From the reading we can determine that Proctor & Gamble uses a “Distributed Development” as part of their business strategy. When then CEP Lafley proclaimed that half of its new products would come from outside sources (Laudon & Laudon, 2013). What would be required to make this successful would be the integration of new systems along with a new direction. To be able to optimize its effectiveness the company would need to adopt a new collaborative strategy. The goals were to create innovative ideas in order to address the needs throughout the country as well as overseas at a lower margin of cost. With one major aspect being to still improve the lives of the company’s large customer base.
The obstacles were many when attempting to gain success for the distributed development strategy. The requirement would be to increase the communication between all teams across the company. This would include all aspects of the company; from management employees and product suppliers. Ultimately better communication fosters a greater interaction of its employees and decision making. This gives Proctor & Gamble more reliability to create more quality products. One hurdle was to upgrade its current desktop environment that although had collaborative tools it did not support data sharing.
Proctor & Gamble implemented several collaborative tools one being the visual collaboration Microsoft lifecycle collaboration tool Teamcenter. The product took advantage of SharePoint technology along with leveraging the current infrastructure. The product gave Proctor and Gamble the ability to tailor collaborative efforts which included a robust visualization capability. In addition other tools that were included were calendars, schedules, and workflow. Other available tools included virtual meeting sites, instant messaging and virtual conferencing.
The lifecycle for Teamcenter collaboration has paved the way for Proctor and Gamble to share information across the wire without the barrier of time zones, firewalls and or geographical location. By implementing Teamcenter Proctor and Gamble gave its employees, vendors and suppliers a tool that allowed them to access product knowledge. The new tools not only provided needed collaborative tools but it also allowed for work to be done in a familiar Microsoft environment.
Another tool that was introduced was the Cisco Telepresence which cut down in unnecessary physical meetings abroad. The product allowed for decision making to be cut down from days to mere hours and or just minutes. In today’s market the cost for teleconferencing has decreased while providing high definition meetings over long distances. The costs savings immediately rolled over into the travel department as lengthy trips were now a thing of the past. The new teleconferencing systems have become the predominant systems currently in use throughout Proctor and Gamble (Laudon & Laudon, 2013).
The strategies made an almost immediate impact throughout the firm. In the past Executives were unable to integrate any reports and or discussions into a single document. Regional meetings consisted of an antiquated form of sharing information. Researchers used "old-fashioned" glue to compile information into traditional notebooks which were passed to only a few colleagues. Word was used to transfer experiment data which would then be distributed at a conference. Another process would be to add the presentation and notes to PowerPoint slides and then the whole document would be emailed to the attendees. With the new systems integration the Information Technology group for P&G can create a SharePoint site in which the presentations can be stored. This allows for a single document to be shared by many in a single location.
Previously employees relied on Google searches but found that the results did not necessarily supply what was required. Proctor and Gamble resolved that by implementing their own search product form the bottom up. Connectbeam allowed employees to share a multitude of items which include bookmarks, tags and more descriptive content. This allowed for future searches and social networks to find and share information more closely related to their topic.
Due to Proctor and Gamble having such a large employee base which spans more than eighty countries the technology makes sense. Telepresence makes the ease of putting the research teams and development teams in front of each other for collaboration. Face to face meeting at locations that are spread apart to distance creates a better sense of unity within the organization. Cisco, Inc. was contracted to construct
It allows for employees/users to be out at ease knowing that they are all working for a common goal success. Teleconferencing technology has made huge improvements since it was first introduced to the market. The technology allows for great cost savings due to the fact that implementing and operating large conference rooms is no longer required. Teleconferencing has allowed Procter and Gamble the opportunity to make decisions and a more rapid pace.

References
Author, U. (2008). PROCTER & GAMBLE. Procter & Gamble creates a collaborative community, 1-2.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2013). Essentials of Management Information Systems. In Essentials of Management Information Systems (10th ed., pp. 71-72). Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved March 8th, 2014