Introduction

For cookware maker Regal Ware, I wrote and produced an employee seminar to introduce employees to a companywide information technology initiative. The seminar was designed to inform employees about the initiative and to solicit their ideas.

Regal Ware, like many other companies, had reacted to information technology needs as they arose but without any overarching plan for the future. With the information technology initiative, the company was committing itself to modernizing its corporate network and to installing a new corporate email system.

As part of this technical undertaking, Regal Ware also wanted to achieve the following communication objectives:

1. Make employees aware of the companywide information technology initiative.
2. Solicit employee opinions on information technology needs.
3. Teach information technology concepts and gather ideas.
4. Report back to employees with the results of the information-gathering activities.

My job was to develop employee communications to meet these objectives. In developing these communications, I worked with employees from Regal Ware and from my own company.

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Generating Awareness

My first step was to meet with Regal Ware’s director of information services; and also with the senior vice president of finance, who was the corporate sponsor for the information technology initiative.

After understanding more about the company’s plans, I wrote a one-page letter for the senior vice president of finance introducing employees to the initiative. Each employee received an individually addressed copy of this letter.

This is the text of the letter sent to Regal Ware employees:

Regal Ware is undertaking a major effort to upgrade our computer network. We are doing this to create a high-performance, secure network that can be used from anywhere in the world.

In looking to the future, the new network also will enable us to take full advantage of opportunities on the Internet and in electronic commerce.

We have examined a number of potential partners to assist us in the redesign of our corporate network. After in-depth interviews and presentations from information technology fims, we have hired Whittman-Hart of Milwaukee to assist us in our network redesign.

Whittman-Hart has worked with Regal Ware before. In March of this year, they carried out an analysis of our corporate network. In October, they conducted extensive interviews with Regal Ware to determine the direction we wanted to go with our network.

Some of Whittman-Hart's clients include:

• Manpower: Designed and installed the corporate network.
• Kohler Company: Designed and installed the corporate email system including worldwide remote access.
• Rexnord Corporation: Designed and installed the corporate network and email system.

To introduce our new endeavor, Regal Ware and Whittman-Hart will conduct a one-day business roundtable entitled Information Technology: Beyond 2000. There will be three separate sessions—on December 14, 15, and 16.

The purpose of the roundtable will be to listen to Regal Ware's staff and to see how the new Regal Ware network can help meet our business needs. Subject-matter experts from Whittman-Hart will also give presentations on today's information technologies.

Please be sure that you complete the attached questionnaire and bring it with you to the roundtable. The questionnaire will give us a starting point and a way to determine how our new corporate network can best serve you.

Since the session will be interactive, also bring any other questions and relevant topics of interest you would like to discuss. An agenda for the business roundtable is attached.

Your executive has scheduled you for the December 16 session, which will take place at the Cedar Valley Conference Center, between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM. If you cannot attend this session, please call x8576 to be rescheduled for one of the other sessions. I look foward to seeing you at the roundtable.

End of letter sent to Regal Ware employees.

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Soliciting Employee Input

Employees were asked to complete a questionnaire, which was attached to the introductory letter from Regal Ware's senior vice president of finance. I developed the questionnaire with Regal Ware’s director of information services and a senior information technology engineer from my own company.

I wanted to keep the questionnaire short and concise, so that employees would complete it. Employees were asked to bring their completed questionnaires to the company-sponsored seminar called Information Technology: Beyond 2000. The questionnaire included the following questions.

1. What are your most important business challenges?
2. What areas of your business are most affected by these challenges?
3. How do these issues affect employees?
4. Where would you look for business-process improvement?
5. What do you think are the major shortfalls of our current computer and information systems?
6. Do you have any expectations about what information technology can provide for you?
7. What are your expectations from the business roundtable?

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Teaching Concepts and Gathering Ideas

Working with subject-matter experts from Regal Ware and my own company, I developed and wrote materials for the Information Technology: Beyond 2000 seminar. The purposes of the seminar were as follows:

• Introduce Regal Ware employees to information technology concepts.
• Learn about the business needs of Regal Ware employees.
• Understand how the new Regal Ware corporate network could help meet business needs.
• Collaboratively develop solutions for Regal Ware that had significant business value.

About 100 Regal Ware employees from various business areas and from all levels of the organization attended the one-day Information Technology: Beyond 2000 seminar. I developed a slide presentation, moderated by subject-matter experts, which explained basic aspects of information technology.

The seminar was presented in the following sections:

1. Why We Are Here.
2. Regal Ware's IT Goals.
3. Looking at a Network.
4. Collaborating on the Network.
5. Doing Business Online.
6. Electronic Sales Tools.

The format for the seminar included a short talk by an information technology specialist on an information technology concept, followed by a fifty-minute roundtable discussion about the information technology concept and how it could benefit Regal Ware.

Six to eight Regal Ware employees were seated at each table along with a moderator. Each roundtable participant and moderator had a printed workbook that was a reproduction of the slide presentation—along with pages to take notes and jot down ideas.

For example, here is the section from the seminar titled “Collaborating on the Network”:

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Reporting Back to Employees

After the seminar, our next step was to construct a summary booklet to distribute to seminar participants. I thought it was important for Regal Ware’s management to report back to the employees who had attended the seminar. I wanted employees to know that they had been listened to, and that the company valued their contributions.

I wrote an introductory letter for the summary booklet, which was sent to employees by Regal Ware’s director of information systems and senior vice president of finance, who was the corporate sponsor of Regal Ware's information technology initiative.

This is an excerpt of the letter summarizing the Information Technology: Beyond 2000 seminar, which was sent to Regal Ware employees.

Thanks to everyone who attended the roundtable, Information Technology: Beyond 2000. The open exchange of ideas was remarkably successful and productive. Our information technology partner, Whittman-Hart, has informed us that the four days of roundtables in Kewaskum and Arlington produced more than 1,200 ideas. Your contributions, creativity, and honesty were invaluable in achieving these results.

The summary that follows is a condensation of these 1,200 ideas. It is organized along the same lines as the roundtable itself. The summary also contains responses to the information technology questionnaire that you completed prior to the roundtables.

Our job now is to analyze and prioritize the large amount of information we have produced and collected. Doing this will enable us move ahead in the most cost-effective, intelligent way. As a company, we want to set a course to implement solutions that address both current and future business needs.

Your responses covered ways to use information technology itself (for example, email) as well as issues relating to our business processes (for example, the way we interact with our key accounts). In the long run, we want to use information technology in the best possible way to improve the way we do business. That is the principal goal of all of our information technology efforts.

Regal Ware's first order of business is to move ahead with Whittman-Hart on our initial capital investment to upgrade our corporate network. As some of you know, our network has been linked together over the years in various ways to keep up with our needs. Now, it is time to create a solid, secure network backbone that will connect our entire organization, and enable us to work more effectively with our vendors and customers….

End of excerpt of letter summarizing the Information Technology: Beyond 2000 seminar.

The summary booklet from the Information Technology: Beyond 2000 seminar presented attendees with the results of their brainstorming sessions.

Below are some of the ideas attendees developed in their roundtable discussions, after they listened to the section of the seminar titled “Collaborating on the Network”:

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