Nevsun Resources is a mining company with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its biggest project is developing mines in Eritrea, a small country on the east coast of Africa. Using a browser-based, software-as-a-service project management tool, logistics clerks, engineers, and project managers are sharing documents, cost outlines, and project schedules across continents, giving CFO Peter Hardie in North America what he calls a “real-time review” of the project in a fairly remote area of Africa. “The spectrum of people using it is broad, and that’s what we were hoping we would get out of the system,” Hardie says.
The system -- called Unifier, from the vendor Skire -- lets Hardie “bridge the time and distance gaps that exist between the project principals in Vancouver, Eritrea, and South Africa,” he says. It helps Nevsun control costs and track expenditures down to the invoice level.
Nevsun gets a real-time handle on its Eritrean mining operation.
Social networking norms increasingly are creeping into formal project planning and product development tools and processes. And at many companies, the rules, both formal and informal, for how to use those social computing tools often aren’t written down. Nevsun’s system lets people comment and ask questions about a record or specific aspect of the project. But there’s always a way to opt out of the collaboration flow. Asked if he uses the ad hoc communication capability in the Unifier system, Hardie says: “Me, personally? No.” Instead, if he’s reviewing specific costs and has a question, he’ll simply pick up the phone and call somebody.
As almost all business becomes global in nature, and business processes increasingly are managed online, companies continue to push the limits of technology created to manage projects and teams across time zones and geographies. The goal is to communicate more effectively, work more closely with partners, leverage ephemeral information sources, and ultimately get as close as possible to the feel of what’s really going on.
Nevsun’s experience with Skire is just one cross-continent example. In product development, vendors such as Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, and others are plowing Web 2.0 capabilities into their product life-cycle management platforms, adding collaboration and complexity.
Running alongside these formal platforms is the aggressive use of Internet-centric social networking platforms and tools -- wikis, blogs, instant messaging, presence awareness, peer reviews, search -- to foster internal teamwork and tap into wider communities of knowledge. Yet IT teams are wrestling with how these tools function in concert with collaboration technology, such as document management, project management, and product development systems. Are they adjuncts, integral parts, or even replacements for tried-and-true software?
Plenty of CIOs also are wary of the data integration, security, and productivity issues raised by the introduction of social networking technology in the enterprise, especially when tied to a process as critical as developing a new product or completing a project. Yet some have embraced the dynamic nature of social computing and turned it to their advantage.
A few years ago, I started asserting that any Agile projects should have a companion wiki to capture design ideas and decisions so that the information is not lost in the rush and can be used as a "document" on many levels.
Nowadays, I'm actually thinking that the social networking tools can be more effectively used in an intranet environment. My thoughts are as follows:
Wikis for requirements, design, operational support, and general knowledge capture for maintenance and support.
Facebook-like apps for identifying key people and building cohort links to build project teams on the fly.
Twitter-like apps for quick dissemination of information to select groups of people; while IM apps could have the same function, the interface is cleaner and quicker.
Of course, most places will require capturing the information and archiving it for legal and regulatory requirements but that is easy to do in an intranet.
Now the fun part is when we open it up to the Internet at large. Of course, a company has to be careful about what it says there, as well as put some controls on content (relevance to business). But that being said, these can be the next evolution of the bulletin board systems. Consider the following ideas:
Wikis for knowledge bases and for user-supplied solutions, workarounds, and product insights.
Facebook links for community expertise and fan-following of company matters-an interesting set of PR possibilities are possbile here.
Twitter links for quick dissemenation of key information such as new product announcements, bug fixes/new releases, key announcements, etc.
Since these will be public, they will have to make sure no company confidential information is released, like early earnings reports, unathorized new product info, etc. Some training by Legal and HR will probably suffice...that could be computer-based training and be incorporated into the company policy manual. Yeah, necessary blah-blah-blah stuff, but once it is clear what is off-bounds, there is a lot a company can do with it.
We used a wiki at my company for developing and refining requirements for a new enterprise application.I can say that this was the best requirements gathering process I have ever been involved in!
People are still doubting about the effective role social networks can play in enterprises and in project management. This example really shows that social networkings could have a bright future in enterprises. It is just wonderful how a remote and developing area such as Eritrea can benefit from this medium.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Ever since Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) hinted at an online music service similar to iTunes at the Google I/O conference in May, stories have been surfacing about it.
In what now seems like the ancient history of the technology industry, Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder Scott McNealy talked about a future with “application dial tone.” Virtualization and cloud computing are getting us closer to that today, but there are still some major obstacles -- and many of them aren't technical.
The economy for the past several years has been brutal for companies across the board in the US, and the process improvement sector has been hit hard. Thousands of skilled process improvement professionals have found themselves unemployed. This has created several groups within the industry:
Last week, TechCrunch broke a rumor that Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has made a bid for Skype Ltd. Never mind that as recently as Friday, neither Cisco nor Skype would discuss the matter. Not that these noncommittal “official comments” mean much. The rumor was in the breeze, and that set people speculating about what this might mean for both companies.
Getting to Work on Smart Work: How IT Is Transforming the Implementation of the 'Internet of Things' Organizations in all industry sectors are becoming more instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent -- and that's changing the way they approach virtually every facet of their operations. It's up to IT to help organizations adopt a "Three I's" approach that leverages the emerging Internet of Things and enables them to work smarter. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
High on the list of desired improvements from the mobile industry are: shared digital storage for the Internet; phone capability across borders; reduced electro-magnetic radiation; and rewards-based service plans.
Because 25% to 45% of broadband cost is due to sales and marketing, we could reduce our broadband prices by eliminating advertising and promotional spending by providers.
The next edition of one of the greatest English language reference books, the "Oxford English Dictionary," might not be published in paper. Bibliophiles might mourn, but should they?
RIM is giving in to demands by India to snoop on encrypted BlackBerry data. It's time to develop cheap or free encryption software for BlackBerrys and other cellular phones.
Nielsen’s recent numbers on the increasing use of texting bode well for enterprise networks. Shunning the phone in favor of text messaging could mean reducing bandwidth.
Two studios have filed suit against an ad broker for placing ads to help monetize P2P sites suspected of copyright infringement. That's taking a dangerous step toward what might be a worthy goal.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Email This
TWEET THIS
