Inter Access currently develops a perfectly matching search and archiving solution which in the end will connect with our existing IT resources seamlessly.
Corus Packaging Plus (CPP) is a business unit of the steel concern Corus. With sites in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway and Belgium, CPP produces high-quality steel for the packaging industry. In order to enable good cooperation and communication between employees from the various countries, CPP invented an integrated system for the development and consultation of strategic business information: the CPP Collaboration Toolbox. For the development of a searching and archiving environment for strategic and market information they relied on IBM Premier Business Partner Inter Access. In close cooperation with CPP and Corus Information Services Inter Access helped realising a solution that offers quick access to the most up-to-date strategy documentation.
CPP is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of packaging steel. The organisation produces high-quality base material for packaging of, amongst other things, food and drinks, such as soups, vegetables, beer and soft drinks, deodorants and paints. The four production locations produce approximately one and a half million tons of tinplated, tin-free and polymer-coated steel in the shape of rolls or plates each year, which are delivered to companies in more than 50 countries worldwide. To direct the order, production and delivery processes properly, optimal cooperation between employees in the various locations is essential. Tina Castillo Autie, Business Knowledge Coordinator at CPP: “We developed the CPP Collaboration Toolbox ourselves. This consists of a number of IBM Team Workplaces and a self-developed IBM Lotus Domino application with access via our intranet. For a search and archiving solution, we relied on Inter Access. They developed an integrated application that completely matches to our specific needs and situation. On the one hand, the application archives the information from the IBM Team Workplaces in the CPP Collaboration Toolbox in an IBM Lotus Domino database. On the other hand, using this solution we can make information from the database available quickly and simply. Subsequently, the information is displayed in the IBM Team Workplace environment. Furthermore, Inter access has developed a search function for us, which searches all applications that are present in the CPP Collaboration Toolbox, and presents the results in a simple manner.”
After the merger between British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens CPP became one of the first truly integrated business units. For close cooperation at strategic and commercial level, efficient information and knowledge exchange between the various international sites is essential. With the CPP Collaboration Toolbox the members of the Strategy Team, regardless their location, can log into the intranet and gain access that way to relevant information for their daily work.
Tina Castillo Autie: "We had all sorts of ideas about a search function and an archiving solution ourselves. However, in order to estimate the technical feasibility, expert advice and support were indispensable. Our internal IT service provider – Corus Information Services – has been working together with Inter Access for a couple of years now, and brought us in contact with them. During a general presentation it soon became clear that Inter Access possessed knowledge that could be of added value to CPP projects. One of these projects was a solution for an web-enabled transparent strategy and market information system. At the same time, we wanted to save money by using existing applications. Keeping these principles and our business critical processes in mind, Inter Access currently develops a perfectly matching search and archiving solution which in the end will connect with our existing IT resources seamlessly.”
The archiving solution provides CPP with great benefits. The organisation benefits from, for example, the automated archiving of documents based on pre-defined settings. This archiving takes place by means of standard forms, resulting in a uniform archiving structure. Moreover, this solution always provides insight into which team members opened or changed a document. Documents archived in the IBM Lotus Domino database are linked to a button in the CPP Collaboration Toolbox, making them retrievable by one single mouse-click. The documents that are retrieved this way, can serve as a source of knowledge and input again for a new strategy cycle. They immediately end up in the right IBM Team Workplace and can be used again. At this moment, a user acceptance test takes place at CPP to further perfect the solution. By now, the corporate level within the Corus concern has also showed interest in the CPP Collaboration Toolbox in combination with the search and archiving solution. It is clear that the archiving solution by Inter Access, based on IBM software, will make an important contribution to the efficiency and progress of the strategic process within CPP.