Preface

Based on the knowledge you have acquired, your new manager of the business consulting company you have been hired for post-graduation job has asked for your: 1) analysis of at least two viable options from products available, 2) justified recommendation, and 3) yearly cost estimate for a tool (or set of tools) the company should acquire to support collaboration of employees (both within the office or from remote locations).

You say: "Great, happy to help! My first question is - what do the employees actually need to do? What capabilities do they need?"

The manager has information for you as the manager has already meet with the employees of the company (15, including the manger) to conduct a basic user requirements elicitation. Essentially, the manager discussed with the employees how they currently collaborate, collected input on some of the current challenges they face, and what they feel they need to better collaborate.

For starters, the employees collaborate on a variety of different project types and project duration. Interestingly, the employees expressed they actually like collaborating with one another, as they enjoy connecting with others to share ideas. They also enjoy, and realize, many benefits of meeting in person. However, scheduling these sessions can be challenging, if not impossible, as employees have varied schedules, and location wise, work about 50% of the time in the office and the other 50% remotely. Further, employees have flexibility to shift their schedules week to week (and employees do not have to tell others about such changes). So, folks currently have no way to know who would be available to meet when. But having a way to know this would be great for teams.

However, they admit while they enjoy meeting face-to-face, it can be inconvenient and counterproductive at times. Given this, they really want to be able to have video meetings. But they noted, while seeing each other improves communication, they do not always need to see other team members. Given this they suggested that the ability to have a voice call as part of the solution would be nice. The more they thought about the way they could communicate; they think the most productive way to communicate (sometimes) would for them to be able to have instantaneous text-based messages - but not text to their phone number as that could adversely impact their work-life balance. These messages would likely be shorter in nature, not memos or letters, should be able to be seen in real-time, and searched later, by the entire team. The employees note that they currently use email for much of this and they hate email for this for so many reasons.

While the topic of email is being bemoaned, the employees note the are currently using email to share files, and this is a pain point (i.e., it does not work well). They said they waste a lot of time time trying to find the latest version of a file, or worse, do work on an old version of a file that someone else has already updated.

Speaking of working together, the employees said they love real-time collaboration with other team members, there are just so many benefits. For one, they love brainstorming, capturing their ideas on paper or a whiteboard in the offices team room. So, they would like a way to brainstorm and capture ideas virtually. But more importantly, they want to make sure they can simultaneously work on written reports, and/or see changes and comments made by others. Sharing screens would also be great. Further, one employee noted, and all the others agreed, being able to track deadlines or tasks, and to track the progress of those amongst the time would be very helpful.

In closing, the manager shares a few other pieces of information with you. First, you can assume the employees have the hardware and connectivity/networking they would need to run all likely solutions. Second, while the employees have sufficient hardware and such, the company does not have an IT person. So, the solution needs to be fairly easy to setup and could be run and maintained by the vendor. Secondly, the solution should be easy for the users to learn how to use, without a lot of training. Finally, while it should not be the driving factor, cost should be considered although the manager has no idea what collaboration tools costs.

Key Points

You are to address the following points.

User Needs Analysis

Identify the specific capabilities the solution should have to meet the employee's needs (i.e., solution criteria)

Identify the weight of each criteria (i.e., how important the solution must have the criteria)

Potential Solutions

Based on your needs analysis:

Identify at least two potential solutions.

A solution can consist of multiple applications.

Provide a brief rationale for why you selected these potential options

Analysis

Based on your needs analysis and potential solutions:

Analyze the potential solutions based on the criteria/needs you have identified.

Recommendation

Based on your needs analysis provide your recommendation.

TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

Based on your specific recommendations, prepare a cost estimate for the recommended solution for the company (3 years).

file:///C:/Users/Mjmil/OneDrive/Desktop/Systems/Collaboration%20Software%20(notes).pdf

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