Collaborative technologies level the playing field for all customers in all markets. Collaborative design is not just a technical phenomenon rather it's usage and adoption can be seen everywhere. In today's marketplace, we see these foundational ideas are now being executed in an ever more rapid and precise manner through Internet technologies like web seminars and collaborative design via customer extranets. KI has taken a leadership role in using collaborative design technology in support of the democratization of design.

Tools of the Trade

The collaborative design process can be facilitated by private customer extranets, private business-to-business web site that allows one party to provide information to a select group of people, usually customers or business partners. This has been a highly successful model due to the real time access to current information at both the customer's end and at KI. Extranets have facilitated the sharing of CAD drawings, quotations, contracts, design models and renderings and project management resources. The Wharton Lectern is a brilliant example of how this collaborative technology was used to bring a concept for a cutting-edge lectern from a "napkin sketch" to a production quality item. The process broke free from typical design methodology and harnessed the power of a democratized, collaborative design model, guided by the Internet, with regular and frequent interactions between the end customer, and the designers and engineers on the product development team.

Design ideas and trends, once coveted information in the design community that could only be gleaned from going to the right conferences and knowing the right people, are now accessible to every stakeholder via the web seminars. Web seminars are Internet based presentations, usually conducted by subject matter expert(s) over an Internet connection and a conference phone line to a large group of listeners. Web seminars have become increasingly popular as a distance learning tool. The net effects of these Webinars are more educated end users, better design through better information and constant collaboration, and the sense of ownership that comes with having a hand in the control of an entire process, from inception to completion – not something that most customers are accustomed to experiencing in the old model of project design.

Examples

Healthcare Products Color Palette Decided by Customers:

Who better to know how they want their products to look and feel than the end users who have to live with the products day in and day out. Web seminars have been used to allow customers, via a polling technology included in the web seminar software, to select their favorite color palette for a new line of upcoming healthcare furniture. What previously could only have been gleaned from expensive research is now available at our fingertips for a fraction of the cost.

Extranet Allows Employees to Choose Their Workspace:

Satisfaction with their surroundings is at the heart of an employee's level of comfort at work. Through the use of a customer extranet and built-in survey technology, facility managers are able to pose several attractive, cost effective, and equal workspace solutions and allow employees to choose the one that best suits their collective needs. The employee benefits by having a more personal workspace and the company benefits through reduced service calls and higher morale and productivity.

Prominent Business School Designs Custom Lectern with an Extranet:

The Wharton Lectern is a brilliant example of how this collaborative technology was used to bring a concept for a cutting-edge lectern from a "napkin sketch" to a production quality item. Throughout the design process, an extranet facilitated real-time collaboration between the customer and the designers. Product permutations were posted and adjustments made in near real time compressing the design time of a new product from over a year to mere months.