CREATE LOCATE INTEGRATE ASSIMILATE

Transcription

1 CREATE LOCATE INTEGRATE ASSIMILATE

2 Locating, managing, sharing and using business knowledge Storing of knowledge is of immense importance, but even more critical is the ability of a solution to empower all individuals within the organisation with that knowledge. There are hundreds of "portal solutions" in the marketplace and just as many portal definitions. Early portal development focussed on delivering web content to users and then expanded into making information available from applications that were specific to every organisation. Collaboration with the supply chain, partners and customers then became the next important issue and organisations were turning to web browsers as the favoured approach for transacting and communicating with customers and suppliers. Gartner described a portal as "access to and interaction with relevant information, applications and business processes by selected targeted audiences, in a highly personalised manner". Storing of knowledge is of immense importance, but even more critical is the ability of a solution to empower all individuals within the organisation with that knowledge. The Summit Assimilate solution provides its users with a unique yet powerful environment to enable the location, the management, and more critically the sharing of business knowledge. By providing a cohesive relationship with structured and unstructured content such as; financial data, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and web content, Summit Assimilate allows businesses and their users to access the information they need in an intuitive manner. Summit Assimilate offers powerful enquiry and search tools to ensure that all users can access information quickly to aid business decision-making and reduce duplication of effort. It is unique in being able to extract information from expert business systems and also provide an interface to write back to those sources which means reduced off-line data to give the business a real-time view of performance. Summit Assimilate is an award-winning solution enabling businesses to create, locate, manage and disseminate information across their enterprise. The solution is delivered by Ramesys a business with over 30 years experience in working with construction and professional service organisations providing market specific software applications.

3 Addressing your business issues Construction and professional service organisations rely on the information contained within their systems to operate profitably and successfully. Access to this information is key to effective decision making, and the challenge for all businesses is how to give employees the right tools to find relevant information - no matter where it is stored - quickly and easily. Cutting down on duplication of information and effort How often is a document created, a report produced or information researched by one employee and then exactly the same tasks in relation to the same information are carried out again when that knowledge is required by another? With no adequate reference resource or sharing of information, the same work could be carried out by different employees, over and over again. How much time does reinventing the wheel waste in your organisation? How many duplicate copies of the same document or report are scattered around the business and how up-to-date is each copy of that document or report? The nature of business dictates that employees often undertake common projects and challenges, sometimes at the same time. When this happens, each person will produce documentation and save it to a local network space. When the next person tackles that same subject area, wouldn t it be more effective if they could simply search for and use the information already gathered? Summit Assimilate reduces the need for duplication of information and effort by sharing its knowledge with all its users. It can reduce and control the versions of a document and provide a single data source for all employees. Summit Assimilate dramatically reduces time wasted and effort on data duplication and offers easy access to existing knowledge within the business allowing your employees to speed up decision making. Improving accuracy It is crucial that project team members all work from the same plans, drawings or documents, as the potential liabilities incurred for a project completed using incorrect or out-of-date specifications could be considerable. The need to ensure that all project team members have access to accurate, relevant and timely information is therefore critical. Sharing documentation and information is key to every project teams success. To avoid the risk of working on out-of-date plans, team members often spend time tracking down the latest version but without a proven safety net, they may make decisions based on out of date or incorrect information. Summit Assimilate provides an environment where each project team can share any project documentation, from project plans to drawings, project correspondence and financial information. That s why accuracy on project decisions improves, costly mistakes are avoided and less time is wasted ensuring you have the current version of any document. Access to bespoke data sources Providing easy access to bespoke and third party applications such as financial, estimating and operational systems will enable employees to interpret information and make fast and accurate business decisions. Furthermore, remote and site based project teams can access and update these systems directly, with the assurance that they will always be working with real-time information. Most people are able to locate, open and read standard office documents like Word and Excel. The challenge is how to unlock and access data from specialist systems like financial, operational, sales & marketing and estimating databases. Project team members often rely on requested reports from the specialist system users to provide them with important project information. Usually they will have to wait for them to be posted before they can interpret them, and by this time the information might well be history and not reporting the current project status. Providing users with access to high level reports and information from specialist systems will give them the opportunity to improve their project control. In this respect, Summit Assimilate is unique to the industry as it integrates and interrogates specialist system data sources: Whatever and wherever they reside, Summit Assimilate delivers high level enquiries to specific authorised users as and when required. Summit Assimilate includes an input interface back to these specialist systems allowing users the same access rights they normally enjoy. Summit Assimilate allows employees access to business critical data quickly and easily enabling them to make better-informed decisions on projects. Reducing data storage A lot of businesses find that over time, many islands of information appear around the organisation. In many instances the information is created, managed and stored at one site or in a particular department but is not accessible or available to anyone else. If each office or each user has their own data repository, copies of the same information could well be stored in multiple locations throughout your organisation. The challenge is to reduce the storage requirement but still provide access to data for everyone who needs it, no matter where they are located within the organisation. Summit Assimilate offers a single portal interface to all your company s data repositories. It has a powerful search engine that can find a document or piece of content for the user no matter where it is stored. Employees will then avoid the need to make local copies of information, and will also ensure that the documents they retrieve are the latest versions and are perpetually kept up to date. We demonstrated to Annington that we could offer improved visibility and traceability of maintenance work scheduled for their sites. We could only achieve this by utilising software from Ramesys which offers every single property owner access to live site information via a website. This was a key element in our successful tender for the contract. John Pettifor, Managing Director of MITIE Scotgate

4 1. 1. The Project Manager (PM) arrives at their project site and logs onto Assimilate using a Web Browser. The PM is presented with today s corporate news articles via the News Board on their homepage. 2. Selecting a project from the content folders in the left hand navigation allows the PM access to financial information from the corporate financial system, as well as any documentation pertinent to the project such as drawings, plans and reports. When compiling their management reports at the end of each period, the PM can access and interrogate the fiscal information they require using Assimilate, and export it directly to Microsoft Excel. PMs no longer need direct access to the corporate financial system, or to wait for the accounts department to provide them with the reports they need to manage their projects. 3. On selection of Purchase Order information, the screen now displays all Purchase Orders for each project, including those due for delivery, those outstanding and, more importantly, any late deliveries. Each order can be drilled down even further to view details on each line of the order. Again this information can be exported to Excel for further analysis Delivering real benefits Quick and easy access to information forms the basis for all knowledgeable decision making in any organisation. In the past, access and distribution of information might have been dependent on responsibility, job role, location or even the computer infrastructure in place at the time. Summit Assimilate has an open architecture, which means there are no dependencies or restrictions as its web browser access provides a platform to stimulate and deliver real business benefits like: Lower cost of ownership and quicker deployment, requiring minimal admin. and management Reduction in the time spent by users searching for information Consolidation of content into a single data repository reduces duplication Simplifying user interfaces to data Most businesses deploy a number of different interfaces to IT systems, and some of these may only be accessible by trained or expert users, but there is often a need to give employees customised access to these systems to carry out their role. If users are put off by the complexity of systems that they need access to, or it takes too long to get the information they need - then it is highly likely that they will give up and may make business decisions with limited or restricted information. The answer is a simple, easy-to-use interface to get them the information they need. Summit Assimilate is designed with ease of use in mind and was developed to work using a web browser, so employees can use Summit Assimilate wherever they are located with minimal levels of training. Summit Assimilate gives all users personalised profiled access to data and applications so that they only see what they need to. This could range from an Excel spreadsheet, a contract document or plan to financial information relating to a specific project or team. Improve supply chain integration Businesses that need to give clients, partners and suppliers access to project information on a regular basis need to minimise the time spent by their internal resource in fulfiling this requirement. Increasingly, clients expect regular reporting on key performance indicators, adherence to service levels and other project related information. They need instant access to project plans and status reports on projects and will often want to review the service levels being delivered to their business. In addition, suppliers, subcontractors and partners need to work closely with you on client projects to ensure delivery against agreed deadlines. Summit Assimilate facilitates this by offering secure access to selected partners, allowing them to see business and project information such as enquiring on the status of a job, checking material deliveries or whether an invoice has been paid. Summit Assimilate also allows you to offer your subcontractors, suppliers and professional partners access to project documentation. It provides a framework for you to refine supply chain integration, improve the sharing of project knowledge and reduce the amount of time it takes to respond to information requests. Summit Assimilate is a very powerful but simple tool to enable you to improve the services you offer to your clients and ultimately increase client satisfaction. Maximising existing intranet developments Most companies today have an Intranet that they use to share corporate information. Over time employees have become comfortable with using it, even if only occasionally, to read company news and information, view internal vacancies or to find the contact details of a fellow employee. The responsibility for creation, publication and management of Intranet content is usually held within the IT department or managed by an external organisation. While wanting to expand the provision of information throughout your organisation the same old questions are raised: How do you maximise your investment in your existing Intranet? Does your Intranet provide employees with real business benefits? Do you rely on IT professionals to publish content on your Intranet? Many construction and professional service organisations have developed Intranets to offer standard information to employees, but content is often managed centrally, relying on IT experts to publish information. By offering each department the ability to publish information, they would help to maximise Intranet investment and provide real cost benefit, by not having to rely on your central IT function or an external company to publish and manage your Intranet. Summit Assimilate has an easy-to-use content publishing tool that doesn t require IT expertise but enables users to create standardised and formatted content such as news and project summaries, thus maximising the real value of your intranet while allowing your employees to share knowledge and content. Maximise IT investment Opening up your IT systems to a wider audience within the business and sharing information throughout the organisation is often cost prohibitive. Many IT applications can only be accessed by department specialists and licensed users restricting the potential to share the information with a wider audience. Summit Assimilate provides an enterprise-wide portal to make these systems more readily available, and offers a much wider user base access to data and knowledge stored within them. Using a web browser to drill into the data within these systems, Summit Assimilate maximises the investment in your current systems, while making information in them available to other users. 24/7 single-point user access to up to date information Improved customer service by providing information online and enabling self-service Reduced reporting demands by using subscriptions, triggers and alerts to push information to users Opening up of your legacy systems to a wider audience Minimal training to develop views of information from data sources without relying on third parties Increased collaboration with customers, suppliers and partners Powerful searches enabling users to find information quickly Increased user productivity through improved & relevant access to information Return on investment Any proposed project or initiative needs to establish and present a compelling business case for approval by the Board. Cost justification requires additional support information, detailing benefits gained by the business and a healthy Return on Investment (ROI). To maximise ROI for Summit Assimilate or any similar offering, consideration must be given to online and offline access, its practical delivery capabilities and the ability to compliment application and organisational workflows by providing resilient subscription, notification and alerting capability. Ramesys can help with this, assisting in an evaluation process that will enable you to present your business case to the Board. Tasks included: Reviewing your current IT infrastructure Defining, understanding and reviewing your current business processes Identifying any gaps and issues that need resolving Agreeing your business objectives Consideration of potential change management issues that affect the business Costing a model that includes hardware, software, resources and future support Measuring the business benefits arising during, at project completion and thereafter.

5 MITIE Scotgate are on course to deliver an enhanced service to our residents by using this innovative software. Additionally it allows us, as the client, the ability to be able to review important project data at any time and ensure MITIE continues to deliver an improved service Nick Vaughan, Commercial Director of Annington Effective for many types of business Contractors Contractors who need project teams to be able to share documentation and information will discover an important resource in Summit Assimilate. Whether your organisation is a main or prime contractor working directly with a client, or a subcontractor wishing to make available information held in bespoke systems for its employees, Summit Assimilate can provide these requirements. Joint ventures Joint ventures between contractors and professional service organisations will find Summit Assimilate a very useful tool in providing a common interface for their projects. Summit Assimilate acts as the portal to each party s information systems, ensuring that the partnerships are all working from the same project information and documentation. The client can access Summit Assimilate to view progress and exchange project information with the joint venture. Professional service organisations Professional service organisations as diverse as architects, consulting engineers, surveying practices, central and local government and consultants can use Summit Assimilate to unlock their internal systems and make information available to a much wider user community. Where fee earners are deployed internationally, Summit Assimilate provides a means to submit information like time recording and expenses, allow project set up and access to project cost information. Additionally, Summit Assimilate facilitates company news updates, access to project documentation and provides an environment for professional service organisations to share information on projects with prime contractors, partners and clients. Clients Clients working within the construction industry can use Summit Assimilate to constantly maintain visibility of project progress with all of the supply chain including contractors and suppliers. They can also use Summit Assimilate to publish community portals for their own end users such as house owners and tenants. Summit Assimilate has been specified within tender documents to ensure all supply chain parties are using one common information system, allowing complete openness and visibility on each project. Services and FM businesses Building services, facility managers and maintenance contractors use Summit Assimilate as an interface to service management solutions to monitor service level agreements for client projects, monitor progress and status of individual jobs as well as track and manage large maintenance projects. Summit Assimilate provides a web interface to operational solutions as well as delivering the benefits of accessing central company information. Therefore clients can specify Summit Assimilate as the means for not only reporting on service levels for each contract, but also allow the client to log and track new calls on the operational systems themselves.

6 Delivers knowledge for all types of people Members of the Board Summit Assimilate provides a simple, easy to use enquiry tool for projects. Board members can have specific user profiles, to allow them access to highlevel performance reports and information on each and every project that the business is running. Summit Assimilate will allow them to drill down into back office system data without the need to be trained users in these systems, offering powerful self-service reporting for all board members. Financial decision makers Summit Assimilate integrates with financial accounting, estimating and operational systems providing finance directors with access to cost enquiries, project performance, key performance indicators and profitability information. Summit Assimilate can be accessed through a web browser wherever the user has a secure profiled login. It frees up finance department resources by reducing the demand for financial reports to be produced and distributed from head office systems by providing operational and site based employees access to business critical information. By using Summit Assimilate to aid decision-making, employees can reduce costly overruns, improve project performance and therefore increase project profitability. IT managers Summit Assimilate reduces the workload on your IT resources by empowering departmental users to publish and manage their content on Intranets, Extranets and the Corporate Website. IT managers can use Summit Assimilate to offer any user within the business access to many applications and data repositories, thereby increasing the value of IT across the enterprise. Summit Assimilate works with your original Intranet investment, providing additional user functionality and a simplified single user interface. Its central repository can help reduce data storage requirements by offering users a powerful search engine to easily locate documents avoiding the need to copy them to their local storage areas. Project team managers Project managers can create virtual teams by setting up project areas to store content, documents, plans and drawings specific to each project. This will improve communication, visibility and control of projects for members of each project team. Project managers can easily create discussion threads for activities within projects, manage revisions to plans and create alerts, so relevant team members can see any changes made to documents relating to their projects. Project employees can also choose to subscribe to any content of interest that they have access to, and are automatically notified when any changes are made to that content. Professionals do not need to be in an office to access specific systems, such as Ramesys time and expense capture, or to set up new projects, as Summit Assimilate allows these tasks to be done from wherever they are located. Operational staff Those engaged in construction and professional services often work remotely so have minimal access to company offices and networks. Summit Assimilate uses a web browser offering a simple, user-centric interface to organisations business systems and information. It allows operational employees access to project information from specific business systems, as well as giving them the ability to create team environments for each project. Easy access to contract and project financial data, specific project documentation and identified performance reports allow operational employees to make more confident and effective decisions while out on site. Office based staff Summit Assimilate provides all employees with a single common interface to many different data sources and IT systems throughout your organisation. It enables them to search for any document using a powerful search tool as well. Users can subscribe to content they are authorised to see and can be notified any time the content changes. Summit Assimilate allows administrators to create secure logins so that users only get access to data and applications relevant to their role. After a small amount of training, any user will be able to access any applications they are authorised to, view enquiries and run reports releasing business information that might not normally be accessible.

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