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March 2004

Business Collaborator launches new version to beat email indigestion, process inconsistency and document conflict

Business Collaborator has recently launched BC 4.9, the latest version of its collaboration software for the construction industry.

Steve Crompton, Technical Director of Business Collaborator explains the reasons behind the development. "Email Indigestion is one of the blights of modern business life, but it is a particular threat in the construction business where ever-increasing, unmanaged email repositories lead to inefficiencies, poor productivity and potential loss of business-critical information. This new version includes a sophisticated system for alerting and reporting, so users are guaranteed to actually see what they want and need to see."

Poor control of key documents and other electronic content can also lead to costly errors and inaccuracies so version 4.9 of Business Collaborator eliminates this with full version history and life-cycle management while the Save-from-Windows functionality provides immediate desktop access to current documents.

Benoy are the architects working with developers Chelsfield on the huge WhiteCity development in London. Mike Lewis of Benoy is managing the use of BC on the project. "BC is really improving the efficiency of how all the parties involved in this project work together. When you consider that this project has an estimated two million document records associated with it, an efficiency improvement on the scale we have achieved has a truly enormous impact. Already printing and postal costs on the project are down to 10% of what would normally be expected, and of course there are no courier charges. All parties are saving money and time, and efficiency is vastly increased. And the system is very easy to use. I have been able to talk most users through how to use it in ten or fifteen minutes, it really is that straightforward."

"SciSys, the company behind Business Collaborator, have been very open to ideas, changes and suggestions, and we have been really impressed by the time it has taken to turnaround the developments we have suggested. Often it has only been a matter of a few days from request to completion. Having had a really positive experience using Business Collaborator on the WhiteCity project we are now using it at Benoy to build our own Intranet and Knowledge Base. Business Collaborator really committed themselves to delivering an absolutely top-notch job and BC is something we will now be recommending to our customers both large and small," said Mike Lewis.

"One of the other important aspects of BC 4.9 is the 'process navigator'. We have found that many businesses really want to actively promote best practice and give clear guidance to employees. However, without the right tools in place to support this, the end result can be errors, confusion and reduced productivity. So BC's process navigator capability gives process-driven access to information supporting best practice and delivering guidance, as well as allowing users to provide feedback which might improve the process, "explained Steve Crompton. "In this way the value of implementing best practice is truly delive red, increasing efficiency and improving customer service and satisfaction."

Business Collaborator is an "out-of-the-box" collaboration tool. At its heart is a powerful and proven content management system providing secure control, tracking and management of documents and other electronic content. It's rich functionality delivers the audit and record keeping capability organizations demand and eliminates the potential for conflicts, as well as providing a mechanism to stem email indigestion. Fully integrated with the content management system is a portal engine. This provides users with a window into the managed content - whether the users are accessing HR databases (intranet, enterprise portal) or customers and other third parties using services (website, extranet). Collaboration drives business success - delivering reduced costs, increased productivity, improved performance.