4 Ways to Improve SP Collaboration

8/6/2019 4 Ways to Improve SP Collaboration

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4 ways to improve SharePoint Collaboration

4ways to improveS h a r e P o i n tCo l l abora t ion




co•lab•o•rate




to work, with one another; cooperate




Most organizations are looking for ways to

support collaboration because it brings out the

best ideas and improves the way teams work

together. While collaboration sounds great on

paper, it’s difcult to implement: employees

are scattered in different locations, they access

information via traditional and mobile devices,

and they have different comfort levels withusing technology.

There is no shortage of collaboration tools on

the market today, from email to wikis and other

Enterprise 2.0 tools. Business managers are

often tasked with nding the right platforms

to use, but it can be quite a time-consuming

process to decide on the right tool, install the

platform and train end-users. And, even once

the platforms are determined and end-users

are trained, a lot of their time is still taken up

managing documents.

Case and Point:When collaborating, teams need to get access to the same

information, which is often spread in electronic and paper

documents. Dealing with all of these documents is not productive,

and people severely underestimate how much time this takes.

In a recent webcast, we asked our audience how much time

they spend managing documents. Most participants estimated

that 25% of their time was used for handling documents. This is

consistent with industry analyst ndings that 75% of the time isspent working with documents and email is wasted in searching

and ling. AIIM has found that, on average, respondents spend

more than an hour and a half per day processing their emails,

with one in ve spending three or more hours of their day. i

While there is no silver bullet to productive collaboration, this

eBook walks you through how to overcome 4 critical challenges

that are taking more time than you realize. More importantly, it

provides you with some ideas on how to make your teams more

productive – in a way that makes your teams, your management,

and ultimately, you more successful. It provides examples based

on our experiences with our customers who use SharePoint, but

these factors are relevant regardless of your platform.

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challenge 01: overcoming the challenge of paper documents




The rst step in collaboration is getting all of the necessary documents into a central repository. Microsoft SharePoint has

emerged as a cost effective solution for implementing document libraries and enabling collaboration. Most organizationsalready have SharePoint, and spinning up a portal and populating it with documents is a fairly straightforward task for

the average IT department.

Chances are you have a lot of paper documents that need to be converted to a digital format to truly reap the benets

of a central repository. Traditionally, paper documents have been a bottleneck to document management. That’s

because scanning is typically done in a central location where documents have to be shipped before they are scanned.

Centralized scanning offers efciencies gained with scale, but it can also foster inefciency. For example: automobile

nancing applications are created on paper at car dealerships, and need to be shipped to a central site before they can

be scanned and subsequently processed. This slows down the lending process and adds courier costs; not to mention

potential nes should the applications not be processed in a very tight window of time.

To overcome the paper challenge, we recommend distributed capture. This involves scanning documents at their

point of origin and then managing them through the workflow in a digital format. Mulit-Function Devices (MFD’s) can

typically be found in abundance in today’s ofce environment. You should seek out a solution that enables the average

ofce worker to leverage these devices to scan paper documents directly into the repository without adding additional

software, hardware or facilities costs.

In short, take advantage of distributed capture to streamline your business processes, reduce time and costs, and

foster greater collaboration




challenge 02: finding the right documents




Once all of your documents are in a digital format andin one repository, you may think you are well on your

way to productive collaboration. Not so fast. Next, all

of your users need to nd the information they need.

This may seem like a straightforward task, but it often

takes more time than you think.

There is this belief that simply putting all of this

information into a repository such as SharePoint will

improve collaboration and productivity. However, if

you import your les into SharePoint “as is,” as many

early adopters of SharePoint have done, it’s going to

be very difcult for users to nd the information they

need.

Here’s something you have probably experienced:

You start searching for information, but the right

documents aren’t appearing because there is no rhyme

or reason to how les are named. You’ll see a list of

documents indexed by name, but the le names aren’t

descriptive, so you don’t know what they are.

So, you take to “hunting and pecking,” downloadingand opening documents in the native application to

see if you have unearthed the right le. This method

to search is especially time-consuming if you are

connected remotely, if the document is large or you

need to do this multiple times.

Sure this annoying, but is searching for information

really that much a “productivity killer”? According to

Forrester’s October 2009 Global Enterprise Content

Management Online Survey, improving search was

one of the top three drivers for organizations investing

in ECM.ii

This research is in line with ndings from AIIM in

which reducing time and effort to nd information and

documents is the number two reason respondents said

they would invest in a collaboration tool. In this same

study, 71% agree that it’s easier to locate “knowledge”

on the Web than it is to nd it on internal systems. iii

That’s very telling!




0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Other, please specify

eDiscovery

Version Control

Consolidation of Archives

Cost-effective Automation

Improved Search

Compliance

Content Sharing

Figure 2: Content Sharing, Improved Search, and Compliance Lead ECM Investment Drivers.

“What are the most important drivers for your organization’s investment into ECM?Select up to 3 that apply.”

Source: Forrester’s October 2009 Global Enterprise Content Management Online Surveyii

55706: Source: Forrester Research, Inc. Online Survey

Base: 123 ECM decision-makers who expect their organization deployments or

use of ECM to increase over the next 12 months(up to three responses accepted)




PREVIEW DOCUMENTS BEFORE DOWNLOADING

One of the easiest ways to shorten the time it takes users to

nd the information they need is to use a tool that enables them

to preview documents. This saves a lot of time because users

can see what the documents are before opening or downloading

them. When looking for a document preview tool, nd a solution

which can be used on any device, without the need to installanything. Also, look for a solution that will enable previewing

large documents quickly.

SEARCH ON DOCUMENT PROPERTIES

While it would be fantastic to require that all users use

common naming conventions, this simply isn’t realistic. However,

in lieu of this, it is helpful to be able to search on document

properties. Document properties provide descriptive details about

the document, such as comments, tags and related dates and

people. Of course, this assumes that all documents have updated

properties, which isn’t always the case. But, if you can edit

document properties on the fly, les can be found more easily the

next time.

Make it easier for your users to nd the information they needThere are some simple ways that you can improve your users’ search experience and make them much more productive

This is a screenshot showing Vizit , a SharePointdocument viewer, previewing a PDF document . Athumbnail is placed next to documents so users can

quickly nd the information they need.




TIP:

Images can be made searchablethrough the use of iFilters. Lowcost, third party iFilters canconvert bit maps to text, whichcan then be exposed to searchengines without cosmeticallyaltering the image itself. Thisallows them to be found in asearch even if the document

properties don’t match the searchcriteria

My organization is unlikely to spend anything onthese tools

Fewer cycles on sign-offs

Better Innovation

Support of Green Initiatives

Reduced storage of email attachments

Better relationships with partners and consumers

Fewer mistakes due to wrong versions or incorrecttranscription of changes

Reduced travel costs and time

Faster project delivery

Improved efficiency of documents or proposalcreating process

Reduced time and effort to find information anddocuments

Enhanced teamwork and knowledge sharing

Figure 15: Which three of the following benets would most likely justify a spend on

collaboration tools within your organization? (>10 employees, N=656)

Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0, AIIM 2009iii




challenge 03: maintaining document integrity while sharing ideas




Another key to successful collaboration is having the

ability for multiple users to review and edit a document.

As just discussed, the rst hurdle users face is nding

the right document to edit. And, once everyone is on

the same page, you need to manage a way to capture

and record everyone’s changes.

There are a lot of ways to share changes. According

to an AIIM survey of 656 members, the three most

common collaboration tools are:

- Emailed suggestions and changes

- Marked up paper copies

- Review and track changes in Wordiii

Each of these methods work, but none is especially

productive:

- Email: it takes lot of time for the reviewer to

describe their changes. For the person managing

the revisions, it is time-consuming to make all of

these changes.

- Marked up copies: While making changes directly

to a hard copy may save the reviewer some

time, it is time-consuming to make and distribute

the copies. Of course, the feedback is often not

immediate, especially if all of the reviewers are not

located together. And, it takes time for the person

managing the revision to incorporate all of the

changes.

- Tracked changes in Word: From a time perspective,

this often is the most efcient, but you still need

a central person to compile all changes into onedocument. And, it can be easy to lose track of the

most current version of the document




Regulatory compliance takes many forms, and while document management systems can help, they are not a complete solution.

Ultimately, you need to have the right business practices. One of the easiest ways to maintain regulatory compliance is by keeping

your original documents intact. Instead of having multiple versions of the document, it is best to use a solution that allows users to

annotate the original document. This way, it is easy for multiple users to keep track of recent changes.

Productivity Gain in Action:

It’s easier to manage medical records by supplementing the privacy compliance functions already built into SharePoint. Limitingediting access to sensitive documents enables you to be productive while not running afoul of compliance regulations

Keep original documents in tact

In many elds, such as the medical eld, you can’t change the original documents because you need to stay compliant with regulations

like HIPAA. However, when you have multiple people working on a document, it’s difcult to track comments.




challenge 04: finding tools that all end-users can use




To accommodate all needs, you need to select tools that act as a natural extension of the browser experience, which means there

is nothing to install on the user’s system. According to Forrester, this is very important: ECM decision makes do not want a solution

with a “heavy IT footprint.” v

You also want to use tools that can be deployed on a server that anyone can access via any browser based on user rights.

By selecting tools that are easily accessed and used, not only will more people be using the tool, but the help desk will also be getting

fewer calls.

Select tools that are easy to use

As a business manager, you are well aware that you need to serve people with varying technical skill levels, which can be a real

challenge. Forrester identies four personas who need to access information:

- Michael, a Mobile Professional, who needs to be connected and productive from anywhere;

- Diane, a Deskbound Contributor, who wants you to keep it simple, but powerful;

- Oliver, an Online Practitioner, who’s typically on his feet but needs access on the go; and

- Andie, an Accidental iWorker, who uses computers only because she has to at work.iv

You can probably relate. It’s not easy to implement tools that cover the requirements for all of these types of users. Your goal is tohave users using the tool instead of wasting time trying to install and gure out how it works.




Uses manyapplications

High need formobility

Low need formobility

Uses fewapplications

AndieAccidentaliWorker(35%)

MichaelMobile

Professional(28%)

DianeDeskboundContributor

(24%)

OliverOffline

Enthusiast(13%)

Schadler, T. Harness the Power of Worforce Personas. Retrieved 9 April 2010, from http://blogs.forrester.com/ted_schadler iv




Conclusion




Productive collaboration doesn’t need to be an oxymoron. Platforms like SharePoint provide a fantastic foundation for collaboration,

and there are add-on tools that you can use to take collaboration to the next level. Vizit helps companies be more productive bymaking it much easier for users to nd, share and process information. This not only makes your job easier, but it satises the

requirements of your key constituents:

- Management: By choosing tools that can be used with your existing platform, you can keep costs low. You also minimize training

and supports costs.

- Users: When you use tools that don’t require new desktop software, your users are more independent. They can also do their jobs

more efciently, making you the hero.

To see these productivity tools in action, please visit www.vizit.com

1. Do I scan paper documents at the beginning or end of

the process?

2. Can my scanned documents be searched?

3. Can users easily preview documents when searching

for information, or do they need to download and openthem?

4. Can users search on document properties and quickly

nd the documents they need?

5. Can users add comments and notes to documents while

they are viewing documents?

6. Do all of my users need the same applications to

view shared documents, or does my viewer solve this

problem?7. To help maintain compliance, can users add annotations

to documents without changing the original?

8. How efcient is remote viewing of large documents?

8 QUESTIONS TO ASK TO MAKE COLLABORATION MORE PRODUCTIVE




i. AIIM. AIIM Industry Watch: Email Management: The good, the bad and the ugly. 2009. www.aiim.org/research

ii. Forrester, Global Enerprise Content Management Online Survey, October 2009

iii. AIIM. AIIM Industry Watch: Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0. 2009. www.aiim.org/research

iv. Schadler, T. Harness the Power of Worforce Personas. Retrieved 9 April 2010, from http://blogs.forrester.com/ted_schadler

v. Forrester. The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Content Management Suites, Q4 2009. http://www.forrester.com

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