In the past decade, Internet, mobile, and cloud technologies have redefined our lives and enabled a new generation of collaboration technology that is driving business value by allowing officer workers to interact around content more effectively than ever before.

While effective cloud collaboration can increase an organization’s overall efficiency by allowing employees to communicate and capture ideas and opinions without the back and forth of email, the reality is that today many organizations are still faced with chaotic version control for documents.

Growing content collaboration in the cloud

The Almond Board of California engages in the production, nutrition, and market research for California almonds, as well as advertising and promoting California almonds in domestic and international markets. One of the Almond Board of California’s goals is to market almonds in order to create continued demand for local almond growers.

To support promotion efforts, the Almond Board of California works with external advertising, marketing, and public relations agencies in countries around the world, as well as with its staff located in California, Shanghai, London, India, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Given this global footprint, the Almond Board of California was looking for an effective way to collaborate with around 100 people across a variety locations.

Initially, the Almond Board of California implemented a traditional Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system, using it as both an intranet and extranet. Early experiences were not ideal, with the file access and sharing proving difficult to use. People outside of the main office in California often had trouble logging into the system, downloading and uploading files, and editing documents. Messages would appear — “You need to clear out your inbox” — when trying to share content, which was especially troublesome for people that worked remotely. Document version control was also a challenge. Users complained that it was not intuitive, and there were a number of instances where teams across the organization were working on and updating the incorrect version of a document.

As a result of these challenges, the organization sought a more effective collaboration solution that would ease sharing of documents internally and externally while providing access across any device, desktop, or mobile.

The Almond Board of California has a public relations agency in the UK that was already using an enterprise cloud collaboration platform, called Huddle, and the agency highly recommended it. A small group of test users conducted a trial run of Huddle for several weeks and were quickly won over by its ease-of-use, effective file sharing, 100 percent mobile access, and collaboration features — such as discussions and the ability to comment on files and content. Huddle was soon deployed across the organization, as well as all of its external advertising, marketing, and PR agencies.

Cloud Collaboration Brings Global Teams Together

Today Huddle, Inc. is part of the fabric of daily operations at the Almond Board of California and is used to manage every single marketing project — big or small, internal or external. The version control capability within the platform, streamlined document approval, and notifications within Huddle ensure that documents are reviewed and approved promptly by the correct individuals. As Huddle is embedded in everyone’s work routines, members of the extended team no longer send materials for review via email; they become members of a Huddle workspace to collaborate with internal team members.

Enhanced global collaboration was put to the test for the Almond Board of California during a 2011 project that involved the branding of the iconic London taxicabs. The Almond Board of California wrapped a London taxi with Almond Board of California branding, bringing visibility for the organization across London. The project involved people working across five different locations in two different time zones. Branding had to be accurate and deadlines had to be met, and by using Huddle, the team was able to ensure that the entire process was smooth and ran on schedule.

With the right collaboration tools, organizations can become more efficient as data is better secured both inside and outside a business, documents are up to date and not confused with older copies, and data and documents are accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device. By implementing more efficient processes and collaboration technology, organizations like the Almond Board of California are able to streamline critical projects, reduce cycle times, and ultimately deliver more value to the organization.

By Melissa Mautz, Associate Director, Marketing Services of Almond Board of California

photo credit: Chris JL via photopin cc