Five Ways To Wiki For Business

Wikis are a solid alternative for workplace collaboration -- as long as businesses implement them effectively. These five case studies demonstrate how five smaller organizations have successfully integrated wiki solutions into their operations.

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Adapted from "Success Stories: Five Small Enterprise Wikis," an Info-Tech Advisor Premium Research Note

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Wikis have great potential as collaboration tools, but business and IT decision-makers must understand how to target the implementation to realize that potential. The business-oriented wiki market is growing, as noted in another Info-Tech Research Note, "Wiki Collaboration for Small Enterprises." Web 2.0 fanatics and social software vendors extol the collaborative power of the wiki. They claim wikis can improve everything from quality of service to team cohesion. However, wary IT leaders, however, still wonder what a business wiki looks like in practice.

Info-Tech presents and analyzes five case studies representing a range of different industries and solutions, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) and open source options. This includes the following usage scenarios:

• Wikis for collaboration within and between teams
• Wikis as knowledge bases
• Wikis for collaborative content creation
• Wikis as alternatives to portal solutions
• Wikis as training tools

The final section identifies key success factors derived from these case studies and discusses How to Implement & Integrate a Wiki Solution. Each case study identifies the business needs behind wiki adoption, the chosen solution and how it is used, and significant outcomes reported by the organization.

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Don't Miss: The Rise of Lightweight Collaboration Tools

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Case Study 1: Wiki as Collaboration Platform

Industry	Law
Employees	225
Wiki Users	All 225 employees plus two client organizations
Solution	MindTouch Deki Wiki (open source software)
Business Needs	The firm required a secure platform for both internal collaboration and external communication with clients. Due to time constraints, deployment and user training needed to be easy and rapid. Due to budget constraints, implementation costs (including customization) needed to be low.
Usage	Until recently, the firm used Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to create and manage team workspaces. MindTouch has now replaced SharePoint for this function. The firm uses a second instance of MindTouch to fulfill its external information-sharing needs. The wiki is now an integral channel for communication with clients.
Results	The cost estimate for expanding and customizing the existing SharePoint implementation to include external collaboration was $20,000, excluding ongoing costs. Deployment time would have been measured in weeks, if not months. Initial costs for MindTouch Deki Wiki (open source with commercial services and support) were less than half the SharePoint estimate. Deployment was completed in less than one week. The firm reported that the solution met all of its client communication needs and increased employee productivity within the firm.

Source: MindTouch

Next Page: 2 More Wiki Case Studies: Biotech and IT

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