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Frontlines is a guest viewpoint section offering perspectives on current issues and events from people working on the front lines of Canada's technology industry

In recent years, the business world has watched information technology take on an increasingly significant role in practically every part of an organization. From large enterprises to small and mid-sized businesses and across a wide range of industries, companies rely on IT for the operation of fundamental business processes.

Among the most critical capabilities IT now provides is collaboration. As market dynamics change, workforces go mobile and global, and customers become more demanding, organizations are looking for ways to work smarter, faster and more efficiently. By enabling employees to collaborate effectively in real time, organizations can drive innovation from the ground up.

In broad terms, collaboration is about how people interact and work together to achieve results. This can take the form of real-time communication such as conferencing and instant messaging or asynchronous interaction such as portals and team workspaces. Real-time collaboration overcomes the challenges of geographical dispersion. It lets people reach each other instantly and share information in the most suitable way. When real-time collaboration is at play, people are always accessible and information is always available. Employees can share knowledge and streamline workflow processes. Business and supply chain partners can accelerate innovation and reduce time-to-market. Clients can build loyalty through higher quality and more consistent interactions.

ARCHITECTING A COLLABORATION PLAN

When considering a collaboration strategy, the best place to start is by examining how people collaborate in relation to several key drivers. A meaningful collaboration strategy should create better internal interactions for employees and project teams. It should give mobile and remote workers access to more effective tools and timely information. It should collect, manage and control access to information assets so the right information is accessible to as wide and distributed an audience as needed – but no more. In addition, it should improve interactions with customers for improved service and with partners to accelerate innovation and reduce time-to-market.

From an IT perspective, the convergence of voice, video, data communications, and desktop applications into a common environment makes for a much more effective and rich user-centric collaboration experience. Unified communications (UC) brings it all together by integrating new devices and connectivity tools to existing IP-based infrastructures and applications. These tools can include IP telephony, unified instant messaging, audio conferencing, video conferencing, Web conferencing, presence management, email, calendars and directories, and mobile devices. Thanks to UC, users can access and manage all of these tools via a unified interface and make them available on any desktop or mobile device – any where, any time - for an effective collaborative experience.

In order to get the most out of collaboration, companies need to build an effective roadmap – a plan that outlines the journey through the adoption and implementation of collaboration tools and solutions. It is best to start by gaining a fundamental understanding that collaboration is not simply a technical issue, but a business one as well. The key is to understand how collaboration fits within the business priorities and treat it as both a business and technology challenge. Once a roadmap has been defined, organizations can begin to set course on their collaboration journey.

After a course of action has been drawn, it is time to pilot collaboration initiatives. The most efficient and effective way to do that is to begin with higher-need users who can serve as early adopters and evangelists for collaboration with other workers within the enterprise. Pilots also help with adoption of new technology solutions, enabling the organization to work out any outstanding hardware and software issues before a full-scale roll out.

Partnerships are also critical. But remember: it is not enough to source hardware and software expertise. Collaboration can be a complex and challenging initiative, so it is vital to work with industry experts who understand the challenges and can help guide businesses along the journey.

Finally, encourage cultural change by clearly communicating the strategy and its benefits to employees. After all, users must understand the value of collaboration in terms of how it helps them perform their jobs – not in terms of the dollar value to the organization.

WALKING AND TALKING

Bell Carrier Services, the wholesale division of Bell, recently provided collaboration solutions to their employees to help maintain efficient teamwork and communication between teleworkers, in-house employees and management. Employees were able to check a colleague's presence and collaborate instantly. They could work together to tackle problems in real time and even speed up decision-making processes.

The results have been staggering. Ninety per cent of teleworking employees reported they are able to better serve their customers. Ninety-six per cent said they are happier because they have a much better work-life balance, with absenteeism down by 29 per cent. Further, Bell Canada has saved $1.1 million in real estate costs within the first year of implementing the collaboration/telework initiative.

CULTURAL CHANGE

A final word of caution. When approaching the subject of collaboration, many organizations perceive it first and foremost as a technology initiative. However, it's really part IT and part cultural change. Organizations need to slowly introduce collaborative applications to their existing environment in order to help users adjust efficiently to a new way of working and interacting.

“The information workplace is rapidly driving content, collaboration, business processes, and communications together, allowing employees and business partners to act on information more quickly and confidently without the need to shift context,” wrote Rob Koplowitz, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, in his report: It's Not Your Kids' Instant Messaging (April 9, 2007). “This current, ongoing convergence of real-time communications with telephony infrastructure, productivity, and line-of-business applications is a major step toward establishing an infrastructure to support information workplaces. The benefit will be faster, more efficient business processes that not only tackle the structured part of work but also the more collaborative aspects of business processes.”

The collaboration roadmap is an ongoing journey that is developed as business needs change. The key lies in understanding how collaboration fits within the business priorities and treating it as a business challenge first and a technology challenge second.

The ultimate goal is to actually apply the ideas generated by collaboration.

Michel Brisson is the director of Integrated Solutions at Bell Enterprise Group in Montreal.