Isuzu Australia Limited: Implementation of collaborative systems
Mark Lewis
CIS 109
Prof. John Murnane
08/17/14
Isuzu Australia Limited (IAL) [was] responsible for marketing and distributing Isuzu trucks in Australia (Bidgoli, 2014, Pg. 250). The company, however, realized that all of their information was disseminated to the truck dealerships in outdated methods, as it utilized the manual form of delivery consuming an excessive amount of time and monetary resources. The company saw the opportunity to improve information issuance, remove errors, and greatly reduce the amount of resources being redundantly exploited. To assuage the dispute of the needless tapping of resources to continue the manual manner of propagating information, IAL turned to IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Workplace Web content Management, software that provide "enterprise web portals that help companies deliver a highly-personalized, social experience for their customers" through single-point access gates, according to ibm.com. Through the dual content management components, IAL where better able to meet there business partners' needs by a better mode of collaboration with features such as instant-message for concerted decision making, and through the means of information publishing through the use of the portal(s).
IAL has also taken to knowledge management with the use of wiki systems, making collaboration and knowledge-sharing simplistic and faster. Wikis, a web-based 2.0 technology, provided a collaborative atmosphere in which information can be posted and amended as needed for knowledge-sharing internal between employees, and externally between businesses and their stakeholders, according to Clinebell, Thomas and Sedbrook (2012). Wikis are great collaborative tools that making project progression easier with easily mapped networks of experts on business-related subjects, and through knowledge-sharing of best business practices (Clark and Stewart, 2010). Based upon the previous statement of how wikis are used in businesses as a useful web 2.0 technology to share knowledge and collaborate in project efforts, is natural to know that IAL has implemented the wiki for the aforementioned resolution of collaborating with business partners in decision making and sharing knowledge with dealerships and other employees on schemes of distribution and marketing of the IAL brand. However improving of the recent problem of vintage knowledge-sharing and collaborating, there are challenges to having groupware in place with a business, foremost being the operational feasibility. With new implementations there is a need to instruct users of the new groupware systems how to maneuver and effectively utilize the systems. Having a team of trained IT professionals to educate a select few employees on the manner in which to use the system could resolve this issue. The economic feasibility of having this system in place is to be considered, as well. Is it within the company's budget to have a groupware system in place? How much money is being lost not having these systems in place? How big and effective of a system can the company have on the budget allotted for such a project implementation, is to also be considered. To resolve this problem, getting top-tier managers to understand the importance of having a system in place will get them to get on-board with a supporting budget. Creating a system that will turn a profit will make the system more economically feasible. Other issues are the matter of system maintenance and management of the information in the systems.
IAL has taken the correct steps in hurdling over the obstacle of antiquated information sharing and collaboration. The company has implemented update portal content management systems to collaborate and share knowledge internally and externally to make faster and more cost effective exchanges of ideas for distribution and marketing. The possible issues of economical and operational feasibility can be overtaken with the implement of an acknowledge team of users and IT professionals that know the value and worth of having groupware systems in place for better information interactions.
Sources
Bidgoli, H. (2014). MIS 4. Stamford, CT: Cenage Learning.
Clark, T., & Stewart, J. (2010). Using Document Design to Create and Maintain Wikis. Business Communication Quarterly, 73(4), 453-456. doi:10.1177/1080569910385384
Clinebell, S., Thomas, D., & Sedbrook, T. (2012). Helping Student Teams Work Collaboratively through Using Wikis. Journal Of The Academy Of Business Education. Retrieved from http://libdatab.strayer.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=84198867&site=eds-live&scope=site.
IBM. (2014). IBM Collaboration Solutions software. Retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/digital_experience.html.
Isuzu Australia Limited: Implementation of collaborative systems
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