Business Comunications

I'm looking for some software for the company I work for to facilitate better written communications for the machines we run. So far I've come up with Bulletin Board software, like vBulletin and Microsoft OneNote. If anyone knows of something that works good, please add to my list.

Thanks!

Not sure what exactly you mean by written communication for the machines you run, but MS Sharepoint with a "wiki" type of update might work well?

How do you envision the flow of information taking place. Will this be more of a one-to-many style of communication like a newspaper, or will it be a free flowing discussion?

If you intend on having a repository for things like tips, hints, or best practices then a Wiki style may be a good fit.

If you intend on using it for publishing formal policies then you may want something with more robust revision control and that allows you to assign, creators (authors), approvers, editors, etc.

It's important to think through the function of what you'll need to find the right solution.

A wiki style won't work, since everything that gets entered needs to be marked with the name of the person who wrote it, for accountability. My personal preference is a forum, as it is simple, easy to use, and does what I think it needs to be able to do. The higher ups at my company want it to do more though, but still have close to the same benefits of a forum. The discussion type needs to be more similar to how a forum or blog goes. The better the search capabilities, the better. It also needs to allow for multiple entries simultaneously.

Tekno_Cowboy said:

A wiki style won't work, since everything that gets entered needs to be marked with the name of the person who wrote it, for accountability. My personal preference is a forum, as it is simple, easy to use, and does what I think it needs to be able to do. The higher ups at my company want it to do more though, but still have close to the same benefits of a forum. The discussion type needs to be more similar to how a forum or blog goes. The better the search capabilities, the better. It also needs to allow for multiple entries simultaneously.

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Some Wiki platorms have very robust logging and revision tracking. Just look at the history page for Flashlights in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flashlight&action=history
You can even use the compare function to see the differences of 2 versions.

If you force authentication (logging in) then any creations, edits, or deletions will be logged for audit purposes.

Search is a whole other issue. It usually hinges on the back end database and not necessarily the "front end." Both a forum and a Wiki might use MySQL or similar DB in the back end.

Having spent time in IT, I'm having cold sweats from what sounds like a looming project disaster. You really want to have a clear listing of the business requirements before you worry about how you meet those requirements, especially because the "higher ups" have their finger in the pie. Best advice is lay out what the system needs to do and get the key players to agree to that before figuring out the how.

baterija said:

Having spent time in IT, I'm having cold sweats from what sounds like a looming project disaster. You really want to have a clear listing of the business requirements before you worry about how you meet those requirements, especially because the "higher ups" have their finger in the pie. Best advice is lay out what the system needs to do and get the key players to agree to that before figuring out the how.

Click to expand...

Yes, this project is destined to not end well. The "higher ups" want 1 program that does everything from email to french toast. Nothing anyone tells them can convince them that that just won't work, at least not very well, but they don't seem to care. Someone really needs to slap them with some common sense. What is needed is an improved communication system implemented quickly, and set up specifically for that area. We don't need any other "improvements", just an effective way to communicate.

Sorry if I've ranted, I've been arguing with people who don't even know what the area they manage does for a week, with no progress.

Thank you for all of your contributions.

We use Plone for a similar purpose. If you want to communicate real time, use IM.