Alfresco Case Study: Reed Managed Services

Reed enjoys a leading position in the UK recruitment, training and HR consultancy sector at a time when people are recognized to be the key component of any organizations success. Reed was founded in 1960 and since then the company has grown organically into one of the UKs largest private businesses, with over 3,000 employees and 305 branches that now generate sales of over 0.5bn a year.

A Single Desktop for all Branch Consultants

Reed Managed Network Services (RMNS), part of Reed Managed Services, provides IT services to the six Reed companies. The top priority project for RMNS in 2005 was to provide a single desktop for all branch consultants. This desktop, known as Xpress, was designed as a single point of access for all applications required by the consultant. One of the key components of Xpress is online access to documents to improve the availability of information relating to training, client accounts and best practice procedures. As the RMNS development team was fully occupied developing the front office application, an offthe-shelf document management solution was investigated. After considering several possible options, the teams recommendation was to adopt Alfresco.

Business Challenges
Single desktop for all branch consultants; Single point of access for all applications; and, Online access to documents for training, client accounts and best practice procedures.

Technical Challenges
Replace current business excellence manual and incorporate role-specific training and computer based training; Produce best practice in documented form; Distributed access for all Reed Employment including Hospitality, Industrial Divisions and, in the next phase, other Reed companies; Login identifies which documentation is accessible; and, Email and workflow integration.

Open Source changes the whole cost profile of Enterprise Content Management.
Patsy Drake, IT Director, Reed Managed Services Plc

Why Reed Managed Services Chose Alfresco

Alfrescos architecture is open-source, modular and standards-based, allowing RMNS to use only certain functionality and add new features as requirements grow, based on industry standard tools. Reed wanted an open source solution, which offered performance and scalability, but that could easily be integrated with the existing infrastructure. This was made much easier by Alfrescos stated aim of making anything they do transparent and open. RMNS also had an easy-to-use, zero training requirement which was easily met by Alfresco. The benefit of the Alfresco development teams many years of designing document management tools was that they had employed a user-centered design that was able to package easy-to-use portal components for managing and organizing content. Alfresco shifts focus from the document to the content of the document. The AspectOrientated design of Alfresco provides the unusual ability to blend software components with content therefore, making mini-applications out of previously inert documents.

Distributed Access to Best Practice Documentation and External Resources with Email and Workflow
The main aim of this project is to provide a consolidated resource containing the best practice tools, guides, and training materials that a Reed consultant needs to perform their role effectively. The first development will be for Reed Employment and is intended to replace their current Business Excellence Manual and to incorporate role-specific Training materials as well as existing Computer Based Training Packages. These resources will be available throughout Reed Employment, including their Hospitality and Industrial divisions. The next phase of development will be to include the other Reed companies, i.e. Reed Managed Services, Reed Executive, Reed Personnel Services, Reed-in-Partnership, and Reed Learning. The users login will identify which documentation is accessible. This development will also provide a source for newly created Best Practice Standards documentation, which will see best practice in a documented, rather than implied form. While the majority of content will be in the form of template documents and links to external resources, there are certain levels that require additional functionality - for example, email and workflow.

Alfresco takes ECM from the Client-Server World of the 90s into the SOA, Web Services and Aspect Oriented World of today.
Romain Sutton, Head of Technical Architecture, Reed Managed Services Plc

The Benefits of Using Alfresco

Fully searchable site based on attributes, content, categories and folder location; Documentation is in one place; Easily maintained by users and therefore contains information that is up-to-date and of a high standard; Less confusion time saved by individuals, for example for teams always dealing with queries; Control by specific teams and co-members; and, Range of documents has huge scope and can use Word, Excel, html, PDF, links and CBT courses.

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