CDMS for mobile CAT

1. CEE Symposium 2011 THE SECOND SYMPOSIUM ON BUSINESS INFORMATICS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE28 - 30 April 2011, Cluj-Napoca, Romania CDMS for mobile CAT Adela Zifceac Radu Adrian Mlesnita

2. Introduction • In small and medium size companies and organizations the communication process, decision making speed, information distribution and overall productivity can be greatly increased by using online collaborative platforms to replace the scribbles, folders, copies, meetings at the office • Businesses require many processes, such as: budget planning, production planning, procurement of supplies, stocks and asset management, accounting, human resources, public relations, information management. All these processes involve many sub-processes and specific actions. In order to plan - organize - coordinate – control (POCC) a business, different documents are used (ex. plans, records, communication files, operating documents, reports, situations etc). • We usually consider the actors in mobile business scenery the m-boss/m-manager, m-workers and m-staff. The m-boss is the mobile manager who is coordinating the mobile workers performing anytime and from anywhere together with the other colleagues organized in the mobile staff (m-staff). • Now, more and more companies are “mobilizing” their “employees” and transform them in mobile employees (mobile freelancers). This is the end of the classical bureaucracy and the dawn of a new bureacucracy: the mobile one. • In order to have an effective information and document management system, companies and organizations now need to turn to collaborative systems. • Starting with the 1980s, software systems were developed to better manage paper documents[21]. The next evolution step were the systems created to manage electronic documents. These earliest electronic Document Management Systems (DMS) supported a limited number of file formats.

3. Document Management Systems (DMS) • Document Management Systems (DMS)are computer programs used in the management of electronic documents and/or images of paper documents through their entire life-cycle idea, conception, creation, scanning, indexing, conversion, import, archiving, storage, compaction, retrieval, recovery , security, protection, control, destruction, use, transfer. They provide tracking, storage, versioning, meta-data, indexing and retrieval for documents. DMSs are a component of Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMs). • A further development in document management was taken by Collaborative Document Management Systems (CDMS); it facilitates end-to-end lifecycle management of e-documents, enables access to latest and reliable information across the borders of specific web-sites and disparate repositories, maintains efficient flow of information. Capabilities that differentiate collaborative document management from generic shared work-spaces are: work flow, versioning, capture, retrieval, meta-data, publishing. • DMSs are used by companies to consume less time & money when: searching for a specific document, folder or information inside a document; collaborating, managing changes and versions of documents and also regarding document security, storage and backup.

4. Document Management can be achieved by companies through the use of open source (i.e OpendocMan, Cyn.in ) or commercial software (i.e. Content Central™, Cmstat). Most used document types by companies are word and spreadsheets type documents. Free online services that enable online collaboration in real time for word files include: (1) Google Documents (2) Zoho Writer (3) Sync.In is Open source services that enable spreadsheet collaboration include: (1) Google Documents (2) Zoho Sheet (3) ThinkFree-Calc

5. Different companies use different kind of documents according to their business sector. When acquiring a DMS it needs to be tailored to the specific industry documentation practices. We will consider the requirements for the educational sector. An educational organization/company is based on the following general processes: • Educational activities: creating-updating course materials, creating-updating practical programs, providing the actual training to students, testing and certification. • Student Management: course admissions, attendance records, progress & performance records, student personal data, communications with parents, collecting fees, certificates issue. • Staff/Trainers Management: trainers personal data, courses held, wages, holidays. • Financial Management: budget plans, budget control and reports. • Fund Raising: create and maintain a donors database, marketing campaigns, identification of new possible donors. • Alumni: past students can become long term supporters and donors. There is a need to be continuously in contact with them and maintain their interest in the organization.

6. An educational DMS facilitates the development of all processes mentioned above: • Educational Activities:The DMS helps in downloading, scanning, storing, sharing, using reference materials and course materials, making references between modules, search through materials. Students can submit projects online and can be tested online, their grades automatically inserted in the online catalog and student progress records. • Student Management: Each training and administrative department has access to view and/or update students’ records from attendance, progress, grades, payments. Students and parents can view their records and situation. • Staff / Trainers Management: DMS helps human resources and accounting to update staff data from personal information to wages or courses held. Staff has access to view personal situation and edit certain fields. • Financial Management: DMS report system can make estimates on the last years’ financial reports, can facilitate budget preparation-administration-reports, accounting activities, payment alerts (for example if a student missed payment deadline). • Found Raising: a DMS can help in maintaining a donors and donations database, creating sending and tracking marketing campaigns and results, create and use a prospective donor database, creating marketing materials. • Alumni: communicate with the organization, students and among themselves through an interactive online system.

7. Document Management at CAT Training & Coaching Center Analysis of how Centrul de Afaceri Transilvania (CAT) or Transilvania Business Center Cluj-Napoca has solved document management, communication, task assignment and results control for it’s training and coaching center. After testing various collaborative management systems and online conference applications, CAT decided to use Google Documents, Google Groups and Skype in its activities. The main features and advantages identified for Google Documents are: • Possibility to upload any type of file (not available in the earlier versions) - .doc, .docx, .odt, .zip, .rar, .xls, .ppt, .pps, .jpg, .png, etc • Recognizes both Microsoft and Open Office files (including MS Office 2007) • Possibility to create directly in Google Documents new files of the following types: document, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, form. • Possibility to apply various templates, for example: budget planners, resumes, to do lists, invoices, business cards, Gantt charts etc • Possibility to share files with an unlimited number of Gmail and non-Gmail users • Possibility to allow users to view and/or edit files and notify them of every change made • Possibility to open and edit the documents at the same time by various users – live update • From the features mentioned and tested above, CAT used creating and sharing documents and maintaining an online Dashboard in order to manage it’s training an coaching center.

8. Document Management at CAT Training & Coaching Center Training & Coaching Center Dashboard organized in multiple spreadsheets The Heads of Activities and Heads of Units worksheets contain the databases with full contact information, duties and responsibilities of the staff (see Table 1).

9. The organizational chart is exactly what its title suggests: an organizational chart of the training & coaching center. Google Documents offers an organizational chart gadget that is easy to create, modify and publish.The most used spreadsheet “To Do Lists” is organized like in the table below: m-Boss and m-Managers have the possibility to view and edit all spreadsheets and all cells. The auxiliary staff may only view all spreadsheets. This system keeps the history of activities and the coloring system helps m-managers make decisions like who to keep in staff/who to let go, what tasks to allocate and to whom, what deadlines to establish according to task difficulty and previous worker history. It also enables them to get the general situation of task realization by one quick glance at the spreadsheet.

10. The “Weekly Schedule” spreadsheet is established on each Saturday debriefing. It contains the allocation of staff for the coming week by hours and location, the time of briefings and debriefings, day-time- responsible for trainings etc. The “Training Groups” worksheets contain the contact data of trainees, the situation of training modules and their final grades. Each group is managed in a different worksheet. Only trainers and management have access to view and edit these sheets.

11. The system makes all processes and decisions transparent which enables all participants to have a better view on the overall activity plan, better evaluate themselves, learn from the others and innovate. • In order to complement the information flow of the training and coaching center, CAT opted to use Google Groups. After testing different software (i.e. DimDim, TeamViever, Mikogo) CAT management chose Skype as a method of direct mobile communication . CAT uses Skype in all 4 key parts of the mobile management system: planning – organization-command and control. Most of internal the CAT communication is done by Skype. Daily morning (briefing) and afternoon (debriefing) online conferences are organized and those are doubled by ad-hoc e-conferences as needed during the day.

12. Results of the first implementation year of the CDMS for mobile CAT (statistical findings) • Since 2008 the attendance to CAT training center courses increased by 1835%, registering an increase of 761% in the second year and 241% in the third year. In the first year 2008-2009, 39 people were trained in eMarketing and mobile business (mMK & mBIZ). • The mobile office was used to help the staff in bureaucratic activities for a better management of the multi-tasks system. The transition from bureaucratic to eBureaucratic working style was accomplished and a new one was consolidated: the mobile working and life style. • During the next year 2009-2010, the number of trainees reached 297 persons, from which 283 finished the training program and 14 abandoned it. By autumn 2009 the use of a mobile virtual office became neccessary together with quick efficiantization measures. For the period 2010-2011, 716 persons subscribed for the training program and efficiency needs to be increased even more. The training & coaching process is open for anyone and we estimate to increase their number to over 1500 by the end of 2011

13. Plan Organize Command Control SKYPE Organizational chart To Do List Head of activities Training groups Conclusions • The use of this mobile business platform has increased the efficiency of the training & coaching center. Having access to all information from any computer or mobile phone enabled m-workers to be more flexible while managers can easily plan the next steps having the entire history of past activities in front of them, can easily coordinate and control the staff anytime, from anywhere. The TM - Total Mobility concept was once more tested and validated by the spectacular increase of the clients’ number • The use of Google Docs, Google Groups and Skype in POCC concept of CAT training & coaching center is presented in Figure 3:

14. After using the platform for one year there are a few features proposed to be added: • Possibility to give permission to an user to edit in a spreadsheet only a selected number of rows, columns or cells • Integrate Skype or other similar text/audio/video conference option. Currently Google Documents has integrated a chat option for written messages. More colaborative results are expected from FaceBook integration into the platform, especially for young people such as students. • In case a spreadsheet is published – the possibility of live update (any change in Google Documents should be immediately updated in the online version). The system flaws identified until now are: • human errors • inability to inform trainees from the databases directly through Gmail • inability to send notices automatically if a deadline is missed Due to a high increase in the number of trainees further eficiantization measures are required. The last year’s testing of our collaborative platform was a success for the organization, which played the role of test –bed in our research.

15. Thank you for your attention Contact data: Adela Zifceac +40 744 547 781 Adela.zifceac@econ.ubbcluj.ro www.Zifceac.ro