Worker productivity is a key priority for organizations as they invest in their IT infrastructure and Information Management strategies. But far too often the processes, tools, and requirements meant to improve operations create friction and negatively impact business productivity. This in turn causes end users to delay or avoid adopting new solutions that disrupt their workflows, leading to lackluster uptake of the tools intended to make their jobs easier and improve overall business performance.

SharePoint is no exception to this phenomenon. Loaded with features and functionality that help organizations collaborate, securely manage data, meet compliance requirements, and minimize version control issues, SharePoint should be an empowering accelerator for knowledge workers. What’s missing is a seamless user experience that extracts SharePoint’s value without slowing workers down or disrupting their routines.

harmon.ie’s solution is doing just that for thousands of customers around the world. Here are some examples of how real-world organizations are empowering their employees to be more efficient and productive.

Everyone already uses Outlook

Convenience matters a lot when you’re asking people to change their routines. The fewer steps it takes to do something new, the more likely they are to keep doing it. harmon.ie makes this happen by creating a window to interact directly with SharePoint right from Outlook.

“The integration of SharePoint sites into Outlook, the number one place where everybody wakes up in the morning and starts their day in, that's one of the harmon.ie benefits,” said Daniel Stuch, Senior Project Leader of Application Development and Rollout at Bosch. “People can access their content on SharePoint sites, work with them, open them, even make anything from a new version to new revision set, and that allows people to stay in their known environment [Outlook], without having to switch applications.”

This smooth, familiar experience means no wasting time toggling back and forth between SharePoint and Outlook, which can be disruptive for workers and comes with context-switching costs.

“harmon.ie gives you that window into SharePoint right from Outlook. With harmon.ie, finding the SharePoint site that I need, finding the document library I need, it’s very quick, it's very responsive, and it's straight there in Outlook. You don't have to open up another browser window, it's there all the time, so that saves me a lot of time,” said Janet Robertson, Digital Workplace Analyst at Babcock International. “All the SharePoint views work in harmon.ie, the content types, the approvals, you can define favorites, so it is a really good tool.”

Since end users are so well acquainted with Outlook, there’s almost no learning curve to getting started.

“When we push harmon.ie out to people and tell them to use it, they find it's quite intuitive,” Bosch’s Stuch added. “People don’t need to learn how to use harmon.ie, they just use it.”

Metadata made easy

One of SharePoint’s key features is using metadata to categorize files to aid with discovery and search. However, getting end users to consistently tag files and emails is a huge challenge. Integrating this step directly into the user workflow can exponentially increase compliance.

“With harmon.ie, it’s really easy not only to store emails in SharePoint and share them with colleagues, but it also automatically prompts you to add metadata,” said Michaela Meissner, ECM Consultant at Bauer. “This has naturally created a routine metadata practice, so when someone needs to access information they know how and where to look for it. That’s something all our workers have appreciated.”

Metadata’s impact can go far beyond checking a box on a regulator’s checklist. It can help save lives and improve patient care as well.

“By requiring us to complete mandatory metadata, harmon.ie makes it easier to find important documents and emails when we need them to support our goal of making sure the hospital can provide the best possible care for our community’s mums, children, and their families,” said Debbie Garrick, Operations Coordinator, Women's & Children's Hospital Foundation.

Meeting objectives and paying dividends

Regardless of the industry, time is a precious commodity. Even minor time savings add up when spread across a large organization.

“There is a significant difference between a process that takes three seconds to archive a project document and a process that takes 30 seconds for the same task,” said Jürgen Kaiser, Project Manager at Klotz. “Using harmon.ie, we were able to achieve our project objectives with respect to document management in SharePoint.”

Freeing up resources with more efficient workflows means managers can reallocate staff and further optimize performance.

“We're seeing that we can re-engineer some of our administrative business processes where people have spent time consolidating documents,” said Alexandre Singh, Executive Director Business Solutions and Information Management at ESDC. “Now that links will be sent instead of attachments, they don't need to worry about managing the latest version of key documents.”

And when organizations can increase their output with the same staffing levels, the benefits extend to the bottom line as well.

“Although the financial gain was not the primary reason to purchase harmon.ie,” Bosch’s Stuch said. “You simply save up to 70% of the steps—or gain 70% of productivity—when you drag and drop emails.”

If the success these customers are seeing by using harmon.ie to make their workforce more productive and efficient has piqued your interest, why not give harmon.ie a try for free? And if you’re still not convinced, check out some of our case studies to hear more real-world stories of harmon.ie’s impact.