Operating in real time becomes a reality

A recent IBM study titled "Inside the mid-market: A 2007 perspective" found that nearly 70 percent of midsized companies indicate employee productivity is a top challenge to growth and profitability. Collaboration tools for information sharing and seamless interaction across multiple locations can help provide the boost in productivity these companies seek. And thanks to more options on the market, real-time capabilities have become affordable for smaller organizations.

"Teaming with other organizations makes these organizations as a whole more agile."The new breed of collaboration tools takes on the need for immediacy with technologies that allow the employees, partners and suppliers in a business ecosystem to make each other immediately aware of pressing issues. Collaboration capabilities can range from unified communications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) services, instant messaging and Web conferencing to integrated information delivery tools like portals, intranets and online team rooms particular to specific projects.

To tie everything together so that information is usable and organized, unified collaboration systems ensure that users can find, connect and share information in real time and exchange it through devices ranging from PCs to mobile phones.

These tools also allow more collaboration with partners who are vital for business success. "You really want to include your business partners as part of your extended organization," says IBM's Bower. "More and more, we're seeing companies partnering with other organizations to make certain that they continue to perform in the market with a high rate of effectiveness. Teaming with other organizations makes these organizations as a whole more agile."

Collaboration begins with making information accessible in one place

One midsized company's recent experience in rolling out the latest in collaboration tools illustrates how quickly technology-fueled cooperation can increase overall employee and partner efficiency. When agricultural nutrients specialist Nutra-Flo of Iowa partnered with Genebiotech of South Korea to build a high-tech soy facility in the Midwest, speed and accuracy were required to make the project profitable quickly.

As Nutra-Flo President Erich Lohry recalls, slow response times and version control errors on business-critical documents had a negative impact on the bottom line. "Without a central place to store, exchange and search these critical documents, we risked version control issues and expensive project slowdowns," Lohry says. "Relying on e-mail to communicate with the Asia Pacific region meant a lot of wasted time—they were asleep while we were awake. We needed to increase productivity with a more effective way to work with a dispersed team."

For Nutra-Flo and its overseas partner, tackling version control problems was a critical first step in increasing collaboration capabilities. Specialized document management software now allows users in Iowa and Korea to store common files in one location instead of e-mailing documents back and forth. The result? Team members are less likely to waste time on updating the wrong documents.

Prepackaged cooperation streamlines business processes

Document management, however, was just one aspect of Nutra-Flo’s unified collaboration package. Instant messaging combined with presence awareness now allows teams in Asia and the United States to discuss important matters during the short window of business time for the entire team to communicate in real time.

"Instead of wasting time watching my in-box or leaving a voicemail, I can simply click to see if a team member is present online and then open an instant messaging session to contact," Lohry says. "Plus, team members can carry this capability with them on mobile devices, so they can stay connected with colleagues via instant messaging, even when in the field."

Presence capabilities also allow team members to invite each other to face-to-face Web conferences, which increases collaboration capabilities without increasing costs, Lohry notes. "Web conferencing allows us to stay in touch with partners around the world without being there in person—and owning this capability means we don’t have to rely on an external service."

The new group effort requires little effort to implement

Many of today's collaboration tools require very little in-house management, thanks to prebuilt templates and the ability to be implemented alongside existing systems. Plus, subscription services can also help companies manage these tools without requiring more in-house IT expertise. "Depending on what an organization wants to accomplish with the unified system, it can actually be operational in days or weeks," says Bower.

As far as how quickly employees and partners can get up to speed with the new breed of collaboration tools, Bower says that ease of use characterizes many solutions now available. "These new tools are very easy to use, and they are highly intuitive," she says. "A midsize business really should expect their employees to be operational and proficient in a matter of hours once the tool has been deployed."

But before implementing a collaboration package, Bower suggests that midsized businesses make sure that new tools are capable of addressing specific needs. "Midsized businesses can’t afford a misstep in the market," she says. "So what they’re looking for are secure, reliable and easy-to-use tools."

Considerations about collaboration tools should include:

• Is there a single, customizable interface? "The single interface is very key," says Bower. At Nutra-Flo, the company accesses all of its collaboration capabilities in one location, which allows users to get the most out of the new tools.
• Will the new tools address customer-service matters? A business ecosystem is composed of more than partners and employees. As Bower notes, "In today's world, customers and consumers are absolutely very well informed. We've seen instant messaging has been shown to provide immediate access to experts that can provide answers very rapidly to customers."
• Can the solution provide a history of all past communications? The package selected by Nutra-Flo allows users to search past communications—regardless of whether these interactions took place using instant messaging, Web conferencing or even traditional e-mail. This allows the company to quickly find out why an error may have occurred, while users are able to find all relevant information specific to a particular project.
• Can functions be added after initial implementation? Some businesses may initially need only a few collaboration capabilities. But as time elapses and the company grows, the ability to easily add functions becomes an important cost consideration.
• Is the solution mobile? "When employees really do need to travel, they need to be connected to respond to other clients or demands from their offices," says Bower. And as Nutra-Flo's Lohry notes about his company's new collaboration capabilities, "I can now connect with my team anywhere business takes me."
• Does the solution provide ways to lower the cost of traditional communications? Most collaboration tools available today are IP-based, which can allow midsized businesses to make traditional communications more cost-effective. VoIP, for example, is often included in many collaboration packages.

Bower also suggests that midsized businesses consider how collaboration tools can tap into in-house expertise. "When you have access to experts, then you also have the ability to interact across the business processes," she says. "That can bring product to market more rapidly and with less cost, thereby reducing and lowering risks."