Department for International Development
“Our business needs had evolved and were beyond the existing solution,” said Anne Fraser, principal knowledge coordinator and head of Profession for Knowledge and Information Management at DFID. “We looked at what others in government were doing to address their challenges and having evaluated the market, we selected OpenText Content Suite.”
Since implementing the new solution, around nine million documents have been captured and categorized according to the policies of DFID. Among the key challenges DFID was looking to address was providing the same system performance for remote users and those at global locations with low bandwidth. OpenText™ Remote Cache Server was successful and users are reporting significant performance improvements with the new solution.
Fraser continued, “Moving away from an on-premise solution, to a managed cloud solution from OpenText, has reduced our internal support overheads and given us a truly scalable solution.”
Richard Franklin, head of Knowledge and Information Management and Departmental Records Officer at DFID added, “To engage users and ensure high rates of user adoption, the solution had to have an intuitive, easy to use interface. Content Suite certainly provides this and is now a key part of our enterprise information management strategy. The OpenText solution is mature, a market leader and provides us with the performance and stability we require. The integration with Microsoft® Office, including Microsoft® Outlook® , and the desktop is seamless, with many users not even requiring any training for the solution.”
The improved performance has been just one of many benefits that DFID has realized. The OpenText solution helps the organization meet its transparency agenda, allowing easy external publication using web services. And, by opting for a cloud based solution with no customization needed to the core system, support and future upgrades are easier.
From the outset of the project, DFID engaged its users to ensure their voices were heard. Working with partner organizations Leidos and Aiimi, the DFID project team created an effective consortium with all the necessary knowledge and skills to take complex requirements and deliver a successful project.
“We engaged everyone from day one and had the backing of senior management, who approved the business case to implement Content Suite. We adopted an agile project methodology, working closely with Leidos, who provided infrastructure expertise and Aiimi, an OpenText partner, who helped us migrate and implement the new solution. Together with OpenText, this consortium approach was central to our success,” said Franklin. “A comprehensive change management program contributed too, and when we reached the user acceptance testing (UAT) stage, we were oversubscribed with users wishing to take part.”
The improved performance has been just one of many benefits that DFID has realized. The solution also allows easy external publication and knowledge share, using web services. With safe and secure storage, users can access and share content, allowing them to more effectively collaborate and work offline or at home by downloading content to their laptops. Once they are connected to the network again, any updates are automatically synchronized. Additionally, users have the option of working in their familiar environments such as Outlook or Windows® Explorer and using OpenText™ Enterprise Connect, which integrates directly with Microsoft Office desktop tools.
