By far the most impressive adoption occurred in the Grants workgroup. About two days before the new wiki system was to be deployed, we learned that the Development Officer announced formally that he planned to retire. Without his knowledge of the vast file cabinets of documents, the grant writing process would be hindered severely. He was optimistic however that the wiki solution he had been so active in designing would allow him to retire without leaving AARS in a lurch. He began using the system soon after it was deployed, and after four weeks of use all the essential documents required for future grant writing were up and searchable on the wiki. Jonas Aquino and the Development Officer agree that this single outcome had a substantial positive impact on AARS and spurred Aquino to upgrade from free open-source wiki software to an enterprise grade wiki.

In Summation

Per the terms of the research agreement, the prototype software was removed at the completion of the project. After the final reports were given, both AARS and Ricoh Innovations believed the collaboration was a success. Ricoh gained valuable insight into the workflow needs of customers adopting advanced digital workflow features, as well a first-hand account of the trade-offs faced by a small, financially strapped IT department. From AARS standpoint Jonas Aquino stated "Working with Ricoh Innovations has directly led to an implementation of new technology and processes that I feel will have significant impact for years to come."