Collaborative Working Environments. Using document management for projects and programmes

Transcription

1 Collaborative Working Environments Using document management for projects and programmes

2 Contents Audience 03 The issue 04 What is a collaborative working environment? 05 Success factors 06 Key points to consider 07 Checklist 08 Conclusion 08 References 09 Acknowledgements This paper was prepared by David Haynes, an Information Management Consultant at Atkins. Management Consultancy in Atkins helps clients achieve genuine benefits from their investment and change programmes. As part of Europe s largest multi-disciplinary consulting firm, Atkins is a leading provider of business, technology and project/programme consultancy to customers in the public and private sectors. Atkins ethos is to stand side-by-side with its customers until the real-world benefits of investment and change programmes are realised. T E mcsolutions@atkinsglobal.com W This paper is part of a series of white papers issued by Intellect s Document Management Group following the successful launch of its Guide (Intellect Document Management Group, 2007). 02 Collaborative Working Environments

3 Audience If you are a business leader, a CIO or are responsible for the initiation, management or control of projects or programmes, you need to know about collaborative working environments this paper is for you. This paper aims to help public and private sector organisations running projects and programmes that face the challenges of forming teams across disciplines, on different sites, or working across time zones. The group's first paper, Document management concerns the whole board - a guide for all directors, was launched at a reception on 21 November Aimed at non-technical board-level executives, it has been written to help organisations and come to terms with the informationheavy future that organisations everywhere are facing. A supporting paper, Implementing document management - recommended practices and lessons learned, has also been produced. It provides advice and guidance on how to implement document management solutions, looking at issues that arise specifically in document management projects. The third paper in the series, An approach to maximising your investment, is aimed at organisations that are already familiar with the concept of document management, and have already bought into the business case for it. It assists those who are ready to embark on a new document management programme of work, or indeed already have a document management solution in place but have plans for further work in this area. To download any of the above reports visit To keep up-to-date with all the developments taking place in the document management sector, please documentmanagement@intellectuk.org For all the latest news from Intellect, why not subscribe to our industry newsletters? Visit to subscribe online. Collaborative Working Environments 03

4 The issue Is your organisation involved in project work, either as a client or as a supplier of services? If you are responsible for commissioning, managing or controlling projects, you may have faced skill shortages, proliferation of information systems, project teams that are not in one place, participation of several organisations, large volumes of information and data that needs to be managed and retrieved. If you recognise any of the following demands on your organisation, project or programme, Collaborative Working Environments (CWEs) can help you to meet them: pressure to improve productivity professionals that need access to a range of tools and information resources from a variety of locations need for agile working, enabling projects to increase responsiveness greater flexibility use of human and information resources regardless of location and time zone quicker return on project investment to realise benefits risk management being able to provide an audit trail for documentation (e.g. Sarbanes -Oxley compliance) proliferation of different information systems within organisations ( Where can I find it? It could be in one of three locations ) The following examples illustrate the breadth of use of a CWE to address some of these issues. The property and purchasing department of a major high street bank deployed a collaborative environment to support their activities. By engaging with the supply chain they were able to deliver benefits early. Senior management support was crucial to the success of this project. A complex engineering project was recently completed using specialist technical teams throughout Europe. This was achieved by establishing a CWE that all authorised participants used to deliver specifications and designs. It was the principal means of communication between the client and the contractors and between the programme office and the project teams. The CWE provided an auditable document trail and input to manuals for the finished product. A large consultancy company used a CWE for project teams to develop the next generation of designs for a client. Technical and engineering specialists across the company were based in two major design centres in different time-zones. The CWE allowed seamless work across the distributed design team benefiting from good utilisation of each 24-hour period. Access to the CWE was provided via an extranet so that key suppliers could also participate at critical stages of the project. The system included features for scheduling meetings, access to shared applications, document management and online-meeting features. 04 Collaborative Working Environments

5 What is a collaborative working environment? Collaborative Working Environments (CWEs) provide common resources such as shared workspaces to enable teams to work together on common projects without necessarily being co-located. CWEs use a variety of technologies including: , instant messaging, application sharing, video conferencing, workflow, and social networking tools (e.g. wikis, blogs, discussion lists and chat rooms). A key component of a CWE is a collaborative workspace which is defined as: an inter-connected environment in which all the participants in dispersed locations can access and interact with each other just as inside a single entity. The environment may be supported by electronic communications and groupware which enable participants to overcome space and time differentials. These are typically enabled by a shared mental model, common information, and a shared understanding by all of the participants regardless of physical location. (Wikipedia, 2008a) Figure 1 - collaboration technologies Figure 1 shows the technologies used in CWEs with different degrees of participation and levels of collaboration. Participation ranges from information retrieval (e.g. knowledge management tools used to identify expertise or past experience) to interactive systems (such as , video conferencing and portals) allowing access to collaborative workspaces. Document management systems (DMSs) represent the highest level of collaboration. Where there is a strong need for content control and organisation DMSs provide the capability to co-ordinate the contributions of a project team, including comments and modifications as well as managing workflow and ensuring that the right people have been sent key documents (e.g. by using the transmittals feature). The technology may be based on person-toperson communications (such as instant messaging and ), group collaboration through to corporate collaboration or within a business group. This may be based on a corporate intranet or may be via an extranet to allow access by the extended corporation (such as external suppliers or customers with privileged access). Much of the technology used in CWEs could also be utilised in making public information more widely available (Mayo and Steinberg, 2007). Collaborative Working Environments 05

6 Success factors The success of a CWE depends on effective management of: people process technology Security cuts across all three areas and forms part of information governance. A CWE needs to incorporate the appropriate levels of security compatible with effective working. Risk management is one of the major preoccupations for large, complex, capital intensive projects. A security strategy that puts in place the processes and technology to protect privacy of personal data, as well as maintaining the integrity of the system, is a vital part of risk management. People Knowledge-based working depends on access to shared resources. This is not just a technology issue it is also about corporate culture and engendering a culture where individual workers and work units have the incentive to share information. Many CWEs incorporate a knowledge-base of expertise and skills so that the appropriate individuals can be identified and collaborative groups can be created easily. Process Putting processes in place for management of work environments is vital. This calls on a combination of business analysis, process engineering and workflow, and programme and project management. It is particularly important in a project environment to establish commonly-agreed and adhered-to processes for producing, updating and transmitting documentation to the right people. It also means having processes in place to identify who is currently working on related projects. Technology CWEs offer the prospect of greater integration of technologies allowing for use of information across a variety of systems, use of a range of tools suited to individual needs and a coherent interface tailored to individual needs. Many organisations have a variety of non-compatible, non-communicating information systems that have different access protocols which inhibit effective use of information and makes work unnecessarily cumbersome. CWEs provide a common set of tools and applications that are interoperable as well as being available to all those that need them. 06 Collaborative Working Environments

7 Key points to consider The larger your collaborative group (whether it be a project group or corporate resource), the greater the potential benefit of collaboration. The potential number of possible groups (and connections) that can be made between individuals in a network increases exponentially with the number of individual participants (n) and is proportional to 2nd. Reed s Law (Wikipedia, 2008b). Figure 2 shows the rapid increase in the number of connections between members of communities of different sizes. Figure 2 - Exponential rise in network connections (Reed s Law) Metcalfe (Wikipedia, 2008c), the inventor of Ethernet, went further by suggesting that the value (in monetary terms) also increases exponentially with the number of computers on the network. Increasing the number of people in a network will increase the value of that network and the type of collaboration it can sustain. Figure 3 - Network ROI (Metcalfe's Law) Collaborative Working Environments 07

8 Checklist Is your organisation able to provide a coherent, integrated environment in which you and your colleagues can work? Is there a common interface for the variety of productivity and project tools that you use? If you are interested in deploying CWE in your organisation, here is a checklist of things that you will need to consider: analyse requirements business analysis and systems analysis identifying needs define requirements consider how to organise the content held in a CWE procure the CWE technology implement the technology initiate a change management programme plan for future requirements establish measures to monitor performance develop prototype solutions Conclusion If you work in the knowledge economy (in a professional services firm for instance), it is vital that you are able to organise information resources for retrieval and use. You may be part of a group of professionals that is used to operating in an electronic environment using a variety of desktop and specialist tools to generate your primary outputs (be they documents, plans, specifications or designs). CWEs are becoming an important part of the infrastructure you need to work effectively. They are particularly successful if you work in a geographically distributed, multi-disciplinary team. Although some general office applications offer collaborative features such as document locking to allow group access to common documents, this may not be sufficient for large teams to work effectively. CWEs address specific issues, such as access to shared documents, instant messaging, indications of presence, and facilitation of remote meetings. They also provide a facility to find colleagues with the right experience and skills. CWEs work best in a culture of sharing information and expertise. 08 Collaborative Working Environments

9 References Intellect Document Management Group (2007). Document Management Concerns the Whole Board: implementing document management recommended practices and lessons learned. London: Intellect, Mayo E and Steinberg T (2007). The Power of Information: an independent review. June 2007 [not published]. Wikipedia (2008b). Reed s Law (accessed 02 May 2008). Wikipedia (2008c). Metcalfe s Law 27s_law (accessed 02 May 2008). Wikipedia (2008a). Collaborative Workspace. Collaborative_workspace (accessed 02 May 2008) Collaborative Working Environments 09

10 Intellect is the trade association for the UK technology industry. Intellect provides a collective voice for its members and drives connections with government and business to create a commercial environment in which they can thrive. Intellect represents over 800 companies ranging from SMEs to multinationals. As the central hub for this networked community, Intellect is able to draw upon a wealth of experience and expertise to ensure that its members are best placed to tackle challenges now and in the future. Our members' products and services enable hundreds of millions of phone calls and s every day, allow the 60 million people in the UK to watch television and listen to the radio, power London s world leading financial services industry, save thousands of lives through accurate blood matching and screening technology, have made possible the Oyster system, which Londoners use to make 28 million journeys every week, and are pushing Formula One drivers closer to their World Championship goal. In the past 12 months 14,500 people have visited Intellect s offices to participate in over 550 meetings and 3,900 delegates have attended the external conferences and events we organise. The technology industry contributes over 10% of the UK GDP and directly employs over a million people in the UK. For more information visit Intellect Russell Square House Russell Square London WC1B 5EE T F E info@intellectuk.org W Intellect June 2008