Collaboration Process Within an Organization Collaboration Process

Collaboration Process Within an Organization

Collaboration Process for Smith Systems Consulting

Collaboration is "the pooling of appreciations and/or tangible resources…to solve a set of problems which neither can solve individually" (Selin & Chavez, 2011, p 4). In industries as complex as IT, it is crucial that organizations exhibit high levels of collaboration to succeed in achieving organizational goals. For Smith Systems Consulting, that means designing a structure that highlights collaboration between technicians and design teams in order to best be able to innovate systems for clients and be prepared to deal with issues as the arise in real time.

There are several steps of collaboration among the functional areas in order to achieve organizational goals that require their own unique action plans. First, it is important for the organization to focus on motivating employees to work in a collaborative atmosphere in order to facilitate the success of larger organizational goals. This means facilitating collaboration between workers of different departments in order to be able to execute strategies for the design and development of client networks and other services. According to the Smith Systems Consulting website, one of the organizational goals is to provide clients with "a planned, managed approach to ongoing support of your network resources that will keep them in top form," (Smith Systems Consulting, 2013). This means that not only must the design work with the customer, but the designers must collaborate with other departments in order to make a practical strategy for the initial execution and ongoing support for that design that is pragmatic enough to be successfully executed by the company. As such, "for managers, engineers, and technicians who do take part in the design phase, it is important to keep an open mind and listen to the ideas of everyone in the room" (Matt, 2010). It is crucial that the organizational structure allow for collaboration between system designers and the technicians who actually do the physical work in laying out the designs in the field at customer locations. Technicians should provide an environmental analysis before the design phase even goes under way, and the designers of the systems must explain all elements of the design in a functional manner so that is properly understood by the technicians in the field. An additional organizational goal for Smith Systems Consulting is to provide clients maintenance of their new network or database systems. This means that technicians must collaborate with designers in a way that provides an efficient strategy for system maintenance that is unique and tailored to the customer environment, so that plan is actually successful in executing operational maintenance.