EADS Military Aircraft
EADS Military Aircraft, part of EADS Germany GmbH, has launched
an Enterprise Content Management System for 5,300 employees, specifically
designed to ensure the smooth exchange of information between employees
in its different departments and locations in Germany.
M on Air - Information at the speed of sound
Rapid communication, effective collaboration and knowledge sharing are key when producing aircraft like the Eurofighter, and it is now an efficient part of the daily process at EADS as a result of the new solution. With three locations in Germany and 7,400 employees, the Military Aircraft Division of EADS required a platform that would centralise information and allow all personnel to communicate and work together, regardless of location.
Staff headquartered in Munich are responsible for development of new aircraft like the Eurofighter and technical logistics support of in-service aircraft. Augsburg-based employees produce aircraft components and spare parts, among other things, for the Airbus. Personnel employed in Manching, on the other hand, are responsible for the final assembly, flight testing and repair, overhauling, and modifications of aircraft.
As planning, development, production and support for combat, transport and mission aircrafts, as well as securing key technologies for future generations of aircraft are the prime objectives for EADS Military Aircraft, it is essential that all departments are able to work together and keep track of the other organizations’ progress.
History
Before the introduction of "M on Air", the name for the new Military Aircraft section of the EADS Intranet, there were several decentralised intranet solutions within the group which proved problematic in a number of ways. There was no central information search function, processes for updating content were not defined, and determining responsibility for content was often very difficult. In addition, updates of the generally static HTML content were exceedingly time-consuming for the webmasters.
In order to enable access to information needed for a day’s work, a shared enterprise intranet system was found to be the perfect solution.
Together with the operators of the existing intranet solutions and the information management group, a rough concept for the future intranet was prepared. After conducting a detailed analysis of the market and cost situation, the team decided to adapt a commercial product to EADS Military Aircraft’s specific requirements.
Requirements
The confidential nature of some of the information held on the intranet meant that access to documents needs to be restricted to selected users.
The Military Aircraft division’s Intranet contains documents that have to be kept under lock-and-key at the request of the client. One of the most important demands placed on the new solution was the ability to make information available to certain employees only. Dagmar Schult, Project Manager at EADS Military Aircraft
Adding new information to the previous Intranet could only be done by specified webmasters, resulting in bottlenecks.
The old Intranet consisted of several servers distributed among different locations. To publish documents on the Intranet, employees had to initially find the administrators in charge and wait for them to put the documents on the Intranet. This process was time-consuming, especially for managing information subject to frequent change. Using the Intranet, this job is now handled by individual employees, considerably speeding up time to publication. Dagmar Schult, Project Manager at EADS Military Aircraft
Following a round of presentations from 22 companies, the decision was made in favour of Hyperwave. The key reasons behind the decision were the different rights and authorisation levels offered for read access, a sophisticated search functionality and intuitive use of the system. These were identified as some of the primary requirements for building a working platform with rapidly changing content. "The new system shouldn’t just be a presentation solution, it needs to be an integrated communications and working platform," adds Dagmar Schult.
Today, there are five Linux front-end servers connected to the central database server, managing communication with the clients and relieving the load on the back-end server.
Three of the servers are used directly for "M on Air". The other two make additional intranet content accessible to the rest of the EADS group. These pages offer general information about EADS Military Aircraft and, unlike "M on Air", are not maintained by individual editors, but centrally by the communications department.
Easy game
Another crucial function for the customer was the option of assigning different rights and authorisation levels that would allow for setting up closed user groups without additional effort. "We decided on the Hyperwave solution because the links to content which a user is not authorised to see are automatically masked out. This means, that you can never run across an "access denied" message, as information can only be accessed by authorised individuals," reports Dagmar Schult.
The foundation of the rights and authorisation system used in "M on Air" is a new 'group and role' concept developed by EADS Military Aircraft and implementation partner T-Systems. New documents are automatically assigned to the rights of the folder where they are created. The editor no longer has to worry whether the rights of individual documents have been assigned correctly. Rights to objects can also be amended quickly.
Intranet for Everybody
The Hyperwave solution fulfills two important intranet features - it serves as a general information platform for all employees and teams are provided with a working platform where they can rapidly exchange the results of their work. Content can be accessed using a browser and can be found quickly via an intelligent search engine. From a technical standpoint, Dagmar Schult’s team is absolutely certain that they’ve made the right decision.
We are fully convinced with the Hyperwave solution.
The system provides the various divisions and teams with a Enterprise Content Management platform that is flexible, scalable, ready to meet future requirements, and finally able to live up to the growing demands at EADS Military Aircraft placed by the potential building of a Portal and Extranet platform. Already there are over 300,000 logical objects, such as documents, on the Intranet.
Portal Vision
The benefits brought by Hyperwave’s software have convinced EADS Military Aircraft to expand its Intranet into a personalised information portal. Instead of a standardised user interface, each employee will have a personal start page for direct access to certain sources of information. In future, an eLearning system may be integrated into the Intranet to provide employees with special continuing education courses.
Fast and direct lines of communication may also be set up between experts and those users requiring help with "M on Air." Dagmar Schult concludes, "Hyperwave will have no trouble meeting and supplying these enhanced system requirements for a corporate-wide knowledge management system now or in the future."
EADS Deutschland GmbH
The Military Aircraft division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) focuses on the design, development, production, and logistical support for combat, transport, and mission aircraft and on the integration of various peripheral systems. Current programs include the Eurofighter, Tornado, and Phantom fighter aircraft as well as advanced trainer aircrafts and Transall transporters.