International brewer SABMiller has implemented collaboration software to improve team working for staff in 60 countries.

The company has created a collaboration toolkit, developed across a three-month period by suppliers Avanade and Deloitte, using the first global deployment of Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server, Live Communication Server and LiveMeeting tools.

The new system gives SABMiller employees access to a range of communication and information-sharing tools, including internal wikis, blogs and an instant messenger capable of locating individual workers. The toolkit’s ‘collaboration rooms’ provide a virtual area for colleagues to share files and work on documents simultaneously.

Karen Pritchett, business applications manager at SABMiller, says the collaboration rooms played a vital role in allowing teams from different continents to reach a consensus on standardised ways of working.

She says the suite also proved useful when co-operating with other companies outside the brewer’s immediate network.

‘We have various global projects going on at a given time, where not just SABMiller employees are involved, but also third parties as well,’ she said.

‘We’ve used those rooms to share relevant documentation, the plans and calendars of the team as well as all the discussion threads, issues and risks – the various elements within any project management structure.’

The software has also made it easier for employees to learn from previous projects. A construction team in Colombia built a new brewery in just under a year, after consulting files from a similar 18-month project in South Africa.

The collaboration toolkit was introduced in February this year, following a two-month trial period. The brewer is now in the process of collecting feedback to examine the software’s impact on company productivity.

‘Anecdotal evidence says it’s helping a lot of our globally diverse teams,' said Pritchett. ‘It’s allowed them to be quicker, more efficient and to travel less.’

SABMiller is one of the world’s largest breweries, and sells beers such as Miller and Peroni.