Exploring document review amongst oracle users

Exploring document review amongst Oracle users

March 2014

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So hello…

In 2013 , PleaseTech conducted a survey at the Oracle OpenWorld 2013 Conference in San Francisco.

422 conference participants responded to the survey. Of this IT driven audience 85% had a relationship with Oracle as a customer (64%) or partner (21%). Only 15% had no relationship with Oracle.

The research set out to examine document collaboration & review amongst Oracle users and their partners.

It follows on from similar research conducted amongst SharePoint users in 2011/12, which explored document collaboration in the workplace.

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How did they fair…?

(You can view more of our cartoons at www.documentreviewcartoons.com) 4

70% of respondents said document review was

part of their job

Of these, nearly 2/3rds have between 2-5

people involved in the process

…yet 40% have no document review

process

95% of respondents said the failure to have a

proper review process caused them challenges

Amongst other issues, 2/3rds said they

frequently find they are working on the wrong version of a document

The barrier to implementing a better review process is TIME

The headlines

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The devil’s in the detail…

52% procedures

47% product

specs 40% code

40% proposals

36% contracts

17% marketing materials

What sort of documents are being reviewed?

28% complex

47% time critical

59% business critical

The documents worked on are…

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How many people are involved in a typical document review/s?

2-5 people 6-10 people

11-19 people

20+

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Oracle

SharePoint

Regardless of platform, remarkably large

numbers of people need to collaborate together to produce documents

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What processes do Oracle users and their partners have in place to manage document review?

37% file share

46% DMS

66% email

17% online

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How does this compare to SharePoint users?

There are many similarities, SharePoint users also predominantly use email to send out attachments or use their collaborative platform/file share service to access documents

But…in all these instances, only one person can work on a document at one time

Twice as many respondents within

the Oracle community use an online solution (17% v 10%)

The raises the question of whether this group have

a greater understanding than their SharePoint

counterparts of the need to seek out specialist software to solve specific business issues?

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Are the processes being used within the Oracle community (email, file sharing) meeting their document review requirements?

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Manual process of merging changes from multiple contributors

Cannot access the document at the same time

Working on the wrong version

Too time consuming

The process is too unwieldy and inefficient

People overwrite others' changes

Cannot capture any metrics / details for the review

Formatting and style issues on the document

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Strongly agree

Slightly agree

Slightly disagree

Strongly disagree

%

Over ¾ are unable to access the document at the

same time

8 out of 10 said the process of reviewing documents was too time consuming

70% said the process was too unwieldy

¼ didn’t think that their review process resulted in

formatting issues. Most people agreed it was a problem

No, they aren’t…

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There were some startling contrasts between the responses given by the Oracle and SharePoint communities

62% said colleagues overwrite changes v 28% of SharePoint users

78% of Oracle respondents declared the process of reviewing a document was too

timing consuming v 35% of SharePoint users

80% of Oracle respondents said they had to manually merge changes v 24% of

SharePoint users

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From its 2012/3 survey, PleaseTech concluded that SharePoint users accepted these challenges as a necessary evil, unaware better solutions were on offer

There’s been a lot of marketing hype around SharePoint, positioning it as the document collaboration platform – it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest this has had a negative impact on users willingness to seek out alternative solutions to bridge the gaps in its collaborative capabilities

In contrast, Oracle is not heavily promoted as a collaborative platform and it is therefore reasonable to suppose that Oracle users are more open to seeing out alternative solutions to their document review process

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There are some conclusions we can draw…

What is the main reason for not researching or implementing a better solution?

45%

29%

11%

5% 3%

1%

6% Time

Budget

Unaware

No authority

Management

IT

None

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…we asked ‘would they consider an alternative solution; consider an Oracle partner; look to any potential 3rd party partner or try to resolve the problem in-house’?

Having already established that those within the Oracle community are more likely to seek external solutions, PleaseTech went on to examine this in more detail…

83

24

33

58

49

35

54

66

153

158

173

118

93

134

111

100

44

71

51

80

Only consider an alternative Oracle solution

Consider an Oracle partner

Any 3rd party

Build an in-house solution Very unlikely

Unlikely

No opinion

Likely

Very likely

The high % of people considering an in-house purpose built solution is likely to be as a result of the inherent nature of the Oracle IT departments whom are used to extending Oracle

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No matter which platform is being used, those involved in

document review are still reviewing predominantly by

email and face to face meetings

There is now more than ever, a greater emphasis on how to

collaborate around key business processes, and there

is much discussion around the value of managing and

sharing content

However, there is a huge lack of understanding and

awareness around what is possible, so end users put up with outdated and frustrating methods of document review

A recent Whitepaper published by Osterman Research confirms ‘it is

important to incorporate complimentary technologies

that augment its native functionality*

However, to deal with certain business processes, such as

collaborative document review, it is necessary to look

out of the SharePoint box

Rarely has a platform received as much hype as SharePoint and there are many reasons why this is

justly deserved

Oracle is a mature technology and has a realistic idea of

what it can and can’t deliver. This is demonstrated by the

willingness within its community to seek out

alternative solutions

The most startling learning to emerge is that 40% of

businesses surveyed don’t have a process for the review of business and time critical complex documents. Is any

other process so overlooked?

There is no doubt that as organizations gain an

increased understanding of the benefits to be gained

through collaborative review, people will seek out specialist

software solutions

So what does this tell us?

*SharePoint Governance: Do something or do nothing. Osterman Research whitepaper, March 2013 16

Caught your attention? Maybe you’d be interested in finding out about PleaseReview; collaborative review and co-authoring software from PleaseTech. PleaseReview facilitates controlled, simultaneous and secure collaboration for the reviewing and editing of documents.

Why not get in touch for a short PleaseReview product demonstration:

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.pleasetech.com Tel: +44 01666 826540

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PleaseReview is a secure, collaborative, browser-based environment for the controlled review and co-authoring of Microsoft Word (and other) document types. Its unique functionality gives secure, simultaneous access to the same copy of the document (on or offline on any device), control over who can do what to where, automated consolidation of proposed changes and comments and comprehensive reporting and metrics.

About PleaseTech PleaseTech Ltd is the document authoring and review specialist, providing software solutions for the collaborative review and authoring of documents. A UK based business, PleaseTech focuses on providing controlled collaboration and co-authoring through its review product, PleaseReview. Launched in 2005, it has over 75,000 users from more than a hundred companies across the globe. Clients range across industry sectors and business disciplines, with the majority operating in regulated and document-intensive industries, such as life sciences and defense. It is in these sectors where the creation and review of large, often complex documents is of particular importance due to strict regulatory and corporate compliance requirements and tight deadlines.

About PleaseReview

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