefits from the collaborative platform s speed and agility. When HR wanted to revise its personal and sick leave policies, it posted a draft policy using the IBM Connections application. Soon communities formed across the company to address the policy. This led to 35 suggestions, 30 of which were adopted in the new policy. The entire process took just 10 days. Before IBM Connections, creating a new leave policy would have taken a lot more time and involved much costly travel and many meetings, says Bhosale. Employees being able to participate in communities and share feedback greatly accelerated the process. 5

6 For more information To learn more about IBM Connections, contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit: ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections For more information Sogeti, please go to To learn more about Asian Paints, please visit: Copyright IBM Corporation 2012 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY Produced in the United States of America April 2012 IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Lotus Notes, and Sametime are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademark information at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. Please Recycle EPC12350-USEN-00