Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Project Study # 33
Sharepoint for Sharing Plant Operations
Project Description: Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 is a program that provides a website
to facilitate collaboration, manage content and workflow, implement business processes,
find organizational resources and supply information that is critical for the organizations goals
and processes. Each unit of The City of Cleveland Department of Utilities Division of water has
its own web-site where they can get information pertaining to their individual departments or
other departments within the Utility. The capabilities of this computer program are:
• Collaboration- sharing of information
• Portals- create a personal site on the program to share information with others
• Enterprise Search- the ability to search the organization and outside agencies to find the
experts
• Enterprise Content Management- create and manage documents and records
• Business Process and Forms- creates electronic forms and workflows
• Business Intelligence- allows personnel to efficiently access information, analyze and
view data and publish reports.
As an example, the Plant Operations Department is using this program to enhance knowledge
sharing within their department. Their site includes:
• Home page with links to all plants in their department
• General Emergency Announcements
• Calendar
• The big issue announcements
• Current policies
Size of Utility: 1,150 employees
Critical Success Factors:
• Participation and commitment by every single employee.
• Continuous updating.
• Computer access.
Cost: Program was bundled in Microsoft package.
Alignment: Aligned with all planning processes. Included as part of Information technology
planning in terms of Microsoft updates.
Benefits: One of the benefits that have been seen by the usage of this program is the calendar
that lets the user know when chemical deliveries are and who is working. In addition this
program provides easy access to the Documents such as; Standard Operator Procedures, work
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