TWiki Success Story of Cmed
The technology arm of
Cmed Ltd started using TWiki to record
discussions at the beginning of 2003. This quickly evolved into the
place to record our (formalised)
http://www.extremeprogramming.org
stories, although for over a year we maintained physical story cards
alongside TWiki pages.
Halfway through 2003 Cmed adopted TWiki as its company
intranet. Although there was a little initial reluctance from people
unfamiliar with an open environment, using TWiki in this way has been
a complete sucesss.
Most recently Cmed has used TWiki to place all of its Standard
Operating Procedures and Working Practices (SOPs and WPs)
online. Judicious use of %INCLUDE directives, restricted write
access, and compulsary login (no guest account), has enabled us to
separate authorship from publication and keep logs of readership.
Cmed works in the pharmaceutical industry; we run clinical trials and
develop new technology. This is a heavily regulated environment, which
means we undergo client audits. In every case, auditors have been
extremely impressed by our use of TWiki.
Use of TWiki at Cmed has:
- significantly reduced reliance upon unmaintained rambling file shares;
- introduced and enforced document versioning to the whole company (not just the technologists);
- improved communication and increased the quantity (and through peer review, the quality) of documentation;
- removed the use of paper for formal SOPs and WPs without compromising the necessary controls demanded by a regulated industry;
- created a more collaborative and friendly environment, e.g. through the organisation of social events.
About a third of the company use Linux on the Desktop (with the rest
using Windows). Successful adoption of a platform-neutral
documentation system knocks down another hurdle on the track to
company-wide adoption of Linux.
--
TimothyCorbettClark - 02 Sep 2004