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Collaborative Enterprise - the Volcano lesson

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This week I was reminded of the value of the collaborative web, when we had hundreds of employees stranded across the globe, due to the volcanic ash flight problems. We needed to find out where people were stuck, where they were trying to get to, and their current situation.

All we did was create a Google spreadsheet, generating an online form that was emailed out to all staff. Anyone who was stranded could quickly fill it out, and within a few hours we had captured hundreds of details from individuals and groups across the globe who were stuck, either on work or holiday (some fortunate souls were even "stuck" in Thailand and Bali). As people's situations changed, they could just go into the shared spreadsheet and update it to reflect their current situation, in real time. I remember going into the sheet on Friday and there were more than 40 people working on it at the same time! 

This is exactly the type of scenario where the collaborative web shines in a business context. 

• The business has the tools available to react quickly and easily to an external situation, without the need to engage the IT team.
• A PA built the spreadsheet and form in about 10 minutes, and it was emailed to the whole company less than 30 minutes after the idea was formed.
• The concept of mass collaboration enabled the data to be gathered extremely fast, by anyone in the company who was stranded or who knew someone who was stranded. This means that the business could get a rough handle on the scale of the problem very quickly, and put the plans in place to get people home.

• the tools are simple and anyone can use them
• the tools allow mass authoring and simultaneous collaboration in real time
• the use case for the business far outweighs the technical features
• the business is no longer constrained by technology, but uses it to be more agile and responsive

Do you have any examples of your own? We'd love to hear your stories...

This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International