Teaming + conferencing = better collaboration

The city of Dublin, Ohio evaluated several collaboration solutions before choosing Novell's Teaming + Conferencing software.

Bob Schaber, network operations manager for the city, explains, "It was the only enterprise solution that combines both teaming and conferencing. The other products we evaluated were not as robust, yet would have cost 10 times as much. They also would have required much more hardware and administration."

With the new system, users can create virtual workspaces to share and access documents, calendars and discussion forums. Among the users, for example, is EcoDublin, an interdepartmental group focused on green initiatives.

"A huge benefit of the solution is that teams can manage their own workspaces, without having to rely on IT for help," Schaber says. "We have empowered our users to collaborate across departments and locations."

Before implementing the new software, city employees used a variety of tools for phone and Web-based conferences. With the new system, Novell says, they can log into a workspace and schedule a group conference call as easily as a meeting. The ability to quickly set up Web conferences has helped ease the problem of limited meeting space in the city.

"With Teaming + Conferencing, we have the ability to store and search blogs, documents and discussion forums, which is a big benefit that goes beyond traditional file system storage," says Schaber. "It used to be cumbersome to dig through folders, so it was critical that we be able to search all our content."

The city estimates that it recovered the cost of the software in less than a year, according to Novell, by reducing overall IT administration time and improving productivity.