Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble

1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? Procter & Gamble have three main strategies these include: 1) Maintaining the need for current products. 2) Making new developments to current products. 3) Creating brand new products. Since most of P & G’s global business is centered on brand maintenance and new brand creation it’s very important that the company use collaboration and innovation technologies to communicate between all departments. Having everyone at every level on the same page is necessary with such a large corporation allowing for less hassle and more results.

2. How is P & G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy?

List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each. They have found ways to now make sure that all employees have access to any documents, research, and data. Allowing for all aspects of the business to work on a more efficient basis. 1) SharePoint allows for store presentations, research, data, and any other documents to be shared between all employees. Making sure that unlike old systems everyone who could possibly benefit from the information has access to it. 2) Teamcenter which is based on SharePoint so that employees can easily use them together provides sharing of visual product data. 3) Connectbeam works like a search engine with the added benefit of allowing employees within the company to tag certain words or phrases so that searching in the future or by other employees is easier. Also has features that act like a social network within the company so that information can be shared on a much swifter basis. 4) InnovationNet like SharePoint allows storage of documents but in a digital format and can be search with a browser like portal. 5) Cisco TelePresence is a web based conference room so that employees across the globe can attend meetings together without the hassle and cost that comes with having to travel for meetings.

3. What problems do collaboration systems solve for P & G?

With P & G being such a large company it was always difficult and very time consuming sharing research and data. Also previously data sharing was in the hands of the sender through email not ensuring that everyone that would want access to the information would receive it. Now all info is shared on systems like SharePoint and InnovationNet allowing for all area of the business to be more productive. Such as marketing they can look at data information and know what areas they should focus new advertising on. They have also been able to cut down on costs but using services like Cisco TelePresence they are now able to have conference like meetings in a web based portal on a global basis. Decision making abilities have also been increased with data and research being instantly available at fingertips senior management can now review and make choices within a matter of minutes.

4. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P & G?

Some of the employees had gotten so used to the way things had been done that some were hesitant on making these types of changes. Feeling like there could possibly be much more work to be done on their end. Even with some very outdated research sharing methods like printing out and pasting documents into multiple notebooks. Corporations like P & G can only benefit from all the tools that they are providing their employees if the employees are using the tools now being provided to them.

5. Compare P & G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment.

Previously research analysts would type up their data and experiments with Microsoft applications and then print these documents out and glue them page by page into notebooks. Not only is this method very time consuming and it is also very cost inefficient. Now researchers can use systems such as Teamcenter where they are now able to upload and access 3D visual product data which also works with SharePoint so any non-visual documents are also available as easy as searching in a browser like system and pulling up the data. Saving an immense amount of time and money in all departments.

6. Why would telepresence be such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P & G?

Telepresence is an amazing tool for global companies like P & G allowing conferences and meetings over a long distance not just different parts of the country but different countries altogether. This saves the company a large amount of money due to cutting back on travel costs and also allowing them to discuss ideas in real time allowing for faster decisions to be made.

7. Can you think of other ways P & G could use collaboration to foster innovation?

I feel like if P & G could find one simple system that would work as a combination of Teamcenter and SharePoint it would be more efficient for employees to find needed data instead of having to look through both systems to see where the document is stored. Also after looking over their website I found that while it is great they now have a way for every day consumers to submit their own innovations and ideas to the company to be reviewed it would be nice if they had a better way for consumers to be able to voice their opinions good or bad about current products as well.

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References
Procter & Gamble. Connect + Develop. N.p., n.d. Web. 2014. “Assignments & Exams Course: Management Information Systems: MIS-201-1405 Assignment: Assignment #1: Procter & Gamble.” National Paralegal College. N.p., n.d. Web. .