TreeCast Enterprise - Success Story
Paul R. Deakin, IT Manager, Geo. Robson & Co. (Conveyors) Ltd.
Overview Geo. Robson & Co. (Conveyors) Ltd. is a leading international designer & manufacturer of industrial conveying systems & technology for the airport, cement, alternative fuels and waste & recycling, glass, and sugar industries in Europe, Africa, and the Near & Far East. Clients such as Heathrow Airport, Tate and Lyle, Lafarge, Nestle and the Hong Kong Post Office underpin the company's increasing global authority
Challenge "As a make to order manufacturer of mechanical handling equipment where we are often the main contractor on a large capital investment project, the amount of email moving in and out of the company is ever increasing," says Paul Deakin. "We process several hundred quotations per annum; each one can generate many emails. Contracts vary from small spares orders to multi-million pound projects; each project may have several hundred emails."
The Problem How do you deal with all these emails? Project and quotation emails need to be accessible to everyone on the job.
Options Tried   Save emails out of GroupWise into the file system This has many downfalls including duplication of data, extra workload, remembering to do it, etc.   Users Share GroupWise Folders This is time consuming and if several people are working on one job they may all make the same folder and share it with each other, very confusing.   Have a Librarian User who Generates and Shares All the Files We have tried this and it takes time to implement, some users just ignore the share message, others just delete it and even if they accept it they very often save the folder in some obscure place that they find difficult to find again.
Solution Robson chose OpenNet Software's TreeCast - the only Enterprise Collaboration solution available for GroupWise. TreeCast allows defining named Trees of Shared Folders, and sharing these with one or more users by broadcasting them directly to users' GW accounts - eliminating the time-consuming process of accepting & arranging received shared folders. TreeCast builds the original tree structure under the user's Cabinet - creating 'PlaceHolder' folders for supporting folders that were not shared with the user, ensuring a common context for all users, to facilitate collaboration. "We need a system that generates quotation & contract folders in GroupWise centrally," says Paul Deakin. "One that can be used by all users, which does not require any user intervention, and that generates a common structure for all users." TreeCast allows realizing the value inherent in GroupWise's ability to store both documents & email in the same folder, and to share folders. With TreeCast's Collaboration Management capabilities, GroupWise becomes a Knowledge Management platform, allowing users to share all the digital assets pertaining to a certain client or project in an easy and intuitive way. When a new user joins the team, TreeCast broadcasts her/him the team's named tree and that user is productive from day one. TreeCast's XML database allows rebuilding shared folder trees for users that have damaged their trees by renaming, moving, or even deleting shared folders in a single, simple operation. Removing all sharing rights of departing users is also a simple operation, enhancing security. TreeCast includes built-in eDirectory integration, with a custom DirXML Driver, and full LDAP Connectivity to provide the only Collaboration Provisioning solution for GroupWise and eDirectory. Named Trees of shared folders may be assigned to Group objects in eDirectory; when a user is added to the group, TreeCast provisions the named tree assigned to that group - automatically. Moving a user to another group will revoke sharing rights from the old tree & assign rights to the new tree. Automatically. Note: eDirectory integration is optional - all TreeCast features are available without integrating with eDirectory - including saving of named shared folder trees.
Copyright © 2006, OpenNet Software Ltd.