ABS goes social with IBM

The offices of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have been decked out with wikis, blogs and instant messaging after the agency deployed a social-media platform for its 3200 staff.

The bureau will be using IBM Lotus Connections throughout the organisation. It hopes the platform will reduce report duplication and foster innovation by allowing staff to interact over the local intranet and collaborate on projects.

ABS head of IT, Duncan Young, said the social-media platform went "viral" following a three-month pilot run with a few hundred staff.

"Staff can do group editing in real time, and chat and share ideas," Young said.

"It helps us stay ahead in business operations, and offers file stores and tagging which offers advantages over traditional documents."

The platform will also be used to assist with staff recruitment.

Users previously collaborated over email and paper-based reports that resulted in project duplication, Young said. The Lotus Connections platform has strict version control that prevents the creation of duplicate projects.

The agency already uses blogs and wikis with the public through its beta website, which is used to road-test new ideas and offer community feedback.

The value of the deal with IBM was not disclosed.