Statistics support collaboration

The U.S. Census Bureau is counting on software from Sitescape to aid a variety of projects within the agency and with other federal partners. The bureau, which collects statistical data about the country, has installed SiteScape Enterprise Forum to improve project management and help employees communicate more effectively with one another.

Lisa Thompson, Internet technology architect at the Census Bureau, explains, "We wanted a central location to create and store information related to various projects." She says that the solution has many features--such as threaded discussions, document management, shared calendars, e-mail notifications, workflow, instant messaging and search--that are important for such Census projects as surveys and technical evaluations.

"The software provides a discussion area for the planning and development of a project," says Thompson. "Users can review information about projects in a logical order in one place, and the information can be accessed anywhere from an Internet browser using an appropriate user account. Another benefit is that we don't have to worry about e-mailing discussions about a project to a user; this provides greater security and makes it easier to communicate among the project team members."

Forum is being used by staff from several divisions within the Bureau, including programmers from the IT Department and statisticians from the Economic Department. The Bureau also has used the solution to manage a computer security survey project within the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which involves collecting information from several companies about computer-related crimes.

Says Thompson, "Eventually, we hope to roll the software out to other parts of the agency that are considering collaborative tools. We also envision using it as a knowledge management tool where users can share ideas and reference information on specific topics or projects such as programming techniques, Web design practices, troubleshooting issues for hardware and software installations and survey development. For example, in the near future, the IT area could use this as a way to share information and discuss issues regarding new technologies."