Microsoft Office SystemCustomer Solution Case Study

Canadian health researchers speed innovation with Microsoft SharePoint 2010

OverviewCountry or Region: CanadaIndustry: Government

Customer ProfileThe National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Canada’s leading R&D Agency, is a key player in Canada’s science and technology infrastructure, helping to bring innovation from the labs to the markets. NRC - Biological Sciences, based in Ottawa, discovers and innovates in the field of neurobiology and immunochemistry.

Business SituationNRC wanted to achieve more effective collaboration, innovation and commercialization by sharing confidential information in a more consistent and secure manner.

SolutionNRC – Biological Sciences implemented Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to serve as the focal point of a new electronic collaboration platform — ensuring more secure document access and sharing.

Benefits Secure document sharing Streamlined data management Improved staff collaboration

“Our vision is to be the foremost research program developing solutions to reduce the impact of chronic and infectious diseases. We’re attaining our goals using the SharePoint 2010 platform to ensure secure, fast information sharing.”

Stacey Nunes, Business Development Officer, NRC - Biological Sciences

Based in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, NRC - Biological Sciences focuses on research and development (R&D) associated with neurodegenerative and infectious diseases; and works with innovation partners to move these discoveries to the marketplace. NRC wanted to create a standardized environment to strengthen collaboration, improve access to information, and ensure that electronic documents could be stored in a more consistent and secure manner. NRC – Biological Sciences is implementing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to serve as the focal point of a new electronic collaboration platform. NRC is using SharePoint 2010 to enable greater collaboration and innovation, to discover cures for many of today’s infectious and neurodegenerative diseases.

SituationHelping improve the health and wellness of Canadians is one of the goals of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). The mission of this Government of Canada agency is to work with clients and partners to provide strategic research, scientific and technical services; and, to develop and deploy solutions to meet Canada’s current and future industrial and societal needs.

To accomplish this, effective collaboration and communication is mission-critical.

NRC research spans a wide range of disciplines from aerospace and agriculture to ocean engineering and photonics. The NRC - Biological Sciences research program focuses on research and development (R&D) associated with neurodegenerative and infectious diseases and works with innovation partners to move these discoveries to the marketplace. The program routinely works collaboratively with industry, universities, hospitals and other R&D organizations. The program also has a strong track record in transferring technology and knowledge to small and medium-sized Canadian firms, as well as multinationals.

To ensure it can develop novel solutions for preventing, diagnosing and treating infectious diseases, the NRC - Biological Sciences research program’s information technology environment must first be conducive to innovation and collaboration.

The current multidisciplinary team includes approximately 110 scientists and technicians with expertise ranging from biophysics to models of disease

pathogenesis. Whether it is from lab to lab or from the business office to the lab, effective communication is key to making the next collaborative breakthrough in neurobiology and immunochemistry. The research program requires strong compliance for research support, statutory protection, confidentiality, and audit requirements regarding documents, financial agreements and electronic files.

NRC regularly engages in collaborative development, patenting and license agreements, and all staff need to share information effectively in a confidential and regulated manner. The previous information sharing model at NRC – Biological Sciences involved a manual process where information was stored in multiple repositories, databases and spreadsheets. Typically, the business group owned this information; if a researcher needed to access data such as sensitive partner agreements or intellectual property documents, they had to contact the business group to access this content.

Without a robust collaboration system in place, staff members were facing challenges navigating the vast amounts of information that existed in silos.

NRC wanted to create a standardized environment that would help strengthen collaboration, improve access to information and ensure that electronic documents could be stored in a more consistent and secure manner.

“Creating innovative solutions is key in the fight against chronic and infectious diseases and we rely on our partnership with external parties to accomplish this,”

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says Stacey Nunes, Business Development Officer, NRC - Biological Sciences. “One of our mandates is commercialization of research. To accomplish this, we interact with pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, universities and other R&D organizations in the development of some of these technologies. We need to ensure that information can be shared only to the authorized individuals that need it.”

SolutionIn 2010, NRC – Biological Sciences adopted Microsoft® SharePoint Server 2010 to serve as the focal point of a new electronic collaboration platform. The new SharePoint 2010 environment helps improve process management and streamline the classification and retrieval of documents and related content.

NRC –Biological Sciences uses SharePoint 2010 to improve access to information and to boost collaboration through a new intranet portal. External contacts are organized in a simple directory with contact information available at a glance. Users now access SharePoint 2010 via an Internet browser, which acts as an intranet, allowing specific employees to access the information they need.

NRC intends to leverage the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and collaborative aspect of SharePoint 2010 to facilitate support of the research process and compliance. Metadata and forms will be used to support research administration, collaboration agreements, reporting and marketing. Search capabilities will be

leveraged to support the horizontal knowledge base in NRC research areas.

For example, staff can now view vital intellectual property and patent information from a central repository. NRC is also taking advantage of features such as the metadata capabilities of SharePoint Server 2010 to apply tags to documents, making it easier for researchers and staff to find information. With the help of comprehensive, centrally-managed document tagging, administrators can enforce document hierarchies and permissions — helping to ensure that sensitive information can be shared securely.

Senior Technology Planner, Carl Hallé, notes that while there are main contributors that will be able to see all sections of the site, group leaders will also be able to access all agreements and data associated with their projects. This makes information sharing easier while remaining secure and protected, he adds.

NRC – Biological Sciences is currently using SharePoint 2010 mainly for its content management and portal capabilities, but has plans to take advantage of more SharePoint 2010 collaboration tools as the number of users increase. NRC – Biological Sciences is planning to use the intranet as an announcement wall for each user group, and to share calendars. This will facilitate communication of information to group members or to application administrators.

BenefitsNRC uses Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 as a versatile collaboration solution, giving

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researchers and business developers comprehensive tools to drive innovation in vaccines and immunotherapeutics against infectious diseases and cancer.

“The SharePoint 2010 mandate is to provide a more secure environment to share sensitive documents and information such as our licensing agreements around intellectual property,” says Nunes. “This enables us to create a framework to ensure that authorized staff can access information more quickly and securely than before.”

Secure document sharing NRC - Biological Sciences is now using the SharePoint Server 2010-based portal environment as the central location for employees to store and share project-related information. The new portal helps to enable seamless content and information access to staff across the agency.

NRC staff is taking advantage of the familiar Windows look and feel of the SharePoint 2010 interface for more effective document management and electronic filing, notes Hallé. For example, researchers are now able to compile and analyze relevant data much faster by accessing secure data via the portal. This data can then be used easily for reporting.

“We can’t stress it enough: our information has to be secure and also easy to retrieve from any access point. A research group may need to access and share sensitive and confidential intellectual property documents within the team,” says Hallé.

“Previously, users had to go and ask the business officer to provide clearance to view certain client agreement documentation. Today, the SharePoint 2010 environment reduces that administrative burden. It provides easier and faster access to highly secure information to those individuals authorized to view that content.”

Streamlined data managementTo be able to retrieve key information and create reports, data must be entered and organized electronically, in a consistent manner. With SharePoint 2010, when a new agreement document is created from within the program, relevant data is pulled from the document itself and stored in the document set’s properties. This automatic process reduces the administrative burden associated with organizing the large number of files created and stored at NRC – Biological Sciences.

“Our vision is to be the foremost global research program developing solutions to reduce the impact of chronic and infectious diseases. We take advantage of the SharePoint 2010 platform to ensure secure, fast information sharing to help reach this goal,” says Nunes.

Improved staff collaboration By using SharePoint Server 2010, NRC aims to realize a host of collaborative and productivity benefits. Information can now be more easily accessed and used by the business office and group leaders. Being able to access information faster, without compromising security or confidentiality, enables staff to focus more on leveraging the information to speed innovation and

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discovery. This helps the government agency in its mission to develop and deploy solutions to meet Canada’s current and future industrial and societal needs.

“Moving to SharePoint 2010 is all about improving collaboration internally and between our partners,” says Nunes. “For example, we’ve developed a meningitis-C vaccine that is now used in Canada and around the world. There’s a lot of sensitivity around information in agreements such as these. We’re using the SharePoint 2010 portal to ensure that we can share this information internally with those who need-to-know, while maintaining this information in a confidential manner.”

“We intend to use even more of SharePoint’s capabilities in the near future: to develop an electronic internal community space for staff, particularly as we look to extend the platform across the agency. We expect that staff will leverage online collaboration tools such as workflows, discussion groups, and calendars to further improve communication and innovation,” says Hallé.

Microsoft Office SystemThe Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about National Research Council - Biological Sciences products and services, visit the website at: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/ibs.ht ml

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published April 2011

Software and Services SharePoint 2010