Change management and adoption marketing are among the biggest challenges the South African Post Office (Sapo) has faced in its implementation of a SharePoint-based knowledge management solution, which will streamline the flow of documents across its 16 000 employees and more than 1 600 branches.
That's according to the Post Office's knowledge management specialist, Stella Pole, who says the biggest challenge in rolling out the system lies in changing the behaviour of users who are used to hoarding information on their hard drives and sharing data on memory sticks.
But the organisation is succeeding in changing its culture to one where everyone shares information and sees it as a mutually shared resource, she adds. Sapo uses SharePoint to share working knowledge such as strategy documents, policies, standard operating procedures, project lists and many other documents that used to sit on hard drives and in file cabinets scattered across the organisation.
Pole was appointed in 2010 to drive the roll-out of a platform for the sharing and consolidation of the organisation's information. One of the primary drivers for the project was an urgent need to bring a flood of documents across the organisation's network under control.
A sharp increase in the number of large e-mail attachments flying around the organisation was slowing down the network that the Post Office relies on for outlet operations and internal communication. Now, documents are stored in a central repository, and employees can simply mail links to each other, reducing the demands on the organisation's network.
An even more important benefit comes from the role the solution is playing in building morale and promoting collaboration among Post Office employees. The platform allows for forums, photos and debates, creating a sense of community among workers.
And because employees are able to discuss and research issues online, they go into meetings better prepared, which means meetings are shorter and more productive, Pole says. Business processes are also no longer delayed because someone with an important document is away from the office - the relevant files are all available in the central repository.
It made sense for the Post Office to opt for SharePoint as its document management platform because the organisation is a Microsoft shop with an enterprise licensing agreement, Pole says.
SharePoint could be easily integrated into the Post Office environment and cost-effectively implemented.
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