It's one thing to deploy collaboration tools, and it's another thing to get employees to use them. At Random House publishing, the IT team figured out how to convince users to take advantage of collaboration software to spur much-needed improvements in information-sharing and communication, reports Kristin Burnham at CIO magazine. 

Like many large organizations, Random House discovered not long ago that email just didn't make the grade when it came to urgent, real-time communications. "If you have a really important message you need to get to people, email is where it goes to die," said Chris Hyams Hart, vice president of IT. 

Looking for a user-friendly collaboration suite, Hart's team chose Socialcast, which gives users control over the data they seek. The implementation has not been without challenges, however. It has required changing some employees' mindsets and motivating changes in behavior, for example.

At first, some employees were worried that the collaboration platform would be used like Facebook and could become a productivity drain. So when he first rolled out the tools, Hart targeted users who were involved in critical projects that required better communication. 

"Tools in the enterprise are only well-adopted if the person using them gets value out of them," he said. "It may add value to the company to act as a data entry point, but real usage will be low if there is no personal value gained."

To address concerns about employees using the platform to waste time, Hart made sure everyone realized that all activity on the suite was visible to supervisors. That visibility is also a benefit for business unit leaders, who can use it to gain greater insight into daily activity. 

Random House also had to train employees to use the tools to interact more effectively rather than just convey information. Senior managers and directors were brought on board to lead the way.

"There's a lot to sharing in a company--the act of sharing is very much exposing you to a lot of departments and there has to be a lot of trust and transparency," he says. "It takes a while to see that it isn't scary."

For more:
- see Kristin Burnham's article at CIO

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