Why Unified Collaboration?
Prepared by: Michael Deayton and Carolyn Plant Last modified: 11 April 2014 (version 1.0)
Contents
Why Unified Collaboration? ... 1
Upgrade to the phone system ... 1
Emerging technologies ... 1
Sustainability ... 2
Health & Safety ... 2
Griffith Researchers and Learning & Teaching ... 3
Why Unified Collaboration?
The university is undertaking a major project to deliver a unified collaboration platform across all campuses. But what does this really mean for you?
In a nutshell the Unified Collaboration project aims to bring a wide variety of
collaborative technologies together in a uniform manner. This will allow staff to collaborate in an unrestricted and creative fashion using tools such as email and extensions from Google, instant messaging, mobility features, video conferencing, document sharing, multi-media recording to achieve shared outcomes and goals both internal and external to the university. To understand the benefits of a unified collaboration platform it is easiest to identify current issues (and opportunities) and explain how unified collaboration works to solve them…
Upgrade to the phone system
Problem: Currently the university is using multiple different phone systems, the main one being 15 years old; expensive to upgrade and containing parts that the vendor can no longer replace when necessary. University growth is pushing the system to its limits and we have already reached the limit to supply new phone numbers to the South Bank Campus.
Emerging technologies
Problem: There has been an emergence of collaboration tools around the university in the last couple of years such as video conference rooms, Skype, Jabber, Blackboard Collaborate and Google Apps - all standalone systems with varying levels of complexity.
Staff have access to these collaborative technologies (e.g. video phones, SharePoint, Instant messaging and social media to name a few) but may use them in isolation and in varying degrees of capability levels and complexity.
There are limited video conferencing capabilities available that allow staff to collaborate with people outside of the university. External communications are generally held on an ad hoc basis and have significant overheads requiring software installations and also sign-up to products. This can be not only costly, but time consuming for you!
Solution: To upgrade the current systems to meet future growth would be just as expensive as replacing the multiple systems with a single, consolidated phone system. This, coupled with the explosion of mobile devices, the increased requirement for video conferencing and a need to collaborate more effectively across campuses (and with external partners),
provided the university with an opportunity to explore a new system that would provide more capability than ‘just a phone’….
Emerging technologies (continued)
Sustainability
Problem: Being a multi-campus university has imposed some barriers on our effectiveness in terms of
productivity due to travelling time for meetings and collaboration, and promoting sustainable practices
Health & Safety
Problem: Due to the nature of our organisation we have staff and students spread across five campuses in different geographical locations. Travel between campuses increases the potential workplace health and safety risks associated with commuting for meetings.
Solution: The Unified Collaboration project aims to integrate many of these technologies in a uniform manner, so that staff can effectively collaborate in an unrestricted and creative fashion, to achieve shared outcomes and goals both internally and external to the university. Some of these technologies will include instant messaging, mobility features, video
conferencing capabilities, document sharing and multi-media recording.
To assist staff in using these technologies there will be online training and resources….
Solution: An integration of technologies aims to minimise these barriers by reducing travel times and returning productive time. These improvements will also reinforce the university’s commitment to promote environmentally sustainable practices throughout all campuses. Increased usage of video phones and video room capabilities will see a reduction in:
university vehicle usage with less car travel between campuses petrol consumption
CO2 emissions.
Solution: Integration of technologies will make it easier for staff to collaborate with colleagues on other campuses.
Griffith Researchers and Learning & Teaching
Opportunity: There is an increasing need by groups and areas to reach beyond our
boundaries and engage and collaborate with partners outside the university as well as online with students.
Solution: The use of existing technologies and further integration of new collaborative tools (such as video conferencing, document sharing and multi-media recording) will assist a variety of groups and areas, including:
Griffith Researchers
There are more than 800 academics at the University who are actively researching in their field across a number of research centres. Many of these engage with partners outside the University collaborating on projects and other research areas.
Learning & Teaching
The university is introducing a suite of online degrees from 2014. These degrees will be delivered through a blended learning model, offering the choice to study online, on-campus, or a combination of both.
The integrated Unified Collaboration tools will potentially assist these groups and areas and
to reach their target audiences more effectively by offering a more flexible way to
collaborate and participate online. Easier online participation will help to create a more collaborative research and learning environment.
