Case Study: IBBT Collaboration Platform
Full implementation of a collaboration platform for the IBBT. This platform (MyBBT) enables collaboration between project staff with very different backgrounds and working in different locations (within universities, firms, governments or non-profit organisations), irrespective of which infrastructure they have available to them in their own organisation. The platform also offers a simple communication channel between al these parties. So people working on a project can exchange documents, create profiles, edit blogs, start discussion forums, etc. The ECM specialists at Amplexor were brought in for the construction of the platform based on Alfresco Share software.
After a comprehensive market study, IBBT's chose the open source ECM software from Alfresco Share, out of a total of more than 15 candidates. Amplexor was chosen to configure and customise the MyBBT platform, on the strength of their extensive expertise with Alfresco Software.
MyBBT consists of two main components. On the one hand, there is the extranet, which operates as a communication channel for all researchers (both in-house at IBBT and externally at Flemish universities and IMEC) and all partners (companies, government bodies, etc.). This extranet is used to disseminate news, and share manuals, templates, logos and reports. In addition, the platform also offers the possibility of facilitating collaboration and communication within individual projects. Via this tool, (authorised) project personnel can exchange documents (with version management), manage wikis, create blogs, maintain schedules and start up discussion forums.
Matthias Priem (IBBT): “We chose Alfresco Share for various reasons. Since it is open standard software, this solution is compatible with various operating systems, such as Windows, Mac or Unix. That was very important for use, since our project participants use all kinds of different systems. Besides a rather extensive set of out of the box features, Alfresco offers a comprehensive API, which means that customisation and integration can be implemented quickly and simply."
In order to meet the specific requirements of IBBT, Amplexor implemented a number of custom-made components. It carried out an integration with the existing CRM contact list. Then a sublevel was provided within the project sites, the so-called "Work Packages", which have a specific content and which consist of a unique team of researchers. Furthermore, additional fields were created for the user profiles, so that MyBBT can be used as a social network and for identifying experts.