SUS paves the way to better communications with IBM Lotus Quickr

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SUS is a road maintenance company based in the Pardubice region of the Czech Republic. The company operates from 15 branch offices across the region, and employs 150 people.

Although these employees work at different locations, they often need to collaborate and share information. Managing road maintenance projects requires a large volume of documentation for day-to-day project management and reporting, and because the company needs to demonstrate compliance with specific ISO standards.

“We used to store most of our documentation on an FTP server,” explains Ing. Tomáš Stehlík, Economic Manager at SUS. “We were not able to manage access for individual users, so everyone in the company had access to everything. It was possible for users to accidentally change or delete documents, and it could be difficult for them to find the information they needed.”

Another problem was the lack of version control. Documents were often edited and distributed by email, so there was often uncertainty over which version of a file was the most recent. Moreover, sending large files as email attachments was inefficient, and placed considerable strain on the company’s email server. Finally, since some documents were held on the email server, some on the FTP server and some on local systems, it was difficult to ensure that all the information was backed up properly.

Finding a partner

SUS consulted KAISER DATA, an IBM Business Partner, to find a solution that would help to resolve these issues.

“We had worked with consultants from KAISER DATA on previous projects, and were impressed with their technical knowledge and business experience,” comments Ing. Tomáš Stehlík. “We were confident that they would propose the right solution for our needs – and we were right!”

KAISER DATA suggested implementing IBM Lotus Quickr, which would provide a centralised repository for all documentation, with role-based access, workflows and version control. Following a successful one-month pilot, SUS agreed to go ahead with the project.

KAISER DATA then implemented the software in a Microsoft Windows environment, running on the company’s IBM BladeCenter. The project was completed within three months – on schedule and within budget.

Benefits of centralisation

With Lotus Quickr, employees can log in to a central document repository via a simple Web browser interface. Managers are able to specify access rights for each employee on their team, so confidential material is held securely, and users do not have to search through large amounts of irrelevant information to find the files they need. Users can also be granted read-only access to certain files – for example, the documents that relate to ISO standards – reducing the risk of important files being accidentally edited or deleted.

The Lotus Quickr solution also helps to eliminate the version control problem. All content is held in a single central database which tracks changes and provide a fully auditable history of which users have edited which files. As a result, there should no longer be any doubt about which version of a file is the most recent or accurate – helping to ensure that all employees have access to the same information.

Equally, the centralisation of all documents to a single repository helps to ensure that all commercial data can be backed up easily and restored quickly.

Easy to use and manage

The solution was immediately popular, as Ing. Tomáš Stehlík explains: “With Lotus Quickr we have a very simple, user-friendly solution, and our employees very rapidly saw its advantages. Integration with Microsoft Office means documents can be saved to the Lotus Quickr repository with a single mouse-click – so it is much easier to share information through Lotus Quickr than by email.”

By cutting email traffic across the company, the solution has reduced the strain on email servers and delivered improved performance and productivity. Since Lotus Quickr is both reliable and easy to manage, the SUS IT team no longer needs to worry about the technical implications of document management.

“Managing Lotus Quickr is easy – there is an intuitive user interface, so it doesn’t require much training, technical expertise or time,” says Ing. Tomáš Stehlík. “This means our IT team can concentrate on important issues like IT strategy and new projects, instead of basic maintenance and management work.”

He concludes: “KAISER DATA have helped us implement a solution that makes a real difference to the daily work of almost everyone in the company. By sharing information through Lotus Quickr, users can work together more productively, even if they are based at different offices. The ability to collaborate more effectively helps us increase internal efficiency and deliver better service to our customers.”