Sphere
#38
2015
09
<<
event where people from IT, Network,
Product, Operations, Marketing, Customer
Service and Digital Channels come to
collaborate. “We didn’t anticipate this
becoming a company-wide event. But
that is exactly what it is today. 3Labs has
become an event for anyone at
3
Sweden.”
Serious business
Over the past two-and-a-half years, 3Labs
has generated over 140 innovations.
These ideas vary from trying out a new
tool, system or platform, to delivering
new apps, test-automation suites and
operations management. Some have been
implemented to help make the operations
of
3
Sweden much more efficient and
productive. One example is 3Agile
Architecture Visualisation, a web-based
tool for visualising the company’s systems
integrations and architecture in a more
interactive way.
Other good prospects are in the pipeline
and will undergo planning and other
preparatory work. A potential mobile app
that has come out of 3Labs will ideally tell
customers the state of their mobile device’s
Internet service, including performance
features such as speed and reception.
But what if some of the ideas coming out
are failures? Ms Ling replies, “There are
no failures with 3Labs. Only challenges.
Everyone’s a winner, and by working with
ideas, we disrupt and cause paradigm
shifts in the pattern of our thinking,
allowing us to be more creative. Just being
a part of 3Labs is a success.”
Bright future
The success of the programme is due to
its dedicated 3Labs Crew, the backing
from the management team and all the
staff who have taken part in the event.
“Together, we have built the spirit of
3Labs,” says Ms Ling.
The hard part comes next. “Our work in
embedding the spirit deeper into
3
Sweden’s culture has just begun,” says
Ms Ling. “But the 3Labs Crew is up to the
challenge and we see a future where the
numbers of both the participants and the
Crew will continue to grow.”
3Labs has pushed, and continues to
push,
3
Sweden. Lots of ideas have come
out of it. More importantly, its spirit –
experimentation and innovation – has
become part of
3
Sweden’s future.
Getting Graphic: 3Agile
Architecture Visualisation
Out of the innovative kitchen of
3Labs came a game-changing
application – 3Agile Architecture
Visualisation has changed and
improved the company’s way of
working.
And so it was born
3
Sweden’s IT department designs
software to facilitate the company’s
business workflow, and these
software systems depend on smooth
interactions with one another to
function. As these intertwined
systems continued to grow, it
became increasingly difficult to track
how they were connected to one
another, and in which part of the
business chain they were involved.
3Labs was the perfect place to find a
solution.
The idea was simple: Visualise the
ecology of the systems in the form
of a graph so that a user can see how
all these systems are connected to
one another.
Picture-perfect
The 3Agile Architecture
Visualisation tool does just that.
The tool provides a graphical view
of which systems are involved in the
business flow and in which subset of
the integration each system is used.
Versatile
Born out of 3Labs, the application
has dramatically improved
productivity, helping
3
Sweden to
work faster, and smarter.
The tool allows business analysts,
architects, developers, testers and
operations support to efficiently
visualise – and subsequently identify
– business requirements to fulfil and
problems to solve.
In the past three years,
3
Sweden
has consistently cut down the time
needed to deliver new products. The
team reduced its lead time for new
product release from six months
to two months, and is now on the
verge of cutting the delivery time
further to an amazing two weeks. An
impressive feat, in which 3Labs has
definitely played its part.
Product lead times cut from
six months to two weeks.
3Labs welcomes staff from across the company
to work either as individuals, or together in large
groups, to collaborate and innovate.
