Communication tools are used to facilitate the exchange between different teams and to foster collaboration. The described tools are part of MFG knowledge management, taking into account recent developments, mainly regarding internet technologies. For technology transfer, the tools can help to improve exchange between researchers, between researchers and transfer officers and between researchers and companies. Hereby, the challenge is to implement tools that minimise collaboration efforts, can be used without extensive time consumption and are up to date. www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

1. Tools for Internal Collaboration
FITT
– Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer –
www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

2. Communication & Collaboration Tools
Collaboration of people from different teams, institutions or companies:
 Inter- and intra-team collaboration need usable tools
 One-way communication vs. interactive communication tools
 Challenge: Implementation of tools
 that minimise collaboration efforts
 that are used without time consumption
 that are up to date
 Technology Transfer involves different persons: researchers, TT
officers, lawyers, companies, …
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3. Tools in Practice: Overview
MFG’s internal communication and
collaboration tools consist of:
 MFG Intranet: Central platform for internal information
 MFG InnovationWIKI: MFG knowledge pool
 CRM: Community Relationship Management tool
 Pidgin: Instant messaging system
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4. Process in Practice: MFG Intranet
 Central platform for internal information and communication
 Used as front page on the web browser & door to other communication
tools
 Structure: blog format (OS content management system TYPO3)
• main part: blog postings
• left side: links to other MFG tools
• right side: feeds to the latest articles of the InnovationWIKI as well as to external
news platforms
 Every MFG employee contributes with postings and comments
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5. Process in Practice: MFG InnovationWIKI
 Internal knowledge pool of articles about MFG related topics
 Information on projects, tools, book reviews, conference reports as well
as articles featuring trends
 Ever employee has an account and can read, write and edit articles
 Articles are linked with each other by direct links and categories, which
enables to see connections between projects, experience and topics
 Structure on the front page:
 a tag could with the categories,
 a list with the most recently created articles and the most popular sites,
 a “wish list” with articles that need to be created
 some help pages with guidelines and instructions.
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6. Process in Practice: CRM
 Community Relationship Management (CRM): more than a database with
contact details
 CRM system helps to manage and administer the contacts of each
project manager
 Relations to different target groups (regional – national – international;
politics – science – industry) can be visualised and managed
 Links between persons and projects, events or documents
 Management of events: registration, mailings, etc.
 Proprietary software with some special modifications
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7. Process in Practice: Instant Messaging
 Pidgin: instant messaging system
 Free software, only used internally
 Every employees has an account, usage is optional
 Tool for short messages, informal notes, reminders, etc.
 Amendment to telephone, email or direct communication
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8. Timing
 When were the tools started?
• MFG Intranet: July 2003 – first version – several updates since then
• InnovationWIKI: October 2006
• CRM: Mai 2008 (current system)
• IMS: October 2008
 How is it organized?
• MFG Intranet: everyone contributes, one person nominated for technical
maintenance
• InnovationWIKI: everyone contributes, one person nominated for technical
maintenance, content and training sessions
• CRM: one person nominated for technical maintenance and training sessions
• IMS: one person nominated for technical maintenance
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9. MFG Intranet
PRO’s CON’s
 Central platform to inform
employees  For vivid contribution employees
must be active and willing to
 Browser front page with contribute
connection to all communication
tools  All posts can be commented 
 All employees can write postings, a communication culture and
no central editorial person needed netiquette must be practised
 Efforts for installation and
maintenance are quite low
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10. MFG InnovationWIKI
PRO’s CON’s
 Knowledge pool of MFG project,
 Time consuming for employees
topics and trends
 Wiki contributors need to be
 More than pure documentation:
motivated – in general, there are
Links between different articles,
more passive than active users
interactive format, collaborative
way of editing  Administrator needed for
technical implementation and the
 More than 1.600 articles show a
content side
vivid contribution
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11. Community Relationship Management
PRO’s CON’s
 More than a database: linking of
 Costs, especially for the software
different data
 Human resources for
 Connections between people,
implementation and maintenance
projects, documents, etc.
needed (data and software)
 Decentralised and collaborative
 Training sessions for employees
database
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12. Instant Messaging System (IMS)
PRO’s CON’s
 Only used within MFG, for
 Easy way to post links, external communication tools like
comments, remarks and reminders Skype are used simultaneously
direct to one person  Can be a waste of time if used for
 Hardly no resources needed for chit-chat
implementation and maintenance  Optional tool: not every employee
uses IMS ( network effect)
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13. Why?
MFG Intranet
• To have a central communication platform which is accessible for all employees
• To have a central platform, where all other MFG tools are linked
• To stop mailings which might get lost in crowded mailboxes
• To have an up to date intranet, as all employees post their news
• To have an intranet without an editorial team that manages the content
MFG Innovation WIKI
• To create a central knowledge pool with articles about MFG relevant topics
• To save knowledge and experience when projects end or project managers leave
the company
• To create a collaborative tool, where all employees can work together and
contribute
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14. Why?
Community Relationship Management
• To have a up to date / state of the art database solution
• To manage efficiently the relations MFG has to politics, science and business
• To create links between projects, persons and documents
• To have a documented history for all contacts
Instant Messaging
 The instant messaging was first implemented and used by a small lead user group.
Their acceptance was so high, that the tool was offered to all MFG employees. It
supports the following actions:
• To post short messages and reminders
• To exchange opinion with one person
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15. Outcome
The tools are part of MFG’s knowledge management,
which was recently awarded for its excellence by
the German Ministry of Economics and Technology
MFG Intranet
 MFG Intranet became the central platform for relevant news
 Internal survey: Intranet was used and read by every employee at least once a day
 Integration of trends, e.g. the integration of new news tools like twitter
MFG InnovationWIKI
 WIKI is a knowledge pool for MFG related topics and trends
 Currently more than 1.600 articles
 Internal survey found out that it is used by every employee
 Makeovers (e.g. limitation of categories) are planned
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16. Outcome
Community Relationship Management
 The Community Relationship Tool was a significant improvement
 Internal survey: 80 per cent expressed their satisfaction about the tool and use it from
every day to at least once a week
 The linkage between contacts and documents or projects is a huge advantage for
MFG, in the future some more trainings to effectively use all the features of the
database are planned
Instant Messaging Tool
 About 2/3 of MFG employees are using the instant messaging tool every day
 Reduction of internal phone calls and emails with little content
 As an optional tool, which every employee can integrate into his/her daily work
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17. Lessons Learned
 Looking back now, what would you …
• … do different? Nothing really…
• … improve? Stronger user involvement, more surveys and feedback
channels
• … recommend to others? Ask the users what they need!
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18. Lessons learned in Liège
Implementation of the practice of MFG « Tools for Internal Collaboration »
in Interface Entreprises-Université de Liège, Belgium (a member of the
LIEU network)
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19. Lessons learned in Liège
• Context
• LIEU/ULg was looking for professionnal and integrated solutions
for internal communication, contact management, exchange of
practical information, knowledge pool...
• Study visit in June 2010: Interface Entreprises-Université de
Liège visit to MFG facilities
• Presentation of MFG tools
• Easy to use
• Well structured
• Widely used
• Good balance between communication and knowledge management
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20. Lessons learned in Liège
• Lessons learned
• Proposed solutions
• MFG advice : « Confluence » by Atlassian, a powerful Wiki
• We wanted to use it as
• an Intranet Portal
• a « Wall »
• a Wiki
• Interface has no CRM and the team is too small to use efficiently a internal
chat program
• The blog system is included in Confluence but should not be used in short
future
• Adopted solutions
• « Joomla » is our « home page » with numerous links and a Facebook-like
wall
• Confluence is our knowledge management tool and Wiki
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21. Lessons learned in Liège
• Why to use an Intranet at Interface Entreprises-Université de Liège ?
• Internal communication
• Knowledge management
• Easier collaborative work
• Tools and documents available from everywhere (multi-site)
• Internal demand from the team
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22. Lessons learned in Liège
• Obstacles encountered
• We wanted to build our Intranet by ourselves (cost and, above all,
mastering technical tools)
• Necessity of two softwares: « Confluence » does not have a Wall
build-in so we had to use Joomla
• Hosting « Confluence » on a Linux Server located in our server room
• Linux is the best choice for web-based tools (security, reliability, costs, …)
• Linux is not « ready to use »
• Difficult to configure « Joomla » and « Confluence » on the same
platform
• Well thought structure is mandatory
• Resistance of the team to change (new tools mean new habits)
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23. Lessons learned in Liège
• Method & timeline:
Constitution of a
workgroup
Installation of
Configuration Work on wiki 4 to 6
Confluence on a
test server of Confluence structure months
Visite
to
Installation of
MFG Confluence and
Joomla on a Linux
Configuration
server (production of Joomla
installation)
Progressive
Integration of 23 early integration of
users adopters remaining
users (22)
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