From the Sage MAS Team

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Key to staying agile, see Scot Larsen’s post, is collaboration. This applies to the various teams within Sage, and between Sage and our business partners, and the customers. If you haven’t read it yet, see the ekaas post on how Sage is collaborating with customers through the use of Ideas Management powered by VersionOne ™

And collaboration isn’t just working with our customers to deliver products they want to use, it is collaboration between the various product teams.  I work with the ProvideX technology team, which is the platform the MAS 90 200 is built on. This work gives the team broad exposure to technologies. We are using our skills to assist the other teams.

There are challenges to coordinating individuals across multiple campuses, and time zones, each with their own unique ‘culture’.  The way to address these challenges is through communication. To start we use common tools, and common language. SCRUM is a tool we use to aid in our collaborative efforts. It provides a common process with its own grammar that is consistent across campuses.

The second way to increase collaboration is to have meetings to discuss barriers to productivity. These meetings are not status meetings but rather opportunities to solve problems that limit productivity. This requires communication skills, and trust of those involved. Everything needs to be open to discussion, and a willingness to examine assumptions. This can be tough as this is a soft skill that not everyone practices on a regular basis.

So collaboration is fundamentally rooted in open communication. Communication is a skill that must be learned, and practiced in an environment of trust. This can take time to develop and once a company becomes comfortable with the practice, collaboration becomes easier as does agility.