Solving the Productivity Problem

Fifteen to twenty years ago, most organizations battled daily with the ongoing task of integrating disparate systems and data to provide end users with a federated (complete) view across all of them. Since these heady days of information technology, tools that manage and automate content collaboration and social interactions are becoming more integrated and seamless within the workplace, and their rich features are being included within both enterprise applications (on premises) and cloud-based solutions. The enterprise platforms we use at work (CRM, ERP, HR and finance platforms, etc) are increasingly looking at not just solving core workloads, but in ensuring productivity when moving *between* workloads.

As a result, the focus of IT has largely shifted to what I call "integration through social extension" in which the social and collaborative tools we use act as a "social fabric" across these disparate systems. The result is that I don't *need* to go through the time and expense of integrating most of my systems on the back-end when my end users can integrate their activities across tools on the front-end, using cloud-based forms, workflows, and communication tools to gain a federated view of their customers and their data.

The underlying problem, however, is management of productivity. For many organizations, the wealth of technology options have not improved upon this fundamental collaboration problem.

How productive are your end users? We all have an idea running through our minds about what productivity means, and whether or not we think our organizations are good at getting the most out of our people. I'm not talking about the strengths or weaknesses of any single individual around time management or effectiveness in their roles (although that is certainly important) but at whether the platforms we use to get our work accomplished are designed and managed in a way that unleashes productivity, in general. There is a definite ROI in improving productivity: faster employee onboarding and training, more business output, more usage of the platform (whether it be SharePoint or other system, like Salesforce), and of course, faster realization of the financial investments you've made in the platform.

As you look at your organizations and identify the areas which have the greatest need for productivity improvements, are you able to identify the discreet workloads that could be improved? For example, are you optimized for search? At the core of any collaborative platform is the need to catalog and then, at some point in the future, locate the content and data within your platform. Whether building a product catalog, or a self-service support platform, or maybe even an overall knowledge management platform, make sure your plans should include a detailed search strategy.

A key component of your search strategy is how you will handle metadata and taxonomy. This is a huge, and sticky, mess for most organizations. There are people who get doctorates on the topic. Your focus should be on understanding the kinds of content/data/artifacts within your system, and automating -- as best you can -- this identification and the assignment of metadata. There are two aspects of search: improving searchability (optimizing the experience for how people search within your platform) and findability (optimizing for the artifact, so that it can be better located). You need to have a strategy for both.

And then there is social with all of its many definitions and permutations. This has become a critical piece of every organization's productivity planning. If you don't have a plan, people will use the commercially available tools in an effort to improve collaboration with their peers and customers, which may not be secure, compliant, or scalable for your business. Look at how your end users are working, and find a way to build your enterprise platform to match their work patterns. Of course, keep in mind your organizational constraints around security, storage, compliance, and reporting, as improved social communication does not have to come at the cost of these corporate governance requirements.

And finally, central to any productivity strategy is your change management process. Make it crystal clear to your end users the priority, expected delivery, and ongoing status of their feature and solution requests. No platform is ever static -- people will need modifications, customizations. Have a process defined and in place to capture their feedback and requests. Make it transparent, as the more you involve people in the process, the more likely they are to accept the end results.

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