collaboration biz overview

8/4/2019 Collaboration Biz Overview

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Business OverviewStreamline Efficiencies and Improve Productivity with the MicrosoftEnterprise Communication and Collaboration Platform

Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration


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Microsoft Smarter Retailing: Enterprise Collaboration Business Overview

Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration Platform forRetail and HospitalityIts a given that successful collaboration is essential to any well-functioning businessenterprise, and that information technology has become one of its key enablers.Retail and hospitality enterprises are increasingly recognizing the importance of col-laboration within their own organizations and with suppliers and trading partners,as a means of creating efficiencies, empowering employees and gaining a competi-tive advantage.

One of the most effective ways to reap these benefits is to make use of existing assets. Retail andhospitality companies need to leverage their own peoples knowledge base, and they should makeuse of already-deployed IT solutions that have collaborative capabilities embedded within them toshare that knowledge. Technology from Microsoft Corporation helps retail and hospitality opera-

tors accomplish these goals.Achieving collaborations benefits often requires an organization to overcome a range of chal-lenges, and several factors in the retail and hospitality industry intensify those challenges. Some aredue to the data-intensive, real-time, geographically dispersed nature of these organizations. Otherroadblocks are caused by continued use of older communication and collaboration tools, many of which fail to unlock important data located within individuals files and the hard drives of their PCs.This failure prevents crucial informationand best practicesfrom being shared throughout theenterprise, and impedes the collaboration needed to meet fast-changing business needs.

Person-to-person interaction remains a critical collaboration method in many organizations.Typically, employees get the vast majority of their relevant information directly from other people

within the organization, not from corporate bulletins, e-mails or faxes. But current collaborationtools make it difficult for even the most knowledgeable people in an organization to share theirexpertise effectively, due to the fact that the vast majority of pertinent information remains lockedwithin individuals files, either in hard copy format or digitally stored within each persons PC.

Retail and Hospitality Collaboration Challenges

These problems are exacerbated in the retail and hospitality industries, which traditionally have suf-fered from extremely high employee turnover. Retail and hospitality companies cannot rely on anindividuals personal knowledge to perform tasks correctly or make optimal business decisions,because its unlikely that individual will be holding the same job for an extended period.

In addition, many retail and hospitality companies are still managing their businesses with collabo-ration tools available since the mid-1990s. Fax, courier and voicemails are still some of the mostcommon means of communication among store, hotel and restaurant locations. E-mail and portaltechnologies are still in their infant stages as true tools for collaboration and business efficiencies.

To make matters worse, these tools are often poorly used. For example, it is highly common to seee-mail used as a file transfer mechanism: Microsoft has found that, on average, 60 percent of e-mails received by store, restaurant and hotel managers contain attachments. In some cases, all


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signage, forms and other day-to-day business documents are e-mailed to all locations, clogging theorganizations bandwidth and creating duplicate files across the organization.

These older collaboration tools primarily address one-way, top-down communications, which rep-resent just one element of collaboration. For collaboration to be turned into a competitive advan-tage, timely, accurate data needs to flow in multiple directions, being directed to those who needit, when, where and how they can make the best use of it.

Many retail and hospitality companies see overcoming these challenges, and establishing a com-prehensive enterprise collaboration strategy, as a crucial business necessity.

Make Use of Familiar Tools

As retail and hospitality enterprises formulate their collaboration strategies, many are discoveringthe most effective way to gain business benefits: make use of collaboration tools that are alreadyin place, tools the vast majority of their employees are already familiar with. Such solutions createa common currency throughout the enterprise without requiring costly, time-consuming installa-tion, deployment and retraining.

Microsoft understands the importance of communication and collaboration in retail and hospitali-ty, and has formulated a vision for Enterprise Collaboration uniquely suited to these industries. Oneof the most important elements of Microsofts approach is that proven, working solutions are avail-able now, as part of products that are already installed and used on a daily basis in numerous retailand hospitality organizations. These include Microsoft Office (more than 400 million users) andMicrosoft Outlook (more than 115 million mailboxes). In addition, most retail and hospitalityorganizations already make use of Microsoft Active Directory , a backbone of any collaborationportal.

No Need to Wait

Leveraging the Microsoft Office System to deliver collaboration within the context of how peoplework today, Microsofts platform empowers employees to be immediately more productive.Collaboration capabilities are included out of the box in the tools and applications users are alreadyfamiliar with. In addition, Microsofts approach can help developers work more efficiently by usinga design-once, use-often development approach, and can help IT professionals reduce the timeneeded to manage and maintain various applications.

The Microsoft Windows Server and Office System platform has the capacity to support all the com-munication and collaboration efforts a company could require. Yet it can also be implemented side

by side with existing portal systems, preventing a rip and replace strategy. Microsoft technologyis based on open standards that allow companies to leverage current technology investments, so acollaboration and communication infrastructure can be deployed incrementally to meet specificusage scenarios, offering retail and hospitality enterprises the means to grow into their own solu-tion. The platform can be implemented alongside existing portal and communication systems or itcan integrate seamlessly with existing legacy applications.


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Any successful collaboration strategy needs to keep pace with the rapid, unpredictable changesthat are part and parcel of the retail and hospitality industries. Scalability and the flexibility tochange quickly and cost effectively are built into any successful communication and collaboration

platform. The infrastructure of Microsofts collaboration platform is designed to serve the industryscollaboration needs today, and provide retail and hospitality organizations with the means to pre-pare for future innovations.

This paper will provide a number of examples of how Microsofts platform, available today, providessolutions that extend collaboration within retail and hospitality enterprises. Specific informationabout which Microsoft products can most effectively be used to empower employees and achievea strong return on investment will be detailed further through the example scenarios and accom-panying screen captures.

The Enterprise Collaboration Vision

Microsofts vision for Enterprise Collaboration is laid out in two related parts. First is a set of valuesthat guides its technology plans and which are used to evaluate and compare collaborative tools.Second is a set of architectural principles that Microsoft leverages to build products and systemsthat integrate well, can be extended by partners or customers, and are flexible over time.

The following values guide Microsofts Enterprise Collaboration Platform:

Collaboration must be natural and easy.People dont collaborate simply for the sake of collaboratingthey do so to get work done or solveproblems more efficiently. In other words, collaboration has to happen in the context of daily busi-ness, and not as a separate activity. Similarly, business information must be close at hand when usersneed it. For example, when reading an e-mail about a customer, users should have the ability to

click on the customers name in the e-mail, quickly pulling up relevant information from a databaseand allowing the user to locate additional information, ask a question or update the system withnew information. Microsofts vision is for every business application to allow collaboration, and forevery collaborative tool to allow access to business functions.

Collaboration must be secure.Users will collaborate with confidence if they know for sure who they are working with and that theinformation is secure. Microsofts collaboration platform helps to ensure that privacy and audit lev-els are balanced to meet both personal and professional requirements.

Collaboration must extend users reach.The value of collaboration is higher if it is timely. Therefore, Microsofts vision extends to multiple

devices to reach users any time, anywhere and any place across time zones, firewalls and companydirectories.

Collaboration must be practical.Collaborative tools and services must work within existing enterprise environments and not requirerip-and-replace systems. New functions must deliver significant new value to justify their adoption,and must build bridges to pre-existing systems no matter who the technology vendor is.


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The following architectural principles drive Microsofts Enterprise Collaboration Platform:

Services-BasedMicrosoft builds and sells products as operating systems and applications, but collaboration mustbe exposed wherever possible, as services accessible from any application. For example, MicrosoftOffice Live Communications Server 2005 and Windows Messenger together provide instant mes-saging, application sharing and person-to-person videoconferencing, but the presence services (aswell as others) are exposed via standards-based protocols and data formats.

IntegratedThe service orientation of Microsofts collaboration platform must support broad and deep inte-gration into its product line as well as that of its partners. For example, Microsoft Office providesdirect support for setting up and accessing shared team workspaces via Windows SharePoint

Services.

ExtensibleThe value of a service orientation is that services can be exploited and extended, even replaced. Thisprovides a platform for value-added development of applications and services that build on orextend the base. Microsoft .NET, the programming model for building XML Web services and appli-cations, is already a pervasive platform, and as increasing numbers of partners build on the .NETplatform it becomes even more extensible.

Pervasive Use of Core ServicesCore services such as rights management, directory services and security are central to every aspectof collaboration. However, they shouldnt intrude on a users experience by repeated challenges or,even worse, prevent access unnecessarily. All of Microsofts applications use these services, and itspartner certification program ensures that the vast majority of all Windows-based applications use

them also, creating common user experiences that extend efficiencies further throughout the enter-prise.

An Extensible, Integrated ToolkitApplication developers integrate collaborative services into their business applications, and theyneed appropriate user tools (various languages, scripts and visual interfaces) to do the job.Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 offers a highly productive environment in which to develop abroad range of Microsoft .NET-connected applications and technologies, and provides developerswith powerful tools for designing, building, testing and deploying Web services and applications.


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Communication and Collaboration Business Scenarios

Although each companys business needs are unique, there are common challenges that virtually

all retail and hospitality companies must deal with. The following section will explore some com-mon communication and collaboration scenarios, providing specific examples of ways theMicrosoft Enterprise Collaboration Platform, along with solutions from partner technology compa-nies, can be used to meet those challenges.

The common scenarios for retail/hospitality collaboration fall into five main categories:

Access to Relevant Information

Data Collection, Reporting and Management

Business Process Efficiencies

Communication Standards

Empowering Person-to-Person Knowledge Sharing

Access to Relevant InformationThis scenario covers how companies give employees in their respective stores, restaurants or hotelsaccess to the right communication and collaboration tools, meaning information that is relevant tothe employee and helps them do their job better. Most companies today overload employees withinformation, repeating communication through multiple vehicles (e-mail, voicemail and fax) due toan antiquated communication infrastructure.

Microsofts solution uses a role-based information SharePoint portal that enables specific views of

information relevant to a particular users role.Among the pain areas in retail and hospitality are the disparate systems for managing employeeidentities amid the sheer number and high turnover of employees.

For storing and managing user information and roles, Microsoft Active Directory is a strong solu-tion, especially when it is deployed across an entire organization. There are numerous business ben-efits to having a centralized place to store user information and profiles. An Active Directoryaccount for all employees allows them to use their credentials to log in to any device and takeadvantage of the collaboration platform.

Microsofts portal technology, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and the entire com-munication and collaboration platform, integrate seamlessly with Active Directory. SharePoint

Portal Server performs Active Directory crawls to capture user profiles, which allows for the creationof roles, groups and audiences. Thus, Active Directory becomes the enabling technology for allaccess to relevant information scenarios.


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Example: Roles-Based Portals

With the flood of information people deal with every day, identifying and delivering information

that is relevant to a particular user or group is a serious challenge. Once a retail or hospitality com-panys employees are set up in Active Directory and have been imported in SharePoint Portal Server,the company can start building Roles-Based Portals. SharePoint Portal Server provides a windowinto a variety of applications, putting data, information and knowledge into a single dashboarddelivering everything users need to do their work.

The components making up the content within a SharePoint Portal are called Web Parts. Theseintelligent Web Parts, either custom developed or delivered out of the box, give users access toinformation or applications that are relevant to their needs. Companies can configure Web Parts todeliver appropriate information, news and applications to employees based on who they are andwhat they doroles that can be imported from Active Directory. Users can log in and see person-alized information based on their job role, the department they work in and their geographicallocation, and ultimately get access to information that is relevant for their role.

The Roles-Based Portal enables access to personalized views of information and a way to targetinformation to specific roles or audiences. For example, a district manager can have a personalizedportal with Microsoft SharePoint Portal that allows him or her to get instant access to news andinformation on sales trends, updates on production statistics and inventory levels and alerts on keyperformance indicators. The IT team can create a common view or dashboard template for all dis-trict managers, with corporate managing which Web Parts are available while each user modifieshow many are displayed and the layout.

SharePoint Portal Server delivers out-of-the-box functionality to streamline information to the rightpeople.

Below is a screen shot from a Roles-Based SharePoint Portal. In this example the user role is an exec-utive and the dashboard view is customized to the executives preferences, pulling the executiveslocation, role and reporting clearance from Active Directory:


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Data Collection, Reporting and ManagementThis scenario encompasses the massive amount of information retail and hospitality organizationsreport on, collect and manage. Most organizations have business intelligence portals and useful

reporting in place today. However, their means of data collection and of tying this data into reportsis a cumbersome and repetitive process, often requiring dual entry of information by employees.Often, reports are not actionable or dont give insight into the informations meaning.

Microsofts solution is a streamlined process for centralized data collection, reporting and manage-ment, resulting in fewer but more actionable reports, with drill-down capabilities to support thosewho require more information.

Many retail and hospitality organizations depend upon large quantities of data needed to run theirbusinesses effectively, from tracking customer orders to gauging employee satisfaction. Althoughcollecting this information is often critical, in many cases business processes have not evolved tocapture and process it. Practices vary from completely manual, paper-based systems to semiauto-

mated steps involving stand-alone desktop applications, e-mail or redundant data entry practicesdependent on reliable human follow-through.

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 is designed to improve and centralize the process of gatheringinformation using rich, dynamic electronic forms. InfoPath, which retail and hospitality organiza-tions are beginning to adopt for their data collection, reporting and management needs, enablesemployees, partners and vendors to update, access and share information more effectively.

When retail and hospitality organizations gather information efficiently in rich, dynamic forms, theycan more effectively share, reuse and repurpose the information throughout the company, decreas-ing the number of information requests to stores, restaurants and hotels. InfoPath forms improvecollaboration and decision-making to positively impact business operations.


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Business Process EfficienciesAutomating existing manual processes and eliminating redundancies is the most straightforwardway to increase productivity. Business processes need to be efficient and comprehensive, but at the

same time easy to complete in a timely fashion, with reporting so that it is known when locationsor employees have complied and the process is complete.

Microsofts solution separates different processes with concise beginnings and ends, so that eachcan be managed within a digital workspace, providing tracking and reporting as tasks are accom-plished until the process is complete.

Microsoft provides products and solutions to enable organizations to automate previously ineffi-cient and inaccurate processes. The Microsoft collaboration solution streamlines the way peoplecollaborate by connecting users via familiar front-end productivity tools to backend systems andprocesses. Many of the business processes used in retail and hospitality organizations today includefilling in a Microsoft Word or Excel document, reviewing an e-mail form, or printing, completing

and faxing an Office file. Streamlining the process within the Microsoft Office application by pro-viding the collaboration capability right from the file is an important advantage offered by theMicrosoft platform.

Retail and hospitality companies are often frustrated by the numerous manual steps needed tocomplete a simple task, and also by the lack of insight into which locations have completed the taskversus those that need a reminder. An example of a common business process that Microsoft col-laboration can improve is the Product Recall process.


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Example: Streamlining the Product Recall Process

Today, a retailer or foodservice operator is notified by the manufacturer of the product defect, and

must pull all existing items from the stores and distribution centers. Notifications are e-mailed tostore managers and distribution managers, with the responsibility given to them to comply. Thestore manager must look up in the inventory system how many of the recalled products are instock; then, he or she directs a store associate to locate and pull the product. Sometimes it must besent back to the manufacturer, other times it is destroyed.

The store manager must process the loss of inventory, usually opening up a spreadsheet and charg-ing the goods to a specific code. Sometimes, there is also a need to contact customers who havepurchased the product, for customer satisfaction and safety reasons.

Few retailers or foodservice operators are satisfied with their current systems for this process. Andmost important, there is a lack of tracking and reporting within this process, so that retailers and

foodservice operations do not know which stores or restaurants have complied, nor can they trackwhat percentage of the entire recall process each store has completed.

As retail and hospitality companies determine which elements of the recall process need to be trackedto ensure compliance, Microsoft can help them build a solution based on InfoPath that meets thosebusiness needs. These tools can help headquarters monitor how processes are actually implementedat the store, restaurant or hotel level, and how this compares with established procedures.

Eventually, as collaboration spreads across companies and between businesses, it may be possibleto have a product recall process that goes directly from the manufacturer, through the retailer orfoodservice operator, to the end customers without delay.

Communication Standards

This scenario deals with making it easier for companies to communicate important initiatives toemployees by creating communication standards. Employees often feel bombarded by the sheer


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volume of official corporate communications, so they rely on other people in the organization tolearn what information is truly relevant. But the high turnover thats typical in the retail and hospi-tality industries creates a real need for a standard, expected communication format for important

and relevant information.

Consolidating communications so that an employee knows where to expect information from, andwhere to go to get the right information, becomes the key to increasing productivity and estab-lishing a trusted relationship with employees.

Example: Online Webconferencing

One of the challenges for retail and hospitality companies, which are typically spread out geo-graphically, is to have people from different parts of the organization come together for meetings.These can be regularly scheduled meetings such as monthly district manager conferences, or spe-cial events such as new product launches that require headquarters to provide store or restaurant

managers with the necessary information about the item.

The extensive information requirements of the retail and hospitality industries create a need forcommunication standards around meetings. Users need to be able to initiate and manage or par-ticipate in meetings in the most efficient way possible, to save travel costs and expenses.

Microsoft offers a powerful tool to allow users to run and participate in meetings. Microsoft OfficeLive Meeting is Microsofts flagship Webconferencing service, providing a single solution to addressmeeting needs across an enterprise. Live Meeting users can run and participate in interactive meet-ings around the world with remote teams, prospects, customers, partners, colleagues and globalaudiences, in real time and at a moments notice. All an attendee or presenter requires is a PC, anInternet connection and a telephone.

TrackAttendanceand meetingInformation

Task paneto get youstarted

Import apresentationdocument orshare yourdesktop

Live Questionand Answerarea


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Live Meeting offers strong performance for all types of Web-based communications, from large-scale meetings with thousands of attendees to small collaborative meetings, presentations and e-learning sessions. It is available worldwide as an externally hosted service.

Live Meetings intuitive interface enables anyone to train, present, demonstrate or collaborate withvirtually anyone, any time and anywhere. Close integration of Live Meeting, Outlook and MicrosoftOffice PowerPoint makes setting up meetings and giving virtual presentations extremely easy. Inaddition, Live Meeting allows users to share desktop applications as well as specific Word docu-ments and Excel spreadsheets, enhancing collaboration by further extending the Microsoft OfficeSystem.

Empowering Person-to-Person Knowledge SharingBecause people feel that the most relevant information source is another person in the organiza-tion, this scenario focuses on getting the right people connected and aligned more quickly.Connected people can share best practices and be more efficient with customers and partners.

Microsoft believes that connecting people must be easy to do and happen within the context of the way people work to truly empower knowledge sharing. Microsofts solution includes presenceawareness, which is the ability to detect another users availability on one or more devices, such asthose supporting voice, e-mail, instant messaging and video conferencing. Presence awarenessmeans that within a users daily activities, connecting with people is just a touch away.

In the retail and hospitality industries, the ability to connect people to one another to share ideasand make better decisions is highly strategic in becoming an agile business. In many cases, the realknow-how in the stores, restaurants and hotels is with the employees who are running the day-to-day business. These employees need to be empowered to share their knowledge with others, tomake the business run smoother and to save the company money and time.

A common collaboration practice is a virtual decision-making team solving a specific problem, typ-ically called a Virtual War Room.


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Example: Virtual War Room

This is an environment where employees and key members can gather to deal with a high-impor-

tance situation. This war room will have all the necessary tools for the members to deal with theissue, no matter where the employees are located. Once the issue has occurred, a project leader canset up a Virtual War Room team site, inviting appropriate members to this site as a means to pro-vide access to the Virtual War Room.

To preserve and pass on best practices, templates for Virtual War Room sessions can be developedand implemented. Templates would have various components, such as coming up with action items,figuring out the business impact of the situation and having a plan to mitigate the risks, depend-ing on the decision at hand and how the team chooses to deal with the issue.

More Usage, More ValueRetail and hospitality enterprises that are assessing their communication and collaboration strate-gies should keep in mind the value of providing tools and solutions that people at all levels of theorganization will actually use. Collaborations value is severely diminished if people continue to useoutdated methods to communicate important information, and this can compromise business effi-ciency due to the need to maintain multiple communication methods.

At the same time, successful organizations must balance the need for consistency with the differ-ent business needs that exist in large, geographically dispersed companies. With the amount of cor-porate consolidation in the retail and hospitality fields, many existing companies are made up of formerly discrete enterprises, each with its own history and working methods, making a strong col-laboration strategy critical to a business success.


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A Comprehensive Approach to Communication and Collaboration

The Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration Platform can help retail and hospitality companies balance

these conflicting pressures, in large part because many of its key tools, such as Active Directory, arealready available through Microsoft and partner company products that have a large installed basein this industry. By building out from familiar systems that are already in use throughout numerousenterprises, retail and hospitality companies can create consistency while ensuring that the largestpossible number of people will take advantage of these solutions benefits.

In addition to the overriding valuethat these collaboration tools are available now, in many casesout of the box with available productsMicrosofts platform offers a number of other major ben-efits that are key competitive differentiators in todays marketplace:

Information is available not only through familiar devices but also in real time, and is provided toemployees, associates, managers and executives throughout the organization when, where and

how they need it. Microsofts platform creates a number of operational efficiencies. For example, its use of job-spe-cific dashboards and role-based portals filters the torrent of information that managers and exec-utives must deal with daily, providing them with the data thats most relevant to their specific roleand interests. With exception-based reporting and alerts built in, these managers can focus on staff management and customer service improvements instead of having to wade through voluminousreports and spreadsheets.

In terms of IT architecture and organization bandwidth, more centralized communication vehicles(such as the Virtual War Room) allow a retail or hospitality company to cut down on multiplee-mail, fax and voicemail messages while still ensuring that vital information has reached the appro-priate people.

Because the Microsoft communication and collaboration platform can be implemented alongsideexisting portal and communication systems, retail and hospitality companies can seamlessly inte-grate it with existing applications. By not requiring a rip-and-replace implementation, Microsofthelps these companies leverage their technology investment while still taking advantage of newer,more up-to-date functionality.

The platforms overall scalability and basis in open standards give retail and hospitality companiesthe maximum amount of flexibility to adapt and change as business requirements shift. Frommobile devices to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), these industries are still at the infant stagesof how pervasive collaboration will change the way people connect to one another and informa-tion when and where they need to.

All this is in line with Smarter Operations, a key element of Microsofts vision for the retail and hos-pitality industries. Smarter Operations is focused on increasing employee productivity and creatingnew efficiencieskey steps toward helping companies drive costs out of their organizations, reactmore quickly to market conditions and maximize the value of new business opportunities.


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Microsoft is committed to helping retail and hospitality enterprises realize the benefits of technol-ogy that enables them to grow their businesses and become more agile organizations. TheMicrosoft communication and collaboration platform empowers employees throughout the enter-

prise to connect with the people and information they need to do their job, providing them withthe ability to respond in real time to business needs and opportunities, and connecting people topeople, and people to information, when and where they want it and can make the best use of it.

Microsofts Enterprise Collaboration Platform provides answers to pressing challenges today, withtools and solutions that are already deployed, and already familiar, to the people who will use them.Collaboration is built into all of Microsofts most current products, so although the platform isdesigned to work side by side with existing collaboration solutions, it has the scalability and flexi-bility to meet collaboration requirements throughout a retail or hospitality enterprise for manyyears to come. Retail and hospitality organizations seeking a collaboration and communicationsolution that can grow and adapt to their specific business needsone with the capacity to

enhance collaboration within the enterprise and beyond it to suppliers and trading partnersneedlook no further than Microsoft.

For more information about Microsoft collaboration solutions visit

http://www.microsoft.com/collaboration.


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To learn more: www.microsoft.com/collaboration

Microsoft Smarter RetailingEnabling the next generation of retail innovation

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