News Archive
10 Aug 2010
"Submarine wikis": a type of ticking time bomb...
Pressures of work and time, the need for fast and simple coordination, the desire for clear versioning and user-friendly collaboration - these are all points in favour of wiki systems in the corporate environment. Many companies are aware of this and have already introduced appropriate solutions (such as Confluence Wiki); others are seriously thinking about it. And then there are those who give greater priority to other IT tasks and projects for the time being. But in the meantime, some departments, divisions or project teams might be introducing their own "wildly burgeoning" wikis on the sly. Thus, quiet time bombs are created, full of company-related data, enriched with valuable corporate knowledge and important information. And the whole thing is usually not organised, not moderated, untrammelled by any "governance" and often not even subject to professional data security measures. If you are lucky, these bombs are duds. It would be better, though, if you could "defuse" such "submarine wikis" before they even take off. HLP has recognised the associated problems and provides pertinent information by way of workshops, webinars and personal consultations.
When Thorsten Heid, managing partner of IT solution provider HLP, contemplates wikis, he is sure about one thing: "By the end of 2011, there will be wikis in use at every company, one way or another. The question is: does the IT department actually know about it?" A heretical statement. But reality supports the thoughts of the wiki specialist and Confluence partner. Because more and more departments, divisions, project teams or other interest groups within an organisation act at their own initiative and conspire to introduce so-called submarine wikis willy-nilly in secret. "That is surely not desirable, nor is it proper," says Heid. The collaboration specialist does, however, have some sympathy with the emergence of these "submarine wikis": "These days, employees are subject to stronger pressures at work than a few years ago. Workloads have increased, projects are being realised faster, a lot of work is generally split between fewer people. In this situation, the individual employee looks for creative and modern solutions that allow fast and unstructured collaboration. Already familiar from the private sphere and appealing by their ease of use, wiki solutions seem the obvious remedy. If there is no corporate strategy to introduce a wiki platform at company level, people quite often act on their own initiative and without consulting the IT department. Open-source wikis represent a convenient solution, which you can install quickly "under the radar". This is how uncontrolled submarine wikis come into existence in an organisation."
Burgeoning landscapes without gardeners
A submarine wiki in itself is undesirable and not what IT strategists like to see. Just think of the lack of data security, lack of governance and the expense for subsequent migration. But the dilemma is multiplied when every department does its own thing and plays around with wiki solutions of its own. The result is unthinkable: a wildly burgeoning landscape, which is not only heterogeneous but simply chaotic. Corporate information "flying around" electronically in the most unorganised and decentralised manner. Corporate information, which is bundled at a local level, yet not available centrally. No "carer", who is in charge of looking after the structures within the wiki and of ensuring clarity.
In short: danger of crashing, of losing data, of losing knowledge, chaos - all the red lights should now be coming on. If only someone knew about this deplorable situation.
Defusing time bombs sensibly
Those who don't want any submarine wikis in their organisation should be proactive. The solution to the problem is actually simple: introduction of a central platform for corporate wikis, supported by the IT department. If you want to do it right and make sure all the potential "submarine captains" come on board, it is advisable to have an initial concept development phase to determine the requirements and wishes of the different operating departments.
Thorsten Heid knows the problems from practice: "In the case of wiki projects, making hasty decisions often results in dissatisfaction in practical operation. Those who don't take care to consider the requirements of their employees and to actually support them in their work through the new wiki must expect resistance to the new corporate wiki and therefore ultimately failure of the project. Our customers use the intensive concept development phase to take account of their employees' wishes in as much detail as possible and to benefit from the experiences made by other companies."
A corporate wiki based on Confluence Wiki, for instance, possibly embedded into the SAP NetWeaver portal, offers unimagined opportunities for virtually all sections of an organisation and all working requirements. It helps support the collaborative day-to-day business as well as strategic working in projects.
Calm waters without submarines
Conclusion: IT strategists will have to act in the near future, one way or another. Being proactive is far simpler and also ensures far more efficient control. Thorsten Heid's recommendation: "You are better off introducing an official, professional wiki that satisfies your employees than having to defuse many ticking time bombs in "submarine wikis". Keep an eye on everything and make sure you hold the reins." The right service provider will support you both in the concept development phase and with the successful technical implementation as well as the subsequent organisational introduction and support phase. Properly introduced wikis with "gardeners" to maintain the wiki landscape ultimately ensure a high level of employee satisfaction. This is because everything is done to facilitate good, fast, efficient and generally successful working.
Information about this topic is available from the specialists at HLP by contacting them at www.hlp.de/kontakt.
About HLP:
HLP has been committed to the optimisation of business processes through IT solutions in the service of its customers for over a decade. Using innovative HLP products from the areas of improvement, information and knowledge management, our customers increase the quality of their processes to enhance productivity and realise appreciable savings potentials overall.
The solutions offered in the area of improvement management are complemented to good effect by SAP NetWeaver consultancy services. Within holistic projects, we identify optimisation potential in your business processes and create new, flexible solutions on the basis of the NetWeaver platform. Important key terms in this context are "Web 2.0", "Business Management, "Enterprise Social Network". The existing investments in your SAP landscape will be maintained - your employees will benefit from up-to-date strategies and technologies while enjoying simple, intuitive user interfaces within the environment of a corporate portal.
29 Apr 2010
Eschborn-based IT solutions provider HLP gets top marks in customer survey
HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH, a longstanding IT service and solutions provider in the area of SAP NetWeaver and improvement management, gets top marks in a customer survey. The combination of human expertise and professional competence as well as consultancy services within a project environment was particularly impressive.
True to the motto "If the customers are impressed, then it's a good idea", Eschborn-based HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH, was open to praise and criticism during recent weeks as part of their own customer survey. Every company with which the IT solutions provider had previously carried out projects of all different types and sizes was contacted. Of all the customers approached, every third responded to the survey - often with two or more employees replying.
When it came to "satisfaction with HLP", the experts at HLP got top marks for human competence (1.62), closely followed by technical expertise (1.65) and consultancy services within a project environment (1.89).
Thorsten Heid, Managing Director of HLP commented: 'HLP's "human competence combined with technical know-how" is obviously of great importance to HLP customers. In this context, the question "What do you like most about HLP" repeatedly awarded great praise to the HLP team for this field. Also, the "high commitment" and the acknowledgement by name of individual HLP staff members were highlighted, just like the "extremely amazing team". It goes without saying that this is a special result for everyone at HLP.'
Apart from praise, the IT service provider has also deliberately faced the question "What could HLP improve?" in order to take on board ideas, improvement suggestions but also criticism from customers. A few customers have taken advantage of this opportunity and have spoken fairly and honestly on this subject - even and especially if something didn't go as planned. Thorsten Heid explains: 'This has been an excellent opportunity for us to address the points raised immediately. The result was very positive and encouraging for us. This is how we imagine a constructive and fruitful cooperation with our customers.'
Would a company recommend HLP without reservations?
If one assumes that, according to a representative survey in 2009 (see survey), approx. 68 % of all IT projects fail or die a premature death (25 %) in the German economy, one can only guess at the average satisfaction score that companies give their IT service providers.
Therefore, the outcome of the HLP customer survey should push up the German trend. After all, 95 % of all those questioned would recommend the company without reservations. 'This shows a high degree of satisfaction with the outcome of the project work and our solutions but also a high degree of satisfaction with human interaction. This is something we experience on a daily basis whilst working directly with our customers - and now also as a result of this survey,' says Heid, clearly pleased with the results.
Further information regarding HLP can be found at www.hlp.de
28 Oct 2009
Stihl-Group decides for HLP's Business Package für Confluence Wiki.
16 Mar 2009
Endress+Hauser introduces an Enterprise Wiki based on Business Packages for Confluence Wiki in the SAP NetWeaver-based employee portal.
4 Dec 2009
New version of Business Package for Confluence supports Confluence 3.01 and native SAP UME interface
By now the new version of Business Package for Confluence Wiki is launched!
Confluence users enjoy the support of version 3.01 of Confluence integrated in a SAP NetWeaver Portal environment.
Another high light of the new version is the possibility to connect the user- and group-management of Confluence directly against SAP Portal's User Management Engine (UME). This allows e.g. to use a SAP ERP system as user store for Confluence.
22 Sep 2008
SAP Limits Collaboration to Integration of Business Processes - Greater Freedom for SAP Partners such as HLP
Collaboration, the distributed, web-based cooperation between people, is currently widely discussed among corporations and medium-sized enterprises. SAP AG has now announced further details about its future collaboration strategy in a corporate blog. In June 2008, SAP Product Management had already declared a strategic distinction based on the structural degree of collaboration scenarios. As a result, SAP will focus only on collaboration to the extent that it can be integrated with typical SAP business processes, leaving other scenarios to third-party suppliers and partners and their successful innovative, market-leading solutions.
10 Jun 2008
"Collaboration" in SAP NetWeaver Portal
On June 5, around 100 interested visitors attended a one-day meeting of the "Portals" working group of DSAG (the German SAP User Group) in Ratingen, Germany, to learn about and discuss collaboration, the web-based cooperation between employees.
In the first session, HLP managing director Thorsten Heid presented what is currently the only seamlessly integrated wiki-based collaboration solution in SAP NetWeaver Portal: the Business Package for Confluence Wiki. The Package which was developed by HLP and certified by SAP AG integrates the world's leading enterprise wiki solution "Confluence" of the Australian supplier Atlassian. Demonstrated use cases included competitor wikis, knowledge management and collaboration in projects and meetings.
Strategy and Road Map of SAP
In the afternoon, Dr. Alexander Mädche, Vice President SAP NetWeaver Product Management User Interaction of SAP AG, presented the future strategy and road map in the collaboration sector which is pivotal to SAP. While the collaboration between teams is well served by existing suppliers and solutions, SAP focuses on the integration of business processes with unstructured content and collaboration functionality. A purchasing process was mentioned as an example where collaboration begins based on unstructured contents. In the future, SAP intends to supply turnkey Collaborative Edge Applications for defined business processes. Such solutions have been announced for EhP2 of SAP NetWeaver 7.1. for global availability in late 2009.
Slim Collaboration Solution Announced for this Summer
According to SAP, the company is not aiming to develop a competitive, fully featured solution for standalone team collaboration (team realms, project realms, wikis) as competitors offer it. The previously announced new solution "SAP Collaboration Portal" will be shipped starting in July 2008 as an add-on to SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0 as a slim Java application without wiki functionality. This solution offer customers a basic version for virtual collaboration, including document sharing and a new AJAX-based user interface. It is, however, not intended to integrate with the existing portal solution "Collaboration Rooms".
The next major release of the portal software SAP NetWeaver 7.1 is scheduled to include expanded collaboration functionality. The release has been announced for late 2009. Details are currently being discussed by SAP's product management.
8 Jan 2008
Weidmüller Interface decides for Business Package for Confluence Wiki
19 May 2008
SIG Comibloc enhances internal communication with Business Package for Confluence Wiki.
12 Feb 2008
B. Braun Melsungen AG launches Business Package for Confluence Wiki.
16 Oct 2007
The big German Catalogue Company OTTO works now with the Business Package for Confluence Wiki.
12 Nov 2007
The German electric utility MVV AG decides for Business Package for Confluence Wiki.
13 May 2008
German Public Utilities Launch In-House Wiki Platform
One of Germany's major public utilities is launching a Wiki platform to support its corporate knowledge management. The Wiki will be one of the highlights within the web-based portal. Driving the solution is SAP NetWeaver Portal with its integrated software "Business Package for Confluence Wiki". IT service provider HLP from Eschborn, Germany, acts as technology partner to the project.
The objective is to enable employees to retrieve relevant information from the Wiki platform integrated within the portal's functionality and to act as authors as well. "It's great that using it is basically as simple as using Wikipedia – but it's a Wiki especially for the topics of one corporate sector," says one of the project managers about the launch.
SAP NetWeaver as the technological platform and SAP NetWeaver Add-Ons as individual solutions are of increasing importance to leading corporations. Ever since recognizing the trend several years ago, HLP has gained a solid reputation in various sectors for designing, managing and launching SAP NetWeaver projects. Many renowned corporations trust in the expertise of the Eschborn-based service provider, among them several publicly listed corporations.
About HLP:
For more than 10 years, HLP has been dedicated to optimizing customer-oriented business processes using IT solutions. HLP customers benefit from innovative HLP products for quality, information and knowledge management by improving their processes, achieving increased productivity and realizing significant cost savings.
HLP's SAP NetWeaver division complements the Products division. HLP's holistic projects identify optimization potentials in business processes and create new and flexible solutions, based on SAP's NetWeaver platform. Existing investments in the SAP infrastructure continue to pay off as the customer's employees benefit from easy-to-use and intuitive user interfaces in a corporate portal.
For additional information, contact:
Heike Heger
Marketing/PR Manager
HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH
Phone: 06196 / 95 99-202
Fax: 06196 / 95 99-150
E-mail: heike.heger@hlp.de
Web: www.hlp.de
13 Mar 2007
Corporate Wikis integrated with SAP NetWeaver Portal
IT service provider HLP (Eschborn, Germany) has cooperated with the Australian software company Atlassian to integrate the renowned Wiki “Atlassian Confluence” with the SAP Netweaver Portal. The new business package has been certified by SAP and is now available for 20,000 Euro.
28 Jun 2007
Specialist article in German IT journal www.computerwoche.de: "Wikis increase productivity of Employee Portals"
Few years ago Enterprise Portals became very popular in companies - now everybody´s talking about Web 2.0, Wikis, Blogs & Co. The question is, in which context both topics are going together.
28 Mar 2007
First Wiki Webinar in german Language with many participants
The first Webinar corncerning the subject "Business Package for Confluence Wiki - how to integrate Corporate Wikis into SAP NetWeaver Portal" was very successfull. More than 20 participants joined the german session.
If you are interested in attending the next webinar in english, please have a look in our special Webinar infos.
