Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
A few weeks ago, we presented the latest Zyncro infographic on the concept of the “Corporate Activity Stream”, the evolution in corporate microblogging that includes all information flows in a company.
After reading the Software Advice article “The Benefits of Activity Streams in Manufacturing UIs” by Derek Singleton (thanks, Derek, for sharing it with Zyncro), we’d like to take another look at this concept and review its benefits in an area as untouched as manufacturing software, as well as in content management systems (CMS) and customer relationship management systems (CRM).
Activity Stream in Manufacturing Software
What happens when the Activity Stream is applied to Manufacturing Software? The answer for Derek Singleton is quite clear:
Activity streams enable agile production.
Without a doubt, a delay in information is a major battle in the industry and is particularly significant for just-in-time manufacturers. Knowing the current status of a purchase order or the BOM for a specific product in real time is much more efficient as a result of being able to subscribe to the corresponding product or project activity stream. For Singleton, the ultimate result in integrating activity streams in manufacturing software is that manufacturing teams can interact in real time on projects, orders and more. How is it achieved?
- By automating information updates so that employees are reminded of the status of their current project and any future ones, which helps them improve their planning.
- Employees share information with others and in turn, generate valuable knowledge for planning in the organization.
- By modifying priorities: Keeping employees permanently abreast of the priorities in play at any given stage and changing them in real time if customers’ demands require it mean that the manufacturer’s capacity for response is improved greatly.
And provides more efficient manufacturers.
Activity Stream in Document and Content Management
In CMS systems, having a usable, dynamic space in which companies can track information flows or the Activity Stream is also a plus. Being able to comment or give your opinion on actions on files or document processes makes these systems dynamic environments that are more in keeping with the company’s reality, encourages collaborative actions that improve results, and humanizes automated flows, converting them into real actions of the company.
Data or document updates become an integrated process in which the actors from each organization participate, the environment becomes more usable and more used by employees.
Adding a “Like” or commenting on the creation of a document boosts motivation, drives crowdsourcing in the company and builds bottom-up, collaborative knowledge in organizations.
Activity Stream in CRM Systems
Finally, an environment in which information flows are essential is, of course, CRM. The interaction or exchange of information between sales, support and pre-sales reps regarding customer data or potential customers improves the sales process and customer service exponentially. Proof of this is shown in the tendency towards the socialization nowadays in the leading CRM systems.
The Activity Stream is a reality in our emails, our corporate information exchanges and in our work groups, yet it is somewhat disorganized. Now it has passed into our technology systems, into well-organized, usable and accessible environments. It represents the natural evolution for the professional management of the mass of information that floods our companies these days.
Zyncro helps you to structure your information flows thanks to its ability to become the social, collaborative layer of each of your technology environments.
Try it and see its benefits for yourself!
Hola Patricia!
¿que tal?
Como combinar el enfoque informal y social de Zyncro con las necesidades de las empresas de formación reglada(planes de desarrollo, cursos normativos, certificaciones)!?
Un Saludo