Team collaboration soars for Swissair/Sabena

Fast, user-driven information publishing was one reason why the Swissair/Sabena Airline Management Partnership (AMP) chose a collaborative intranet solution for its Product Development and Management division.

"We also wanted to eliminate the 'publish' step through some Webmasters who never have time, and therefore little information gets published," explains Annemarie Fraefel McLaren, product development manager at Swiss/Sabena. "Product development employees spent between 10% and 80% of their working time finding and distributing product and project information."

Implementation of Livelink and myLivelink from Open Text is expected to speed project and product development work in such areas as aircraft interiors and food and beverage.

The quality of products offered aboard an aircraft and on the ground depends a lot on the quality of information supplied and on communication among employees, McLaren explains. In the past, information was centrally stored on servers and was not accessible to all employees, resulting in lost information and wasted time.

The division wanted a scalable knowledge management solution that would allow both Brussels- and Zurich-based teams to retrieve data from a centralized repository and organize virtual team collaboration across geographical borders. The new system successfully provides a fast environment for collaborative work at the two locations, McLaren says. Employees, wherever they are, have direct access to all relevant product and project information, and that information is distributed to and updated by users within seconds.

"There is better manageability of projects," McLaren says. "Information needed to develop and adjust products is up-to-date and available, allowing quick reaction and implementation."

System expansion plans for the Swissair/Sabena Airline Management Partnership include integrating Lotus Notes and possibly SAP with myLivelink, and adding an extranet because many projects involve working with external providers, like seat manufacturers.

For those interested in similar projects, McLaren recommends a pilot installation to introduce users to the system. She also suggests transferring current documents into the system help demonstrate its benefits to skeptical users.