Sample Use Case: Using Google Wave for an International Sales Team
In an effort to get your creative thinking going, I plan on providing use cases throughout this book to describe how Google Wave could potentially be used. This one describes how EZ Widgets, an imaginary multinational corporation, could use Google Wave to improve communication and collaboration among a sales team dispersed throughout different parts of the world.
EZ Widgets is in the business of selling widgets to a growing customer base throughout the world. The VP of sales is based in Seattle, Washington, and she oversees a network of regional sales teams with offices around the world. The VP has been struggling to find an easier way for the sales teams to work together to sell more widgets. So far, the VP and her team of regional sales managers have used email to consult with each other over customer issues and the day-to-day operational activities of each office. An enterprise customer relationship management system (CRM) is also used to track customer activities and interactions.
The sales teams are distributed in Tokyo, Japan; Santiago, Chile; Frankfurt, Germany; Abu Dabi, Dubai; and Seattle, Washington. This geographic distribution poses several challenges, including a language barrier and different time zones. Writing their emails and CRM notes in English, each regional sales manager often struggles with differing degrees of difficulty to understand what the other team has written. Additionally, the emails ...