EFSS- Building a successful content collaboration strategy

Today 50% employees of an enterprise are overwhelmed by content. 70% companies suspect their employees use unsanctioned file sharing methods.

Enterprise File Sync & Sharing (EFSS) is core to any enterprises’ content collaboration strategy.

With the Consumerization of IT and BYOD becoming common at the work place, content sharing with security and compliance is a major challenge. Most of the companies today are haunted by the ‘Dropbox’ problem. Unsanctioned devices and cloud services often put the enterprises at risk.

Limitations of the existing file sharing systems

– Security & Compliance is inadequate. Disgruntled/ rogue users could have copies of sensitive documents on personal devices and use them with vested interests.

– Lack in document collaboration & version control features. There are many versions of the same document present within the systems like email, portals, social media, and other business systems creating lot of chaos & confusion.

– Emails & FTP systems have their own quota limits. Difficult to share large file securely.

– Documents often have lot of meta data (data about documents like when it is created, who owns it, geo-location, track details, speaker notes in presentations etc.) which might not be suitable to be shared outside the company. Existing systems do not keep a tab on metadata and its sharing.

– Customer grade file sharing systems like Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud and Google’s Google Drive (GDrive) lack enterprise features. Can’t address threats caused by users who move data through uncontrolled personal cloud services.

Benefits of EFSS

• Helps in having a single version of truth within a company. Does version control through file synchronization for all users. Checks content overload.
• Reduces physical movement of files. All file access, sharing & syncing happens in a ‘tracked’ environment. Controls data both at rest and in transit. How it is shared and with whom.
• Solves ‘Dropbox’ problem. No unsanctioned devices or cloud storage services are required by employees.
• Removes hidden meta data in documents. So no threat of any sensitive data getting shared with outsiders.
• Encrypted secure transfer for mobile access and initiatives like BYOD.
• Team collaboration and sharing of work using- ‘privileges’, time bound access; conflict resolution. Many people could simultaneously work on same document and any conflict too could be resolved.
• Enables permissions & identity management. Use Active Directory or LDAP for identity management- user authentication & privileged access rights.
• Integrates with existing systems like ECM, WCM etc and becomes the key element of the over all enterprise collaboration strategy.

EFSS could help in having better content collaboration and make the sharing & syncing of files easy, compliant, safe & secure.

Reference Content: Gartner MarketScope for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing Feb 2013

I am all pumped up to share more on how EFSS could change the way we work. Let’s clear the farrago and help the enterprise perform to utmost. Am sure the idea intrigues you too. How about giving me a shout?

Social Project Management- Engaging for success

Only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects- PWC survey on 10640 projects in 200 companies in 30 countries.

Project Management is one of those critical functions which need lot of dedicated efforts across different rungs of the organizational ladder. Success is a function of time and cost and any slip could result in the failure of the project. It’s often surprising that companies follow best practices, use PMBOK^®– A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, have an array of techniques for controlling quality, risk, budget, schedule, and scope,

use techniques like Critical Path Analysis, Planning & Scheduling methods but still projects fail. The reason for project failure could often be attributed to ‘Stakeholders’ disengagement’.

Using Enterprise Social Network, all parameters of project management could be kept in context: Conversations, key deliverables, content/ documents and major milestones. This would help to-

• Collaborate across team (s) to decide on project scope, deadlines and deliverables.
• Delegate tasks and define timelines.
• Coordinate and complete tasks with teams
• Identify issues & solve problems collectively
• Monitor/ Track progress/ and update the tasks to prevent overrun of time & cost. Use analytics, data visualization to get better insight on the project status.

• Less of email ( so less of mess), Fewer project meetings & phone calls
• Ease in locating experts based on skill levels/ on recommendation by others
• Easy onboarding of project members, knowledge sharing & Learning.
• Engage better with teams, partners & customers through vibrant social communities. Use game mechanics for better engagement.
• Content collaboration- Safe, Compliant & secure file sharing & sync (EFSS)
• Enabling Mobility- Project teams have access to project resources on their tabs & Smartphones. Helping in building a mobile workforce which has flexible hours and could freelance.
• Enable innovation through ideation. Crowdsource ideas to get the project done more efficiently.

Social collaboration could help in better project management- reduce cost and time overruns through better engagement, sharing & communication.

I am all pumped up to share more on how Social could change the way we work. Let’s clear the farrago and help the enterprise perform to utmost. Am sure the idea intrigues you too. How about giving me a shout?

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Sanjay Abraham is an ‘Enterprise Solutions Consulting, Product Marketing & Business Development’ professional. He staunchly believes, ‘Digital Transformation’ could radically change the way business is done today and that presently Enterprises get just 43% value from existing technologies. His areas of expertise & interest include Enterprise Collaboration & Mobility, EFSS, Analytics, Enterprise Social- Social Business, Social Intranet, Social Onboarding, Social Communities, Enterprise Innovation Management, Social Product Life Cycle Management PLM, Social Project Management, Gamification & Engagement Loyalty. Sanjay holds a Bachelors in Engineering (Computer Science) and a PG Diploma in Business Management. He has worked with top names in the IT sector like Avaya GCL & Mahindra Satyam.  His client list includes top bracket names across Banking, Insurance, Retail, Telecom, BPO/ITeS, Public Services and other verticals. His contact coordinates are:

Linkedin:in.linkedin.com/in/sanjayabraham. Twitter: @asanjay100 email: abraham@ctprd.com

Driving “People Excellence” through Social Onboarding

Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee– Jack Welch

People are the most valuable asset of any organization. There could be buildings, machines, assets worth millions of dollars but if the right talent is not available, organizations could never scale the pinnacle of success. “Talent shortages” takes priority over “operational execution” reveals a recent survey involving 780 CEOs. Today, any initiative around people excellence is no more a cost item, its survival.

For any enterprise, addressing the people’s issues is of prime importance because it directly impacts its performance and growth. ‘People Excellence’ department is always on a quest to make employee’s performance optimal so that every employee is able to contribute his maximum to the organization. Inspite of such sincere efforts, the culture, practices & technologies used within the organization often hinder performance. Organizations make massive investments in building HR policies & systems but a shouting contrast to it is that the manpower still remains largely untapped.

We could use some ludicrous euphemism- but reality is work still sucks!

IDC estimates that the average worker spends up to 35% of their time just looking for information. 89% of new hires say they don’t have the optimal level of knowledge to do their job. The typical mid-level manager takes 6.2 months before they start to add more value than they have consumed. What a waste!

Initial 45 days are critical for any new Hire. This is when 1/3 of the employee-churn happens. The cost of losing an employee is 3x the annual salary. Traditional onboarding adds lot of chaos to work. The induction program organized for new hires does not add much value. The new hires are bombarded with dozens of PowerPoint presentations in the 3 days program and are then expected to understand all of it and start performing next day onwards. When asked for more information they get numerous email forwards which only fill their inboxes up. When they need experts help, it’s really hard to find any.

If we have the right digital transformation strategy, we could barrel through all employees related problems. A better way of onboarding could be the social way by building strong internal employee communities. The employee could join a group relevant to his role & his interests. The news feeds give him constant updates on the activities taking place on a project, event or topic. Experts are added to the group where they could collaborate with the team, share ideas, best practices and the entire team could be in sync. Views/ comments could be corroborated & fast actions could be taken. Eventually, the load of unwanted emails is eased, there are lesser numbers of meetings, less time wasted and productivity shoots up.

Let’s accept the fact that the days of ‘9 to 5’ jobs are over. Employees today want more flexibility at work. Millennials who use Smartphones & Tablets at work want a more flexible & freelancing work environment. No wonder 60% of them are leaving their companies in less than three years. A recent ‘Millennial Branding’ report also found that 45% of millennials will choose workplace flexibility over pay. It’s a radical shift in priority. So what we see written on the wall is, it should not be just about how much time an employee spends in the office but how much value add he does. Unlike the baby boomers, the millennials don’t mind taking work along on their smart devices. For them there is a thin line between their personal & office lives. In order to ensure longevity of today’s ‘thumb-typing’ workforce its important to make work more engaging,  mobile, increase freelancing & make work hours flexible.

61% of CEOs worldwide say that Innovation is a primary concern within their business according to PWC. Where from these ideas for innovation come? Social could provide a platform for Ideation too where employees could share ideas on policies, projects and other topics of interests. Innovation often comes out of ideas of normal employees NOT always the top bracket. Crowdsourcing of ideas could help a lot in making better policies, products and contribute into over all organization’s growth.

Social Onboarding could improve employee productivity & reduce churn through better collaboration, sharing & communication.

I am all pumped up to share more on how Social onboarding could change the way we work. Let’s clear the farrago and help the employees perform to utmost. Am sure the idea intrigues you too. How about giving me a shout?

sure the idea intrigues you too. How about giving me a shout?

————————————————————————————————————————

Sanjay holds a Bachelors in Engineering (Computer Science) and a PG Diploma in Business Management. He has worked with top names in the IT sector like Avaya GCL & Mahindra Satyam.  His client list includes top bracket names across Banking, Insurance, Retail, Telecom, BPO/ITeS, Public Services and other verticals. His contact coordinates are:

Linkedin:in.linkedin.com/in/sanjayabraham. Twitter: @asanjay100 email: abraham@ctprd.com