User Profile:
| COMPANY | MOTOROLA |
|---|---|
| HARDWARE | Motorola 8000 Series servers, X Terminal clients |
| SOFTWARE | UNIX System V, Rel. IV Synchronize, Rel. 1.2.1 |
Motorola is a leading provider of communications electronics, ranging from pagers and cellular telephones to two-way radios and computer chips. The company employs more than 120,000 people worldwide, and 1993 sales reached $17 billion. The General Systems Sector of Motorola comprises three global business groups, whose headquarters are, respectively: the Cellular Subscriber Group (CSG), in Libertyville, Illinois; the Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG) in Arlington Heights, Illinois; and the Computer Group (MCG) in Tempe, Arizona.
For on-line, individual calendar functions as well as group and conference room scheduling activities, employees in all three locations rely on a software application called Synchronize(tm) from CrossWind Technologies, Inc. According to Bill Lockerbie, MIS director for the Cellular Subscriber Group, (CSG), Synchronize reduces cycle scheduling time throughout the three sites.
According to Scott Everhart, manager of CSG New Technologies and Office Automation (NTOA), the predecessor of Synchronize was, in a word, "horrendous." Because it lacked a good user interface, the program did little to hide the complexities of UNIX(r), nor did it provide a feature-rich environment that could support uses ranging from maintaining individual calendars to scheduling large groups. Users could not create their own databases or tailored lists of users.
The old scheduling software was also bug-ridden, resulting in scheduling oversights and mishaps. The lack of an alert feature to notify users of a pending meeting was also a problem. Finally, it simply took so long to schedule a meeting on-line that employees tended to bypass the system and schedule by telephone.
Lockerbie and the other two MIS directors asked CSG-NTOA to search for a new scheduling and calendar solution, listing three major selection criteria. First, the application would have to run in a client/server environment to ensure that it would be accessible to large numbers of employees. Second, employees needed to determine at a glance the best time for a meeting and then schedule it by blocking time out on other individuals' calendars -- all on-line. Finally, the product was expected to run under UNIX System V, the prevalent operating system throughout much of Motorola.
After considering scheduling and calendar tools, Everhart and the MIS managers selected Synchronize, primarily because of the ease-of-use provided through its graphical user interface and the many features offered. In the MIS departments at each site, Synchronize 1.2.1 runs on a Motorola 88K server, while Engineering runs on a SPARCserver. In the United Kingdom, Scotland and Japan, Synchronize also runs on Sun servers. CSG is also currently testing CrossWind's Synchronize for Windows platforms.
According to Lockerbie, features such as pop-up notes and cut-and-paste make the system easy to use. Employees can actually mark items, such as agenda notes, within the menu and move them onto the calendar.
By far the most important feature is the view that Synchronize provides of time availabilities for large numbers of people. The software automatically scans the calendars of individuals selected from a menu, then highlights the best time availabilities. According to Jack Leifel, MIS manager for the Cellular Infrastructure Group, this makes scheduling group meetings both quick and easy.
With Motorola's MIS groups on board with Synchronize, the product is beginning to roll out into other areas, such as engineering and overseas offices. The Microsoft Windows version of Synchronize and eventually, a Macintosh version, will ensure enterprise-wide scheduling at Motorola.
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