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Selecting a
collaboration product or service
1. Understand the type of collaboration your company requires.
2. Map out how your company is using the Internet.
3. Define customization and integration requirements.
4. Determine IT staff requirements.
5. Select a solution that is natural for users.
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THE ONSLAUGHT OF dispersed work forces along with increased
competition and shorter product cycles means collaboration between employees
and business partners is at a critical juncture. Collaboration tools are an
important means for turning the travel time and expense of old into work time
and increased profits.
Collaboration is one of the top three trends of 2000, according to the
Boston-based Hurwitz Group, and new vendors are popping up everywhere
offering everything from niche technologies such as Web conferencing to
complete collaboration suites that create a knowledge store of shared
documents, meetings, and conversations.
Not all collaboration solutions are created equal. They range from simple
tools to complex, back-end systems.
On the light end of the scale are messaging collaboration tools such as Lotus
Sametime and Parlano MindAlign that provide real-time instant messaging and
chat features. Similar consumer-based products such as America Online and
Yahoo have also infiltrated the business scene.
Tools from Placeware and WebEx enable Web conferencing collaboration for
conducting real-time meetings and seminars. Many of these tools offer
integrated desktop and application sharing and can also be used for training
and customer support.
In the middle are collaboration tools called digital workspaces that provide
virtual workspaces where team members can store files, track issues, check
team calendars, and conduct ongoing discussions. Products in this category
include e-Room, TeamAnywhere, SiteScape, and ActiveProject. All are very
useful for ongoing collaborative projects.
The most sophisticated and newest category to surface is called e-commerce
collaboration or, as analyst firms Gartner, Meta Group, and others call it,
contextual collaboration. New products and services such as Flypaper and
Intraspect offer all of the features above in one solution along with
integration with enterprise applications. These tools help organizations tie
information together in a central location from various applications such as
CRM (customer relationship management) and SFA (sales-force automation).
Choosing
the right one
The first step to picking the right Web collaboration service or product is
to define the type of collaboration your company requires. Consider how you
are currently collaborating and decide if you want to expand or merely
digitize that process. Do you need a simple form of chat or instant
messaging? Do chat sessions need to be stored? Are files currently being
shared, and what types of files are they? Select a collaboration service that
offers shared space and supports multiple file types.
Define what set of features you require and get to know the different options
each vendor offers. Some of the basic features include Web conferencing,
shared calendars, discussions, shared workspaces, document sharing, chat,
instant messaging, and whiteboard features. Many of these features are
offered individually, although some vendors offer hybrids. Make note that
some vendors charge extra for additional modules.
The second step is to understand how you use the Internet to get your
products and services to market. How are you communicating with dispersed
workers, customers, and suppliers? Is information shared across private lines
or through firewalls? Are current systems integrated with suppliers, and how?
Find out how the service addresses working with firewalls and what methods of
security may be in place. Some vendors may have limitations to working with
firewalls.
Next, take the time to not only map your integration and customization
requirements, but to understand them. Bringing important business processes
together requires integration with existing applications such as CRM. Many
collaboration applications can be integrated with back-end systems either right
out of the box or with weeks of development.
Determine with the vendor the length of time for integration and
customization. Flypaper offers what they call instant collaborative commerce
that can be integrated with many external products.
Then consider how much support will be required by internal IT staff. How
easy will it be to deploy and train users? Will you have to hire additional
staff for maintenance and/or development issues? Will existing staff suffice
or require training? In most cases, hosted collaboration will alleviate most
of the maintenance issues, but don't take this for granted; find out what is
required to keep this service running adequately.
Last but not least, the solution should be easy to use. Collaboration doesn't
always come naturally and should be in a form people are used to using, via
the Web or e-mail, for example. Get a clear understanding of your
organization's culture and use motivational tactics to get your solution
implemented. Of course, pointing out a beneficial reason to use the tool will
speed its adoption.
Lori Mitchell
is a free-lance writer covering Web collaboration and other Web tools. Reach
her at lorimitch2001@yahoo.com.
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