Since last year, we have had a partnership with North Dakota State University. The aim of this international collaboration is to offer final year students, an enterprise related project and us (as Inwerken) to act as mentors during the implementation of the project and also offer further coaching in related topics in project management.
The project group
The project team comprises four students of the North Dakota State University who are nearing the end of their studies and the cooperation partner who acts as the project sponsor.
During the project selection, the students are asked to choose two projects that they find ideal and attractive to them as well as one project that they do not really favor. These choices are then submitted on a piece of paper and subsequently they get the opportunity to work on a project they really like.
What does the project involve?
The aim of the project is to connect two worlds that belong together. The first part of the solution was obtained during a business breakfast of the Konica Minolta company. A solution was presented; to scan in documents by a multifunction device by means of OCR Workflow as a Word file on an available network drive.
In doing so, the important parameters were selected for using the copier directly. How easily this solution was applicable and expandable to other applications became clear during the first meeting. The second part of the scenario involved the collaboration platform Jive, which we ourselves have had in service for a number of years and upon which we have been advising our customers.
Filing of documents is carried out by means of a simple single or multi upload. Both options are adequate but there is still potential for improvement and making the user’s life a bit easier. Based upon this thinking, a new idea was born. How smart it is if someone at the copier enters directly the location and file format and subsequently storage of the file in Jive. This idea resulted in this year’s student project. We are developing a component to map precisely this functionality. Scan2Jive
Time Schedule
The project started on January 15th after the students had successfully selected their desired project. The first virtual meetings involved getting to know the group, discussion of the project scopes and clarification of the project’s course. Since then, we have had regular sprint meetings, discussing open questions, accomplished tasks and next action items. Presentations of the various projects will take place at the beginning of May 2013 where we will certainly participate.