Collaborative working
Need: A Pharmaceutical Company needed Team Collaboration tools and underlying working practices defined and implemented throughout the R&D organization to enhance project team effectiveness.
Solution: Drew on extensive experience of coaching teams in the use of collaborative working tools, and of managing projects and change.
Led the joint business / IT team and worked with project team representatives through focus groups to define the collaborative working practices, agree the components and structure of the tools to be used, roll these out, and evaluate the outcomes.
Outcome: 200-300 project teams adopted this way of working during the course of the project and it continued to be deployed as a standard approach beyond the life of the project.
Collaborative working - Client feedback
"I worked with Elisabeth in a couple different capacities [including]...a large programme improving...project team collaboration. Elisabeth has exceptional interpersonal and communication skills. Her follow-through to deliver results is exemplary. She has a very good understanding of team collaboration techniques, information and programme management...."
Director, Programme Management
Transferring processes - cient feedback
“John is very diligent and thorough in how he approaches challenges and problems, being analytical in his thinking and personal style. He researches well, using a variety of techniques and sources, both system and human. John is an excellent ambassador of knowledge working, and has extensive experience of principles, tools and cultural aspects of knowledge management across a number of organisations. He is extremely supportive and is a valued contributor to team and organisational goals.”
OE Expert
Transferring processes
Need: A global manufacturing organisation encountered post start-up problems with some products after internal transfer of manufacture.
Solution: Root cause analysis identified issues related to technical evaluation and knowledge transfer.
A pilot was carried out centring on the creation of a knowledge map using process improvement data collection methods
Knowledge transfer techniques were used to uncover tacit knowledge of the process.
Outcome: The approach was very successful at surfacing and improving process understanding thus providing for effective manufacture at the new location, and was adopted as an integral element of project transfer projects
Open University Information Management Metadata project consultation
Need: The Open University Information Management department had undertaken to establish a metadata policy, which would aim to ensure consistent, quality metadata across the OU community without placing unrealistic demand on staff time.
Solution: RiverRhee was engaged to undertake:
- An audit of current metadata practice and systems, plus comparison against practices in similar external organisations
- A stakeholder workshop/s to explore both user and ‘provider’ perspectives
- A cost benefit analysis in order to establish a pragmatic balance between investment and benefit (this to include workflow analysis and time costings)
Outcome: RiverRhee worked with the internal OU team to project manage and deliver the agreed 3-month plan. This included interviewing and facilitating workshops involving a total of 36 members of OU staff, and carrying out benchmark interviews with commercial publishing companies. The final 19-page report and supporting documents included the outputs from the interviews and workshops, 9 key findings, and 7 key recommendations. The recommendations addressed the development and content of the policy, associated guidelines, the potential implementation strategy, and the information to be collected for a cost benefit analysis.
Open University Information Management Metadata project consultation
"It was useful to have an objective person conducting the interviews. Your work provided a catalyst for this activity which we would not have had time to do ourselves in such a short space of time."
Elizabeth Malett, Library Services Manager (Information Management), The Open University
Defining user requirements for Sharepoint
Need: An international event management company wanted to gain better use of Sharepoint to enhance the sharing of information between teams, departments and business units, to pool resources and learn from ech other, in conjunction with a proposed upgrade to Sharepoint 2010.
Solution: Structured discussions with representatives from the different business divisions were held in order to identify key gaps regarding the sharing of, and access to, personal and organisational knowledge.
A set of User Requirements against the “out of the box” product were drawn up, which if implemented, would provide a technology enabler.
A particular gap of gaining help from experts within the company was identified, and a process was drawn up for development and implemention as an enhancement of SP2010.
Outcome: The User Requirements were accepted as an input to the potential implementation of Sharepoint 2010.
