Working Outside the Box: GE Colab

How is GE solving its problems faster? As of 2012, GE has 325,000 employees worldwide operating under its 8 different divisions. Divisions that operate in different regions typically experience similar problems or are confronted with similar obstacles that they ultimately need to tackle. In many offices, pantry conversations have long since been the way by which employees share know-how, experiences, and ideas. So the question that GE faces is: ‘How can a company as large and spread out as GE get its employees to quickly connect with who they need, find internal expertise and share knowledge?’

Solution: GE Colab!

Colab is GE’s new digital collaboration platform. It allows users to connect with other teammates globally in real-time, combines applications and tools in a single platform, and provides access to a global pool of experts and information. It is intended to help every GE employee work more collaboratively. The design of this platform was based on employee feedback to help them in their daily tasks and to connect them to other professionals on a global scale. The platform contains the following features:

1.      Profile A page to access self-populated contact information, professional areas of expertise, previous work experience, education, training, skills etc.

2.      Apps A personalized dashboard that consolidates the preferred apps onto a single page.

3.      Sites A link to bookmarked pages.

4.      Docs A tool to store and share documents in accordance with GE guidelines.

5.      Canvas A group sharing tool that facilitates global and real time collaboration.

6.      Stream An easy access to all information the user deems important. Similar to Facebook’s Newsfeed, Stream provides live, personalized multimedia feed of news and information of the people followed on the net.

Source: http://goo.gl/ewglSP

This tool can be used on Window PCs, Macs, iPads and smartphones; hence, is accessible at all times.

Keep tuned for our next review of how collaboration tools are implemented successfully at the workplace!