Case Studies For The Use Of Collaboration Software

Yep, it really does work….

We have been working on developing a software application to enhance the collaboration, communication and connection between employees within a company, a type of business social network.  It has been a long road, filled with bumps, hairpin turns and large potholes.  Even though you’re convinced that the software can provide significant value, sometimes if feels like all you’re doing is trying to educate business people that collaboration efforts inside their company is a worthwhile, valuable goal.

At the heart of the application is the ability to connect and share information, to your colleagues, friends or those ready to become a friend or colleague.  But until you see and feel it working, doubt about the application’s viability can creep in.  Fortunately, I had two experiences recently, that showed me, “Yep, it works. It really works”.  Now it doesn’t feel or taste like Kool-Aid.

Last week, we turned off email for all our internal communication in our company .  We had decided to use the RondeVoox application, and after an initial flurry of activity, building our colleague connections, our group list, and playing with other cool stuff, we settled down into a routine. Even though I have fairly large colleague list, most of my communication is with the Chief Technology Officer of our company.  He’s the one who translates to the developers and the developers to me.  On this particular day I was into a rant asking about timelines and features, when I asked him whether a feature I had dreamed up made any sense from a time and resource standpoint.  Normally, we would do all this through email.  I would send him the question he would think about it, pass his comments along to the developers, wait for their response and then send a response back to me with a recommendation.  This time, because the developers were part of our colleagues list, and watching  the discussion, a developer who normally would not have gotten directly involved in the discussion, jumped in with a long and detailed response about why I was crazy to even suggest the idea.  So we had a three way, almost real time, informal discussion going on, with real knowledge being exchanged, and a faster decision made.  (He was right, it wasn’t a good use of our resources).  Just like it was designed to do.  It worked….

The second example involved a company who has a project based work environment.  Everything revolves around projects and the teams who work on them.  The company used Rondevoox to put together groups based on the project.  But additional value was created because employees not directly working on the project, were added to the group so they could keep up with the status, progress and issues associated with the project.  Without having to attend conference calls, or face to face meetings.  As it turns out the project manager was pulled from the project due to performance, and another project manager was able to step into role without missing a beat.  The new project manager had been monitoring the project through RondeVoox and was able to step in with almost no loss of productivity.

So it can work and does work.  Yeah, you have to use it.  Yeah, you have to learn it.  But if it saves you significant time and other resources down the road, wouldn’t it be worth it?