Making the most of groupware.

You sunk serious cash into a system designed to help your employees collaborate and share expertise - now how do you get them to use it?

It's the nightmare outcome for every company that installs group-ware. Invest in a class of information technology to enable the global diffusion of local creativity and knowledge, and what happens? Your team ignores advanced applications like threaded discussions and automated work flow and relegates the high-tech capabilities of connectivity to low-end uses - such as e-mail.

For global business leaders such as Xerox, Merck, Shell Oil, and Arthur Andersen, transforming their organizations into learning institutions is a central strategy for maintaining excellence in a rapidly changing world. And groupware, information technology that includes discussion databases and intranets, is seen as a principal tool in fulfilling that ambition. In fact, the sale of groupware by Novell and IBM's Lotus Development has more than tripled from 1994 to 1995, with the expectations pinned to these systems extending far beyond traditional information technology benefits such as inventory automation or improved service quality.

For some, these expectations are realized by the successful implementation of systems allowing employees to develop and share knowledge unbounded by language, space, and time. Large-scale users, such as Bank of America and Arthur Andersen, use groupware to build and maintain corporate intelligence. And fans tout its benefits. Howard Schultz, CEO of gourmet coffee chain Starbucks and a groupware user, believes that his company's continued growth and ultimate success hinges on the "connectedness" of its stores.

Sir Colin Marshall, chairman of British Airways, credits groupware for the development of a strategic decision-making tool that is now widely used throughout his company. A suite of Notes applications that supports discussions, calendars, and scheduling and static databases enables 13 different British Airways groups around the world to coordinate their marketing and engineering efforts. Groupware slashed decision-making lead time by allowing these geographically distributed executives to play out the results of various scenarios, such as leasing more gates in Hong Kong, bumping up flight frequency, or servicing a new location.

Yet, there are reasons for caution. A recent study conducted by the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting found that a majority of 1,500 groupware users surveyed tap into the system primarily to use e-mail. While 96 percent of respondents reported using groupware e-mail an average of 23 times per week, use of discussion and knowledge databases lagged far behind. Just 54 percent reported using discussion databases an average of eight times per week, while 48 percent used knowledge databases an average of three times per week. Work-flow applications were the least prevalent use, with just 14 percent of respondents reporting an average use of three times a week.

While groupware usage varied widely by company and by respondent, the survey, which also included 200 hours of executive interviews at 17 leading service and manufacturing organizations, clearly demonstrated a common denominator - that more advanced applications of groupware remain underutilized. And for a system with an installation price tag that can total 5 percent of annual revenues, underutilization is an enormous waste of a valuable resource.

Expected organizational benefits of groupware often do not materialize due, in part, to existing organizational structures, processes, and cultures. Frequently, implementing groupware requires not only new skills, but new organizational values and norms. The technology works, but the people often do not embrace it. And without user commitment, groupware, or any technology, will not produce potential gains.

Traditional methods of performance measurement are one factor contributing to the lack of user commitment. For example, one Fortune 500 company spent $1 million developing and deploying a groupware application for sharing best practices across their sales and service districts. Unfortunately, each district was given resources based on its performance ranking relative to the other districts. This reward process inhibited sharing, and the groupware application was never used. "Our best practices database is merely an enabling mechanism," says Ken Deft, chairman of Chevron Corp. "The key to progress will be the way we behave. We all need to share our successes and be willing to learn from others."

The issue is not simply one of proper implementation. Sometimes a company commits the resources to purchase and install groupware but doesn't follow through with maintenance. While the initial cost of groupware - the hardware and software - is easily quantifiable, the ongoing resource commitment necessary to maintain and grow groupware deployment - is less apparent - but essential to maximize return. Short, focused training done on a continuous basis is more costly than large one-time sessions, but produces significantly better results. Systems maintenance and new application development are also costly, but contribute to the system's overall success.

For example, JP Morgan boosted use of its groupware system, Lotus Notes, by forming a "Lotus Group" within the corporation responsible for application development, maintenance, and training. The group ensured consistency of training and message throughout the organization.

Providing a forum for feedback can also contribute to successful implementation. At ICI in Australia, standing technology committees amass feedback from groupware users across all business units and report suggestions and concerns to a corporate information technology group. The input ranges from comments about technologies currently in use to suggestions for future technologies.

A further challenge is that groupware is being deployed in organizations with existing structures, processes, and cultures - all of which must modify and adapt in order to foster full groupware usage. While the CEO may not take an active role in implementing this process, corporate leaders can play an important part in molding and shaping their employees perceptions of groupware technology. For example, General Electric's goal in adopting groupware was to connect its diverse groups - aircraft, financial, electric - based on the idea that sometimes innovation comes from the collaboration between groups that on the surface may not have much in common. But the company did not reap the payoff it expected from its investment. Chief Executive John F. Welch, who believes the corporation hasn't focused on strategic use of computing, recently appointed a new CIO to transform information technology into a competitive advantage for GE. Making the appointment serves a second purpose: it sends a strong message organization-wide that underscores the company's commitment to maximize the potential of the system applications.

Some companies find tying groupware usage into performance evaluations an effective way to communicate the importance of participation. Divisions of both Bank of America and General Motors include groupware usage in the company's review process, with colleagues rating each other's quantity and quality of contribution to databases.

Whether formal or informal, publicly recognizing creative uses of groupware, rewarding knowledge contribution, and striving to make system involvement fun and exciting all help foster usage. "Success stories" should be advertised and performance benefits formally measured and documented.

In order to achieve successful implementation of groupware, our study results indicate that CEOs must set explicit expectations and ensure that those expectations are articulated throughout the company. Corporate leaders must shape an environment in which employees are motivated to find out for themselves how the power of groupware can assist with individual and organizational performance improvement and organizational growth. Only then will the company as a whole be able to use its new resources to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate activities in ways never before possible.

PRACTICE MADE PERFECT

Jumping into the groupware game? Here's what the companies with the best utilization track records do to harness its power:

1. Train for life. Use short, focused continuing education programs - don't just train once.

2. Give users a voice. Implement and promote formal feedback mechanisms. Listen and respond.

3. Create early positive awareness. Involve uses in the purchase decision, identify opinion leaders and obtain their endorsement.

4. Recognize and reward use. Encourage cooperation and sharing; publicly recognize creative usage; reward knowledge contribution both formally and informally.

5. Formally measure usage. Measure both behavior and outcomes; by understanding how and why people use the system, and how organizations can create positive change.

Eric D. Dart is assistant professor of strategy and organization at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a senior manager in the knowledge services practice with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.