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WITH SO MANY companies and businesses working with multiple
offices in different time zones, communication is critical. Employees and
business partners don't have time to waste waiting for people to get back to
them by phone or e-mail. More often than not, they need information in real
time. Collaboration software provides a central, Web-based meeting place to
share information and documents through customizable folders and discussions.
One such collaboration product is SiteScape's Enterprise Forum 6.0, which
provides companies with the tools necessary to increase productivity and
capture employee knowledge. Version 6.0 ships with many new features,
including newly prebuilt forum solutions and built-in workflow, at no extra
cost than the previous release.
Workflow is no longer a separate application, and customization has been
improved with workflow fixes for automating collaboration processes.
Additional features that will improve user productivity and retain shared
knowledge include threaded discussions and shared work spaces, as well as
chat, document management, and co-authoring capabilities. Sitescape Forum
also provides question polling, team work space, wireless support, Alta Vista
search capabilities, a TCL interpreter, and Oracle and Plumtree portlets.
SiteScape Forum's main competitors, eRoom Technology's eRoom and Open Text's
LiveLink, both target global 2000 corporations. These competitors' products
come at a higher price but offer functionality comparable to SiteScape's.
eRoom, for example, costs as much as $9,995 plus $199 per client compared to
SiteScape's $6,995 for 200 users. In comparison, SiteScape Forum is a steal.
We installed SiteScape within 10 minutes because virtually no special
configuration is necessary. We used the NT version, but Version 6.0 is also
available for Solaris and Linux. After creating our team of users, which
could be imported together, LDAP-synchronized, or NT-authenticated, we then
created multiple work spaces and began communicating and sharing files with
team members.
SiteScape Forum's tabbed interface makes it easy for users to navigate
through work spaces, discussions, calendars, and chat rooms. The product
includes wizards and tutorials for the administrator and end-users.
Both administrators and end-users (with permission) can create work spaces
for a shared team environment. A work space is a collection of forums and
discussions that are used for a specific group with common goals and
interests. We created work spaces for the engineering, marketing, and human
resources departments, for example. Each work space can be used for various
tasks such as managing a project, sharing documents, or posting information.
Users may have access to several work spaces.
We easily shared documents using SiteScape Forum's Web file system and posted
documents to discussion forums using the document management feature. We also
co-authored and commented on important files. With the check-in/check-out
feature, documents can be locked to keep two users from editing at the same
time. Version 6.0 retains a copy of previous versions on the SiteScape
server, allowing you to archive important files.
In addition, the Alta Vista search feature streamlines the searching
functionality of SiteScape Forum, a big improvement over the previous
version. Searches cover forums, discussions, chat rooms, and attached
documents and can be restricted by author, keyword, and/or specific date.
In our testing, we also used some of the prebuilt templates, including the
résumé tracking and sales management forums, to help streamline our business
processes. These templates take advantage of the built-in workflow for
tracking documents, such as the status of a résumé. We were also able to set
up an e-mail notification to alert us when new entries were added to a
specific forum.
Version 6.0 offers increased levels of customization. Simple changes can be
made through wizards, and complex customization can be made with HTML templates
and the SiteScape toolkit. All of the prebuilt forums and solutions packaged
with SiteScape can be customized for further enhancement. Programmers will
have no problem learning how to make changes using SiteScape's TCL (Tool
Command Language); it is similar to C and C++.
What SiteScape Forum 6.0 lacks is a to-do or task list, a feature included in
many competitors' products. Company officials say such a list feature may be
added to future releases.
Companies trying to better manage projects and communicate to globally
distributed teams spanning multiple time zones will benefit by increased
productivity when they use this product. Employees will be better equipped to
meet deadlines and get products to market faster, helping their company stay
competitive. We believe SiteScape Forum is worth deploying in your
organization.
Lori
Mitchell, a freelance writer, covers Internet collaboration tools and
e-learning. She can be reached at LoriMitch2001@yahoo.com.
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BOTTOM LINE
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SiteScape Forum 6.0 
BUSINESS
CASE
This Web-based collaboration application improves communication among
team members, employees, and business partners.
TECHNOLOGY
CASE
SiteScape Forum is easy to install and deploy. The collaboration tool
places no extra burden on IT staff.
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PROS
+ Provides customization with HTML-based templates
+ Includes developers' toolkit for simplifying advanced
customization
+ Offers distributed administration capabilities
CONS
- No team to-do lists
PLATFORM
INFO
OSes: Sun Solaris 2.5 and newer, Windows NT 4.0 and newer, Compaq Tru64,
RedHat Linux 5.2 to 7.0; Web Servers: Netscape Enterprise 2.0 and newer,
FastTrack 2.0 and newer, Apache 1.3.x, and Microsoft IIS 3.0 and newer
COST
$6,995 for 200 users
COMPANY
SiteScape Inc., www.sitescape.com
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