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unique to Quickplace, but whatever collaboration software you choose to use these
features are critical to successful inter-organizational collaboration.
1. Quickplace is Web based so users only need a Web browser to access the shared
workspace (of course, in practice, it’s not quite as simple as that). This makes
Quickplace, and in fact any Web-based collaboration tool, an excellent choice
for business-to-business collaboration since it does not require any additional
software to be purchased or installed by the external users.
2. Quickplace’s Web-based interface allows each collaboration space to be
changed to suit the need of different groups of end-users. In fact, depending on
organizational IT policies, it is possible for a Quickplace collaboration space to
be entirely driven by its users from its initial creation through to its eventual
deactivation.
Quickplace allows users to customize the workspace using a combination of import
functions that can convert a word processing document or presentation file into a Web
page and step-by-step configuration menus. Users can easily create made-to-order collaboration
spaces without needing to involve a developer. The level of customization
available includes look and feel, information architecture, workflow, and security.
Of course, if greater levels of customization are required, developers can be used to
create more sophisticated programmatic or non-standard information architecture
customizations.
It is important to note that while this same functionality is available in Lotus Notes,
end-users have limited and less direct control over these types of changes. This lack of
end-user control may be acceptable for internal collaboration projects, where it is possible
to identify an information architecture to suit their common business processes.
In fact, Ernst & Young has successfully used this approach with EY/KnowledgeWeb
standard knowledge base designs and standardized project databases known as
Engagement Team Databases (ETD). However, for collaboration between two different
organizations, traditional information technology approaches for software selection
and development need to be challenged. This is because a tool with a fixed
information architecture leaves no room for co-development by the intended group of
internal and external end-users. This is particularly important for inter-organizational
collaboration, where the evolution of requirements is a natural outcome of working
across organizational boundaries; that is, until you start the actual collaboration
process, specific requirements are unknown or uncertain.
In summary, there are two key benefits to using Web-based collaboration tools like
Quickplace:
• Accessibility over the Internet using a Web browser
• User-driven development
The Ernst & Young Experience of Using Quickplace
The benefits of user-driven development and Web accessibility that Quickplace provides
are evident in the success stories that demonstrate how it has helped Ernst &
Young to win new clients and deliver services online in new ways to our clients. Our
experiences show that, for our line of business at least, clients value our use of
Quickplace because of:
• Cost and time savings
• More effective project management
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