Collaboration software: Preparing for productive partnerships

Collaboration software had its beginnings with the launch of Lotus Notes in 1989 and the establishment of the "groupware" market. However, its popularity has remained muted - until now.

Increasingly, the issue of collaboration software is resurfacing as organisations search for ways to improve their productivity ratings by leveraging technology.

Willie Bezuidenhout, a business technologist at Computer Associates, looks at how this class of software can be employed to assist employees to work together more productively.

Organisations are increasingly looking for opportunities to steal a march on their opposition. They have realised that one of the best methods is to improve the way they work.

Consequently, companies are looking for IT solutions to help their staff work together more productively.

Increasingly, the notion of "collaboration" is being discussed in the corridors of power of leading organisations.

The corporate network has been identified as an ideal shared space where an exchange of ideas and concepts can take place - independent of location and time - that will ultimately be of material benefit to the productivity goals of the organisation it serves.

The value to any organisation of a concerted effort is immense. Collaborative environments make it possible for groups of people to create discussion threads that address related topics. This allows individuals with similar focus areas to share information and insights - and facilitates the archiving of discussions and information for future reference.

Achieving this "hot house" environment means developing an in-depth understanding of how people work together. It also means supplying them with the tools they need for collaboration on their own terms. Not imposing ways of working on them that fit the limitations of "known" technology.

Unfortunately, what many firms have failed to realise is that the collaboration ideal is contrary to human nature.

It is natural for people to strive for independence - for individuality - in the workplace. Whether it is a loyal employee or a part-time contractor, the drive is the same: They want to "do things their way" and "march to their own drum".

Do they contemplate the impact of their actions on their business? Do they consider issues such as best practices, standards, accountability and responsibility in their quest? Probably not.

Another factor that has precluded the widespread adoption of collaboration solutions is the recent economic downturn.

In times of economic hardship, areas such as collaboration initiatives are among the first to be targeted for downscaling - because of the difficulties in quantifying success.

Undoubtedly, it is almost impossible to measure the benefits of individual processes and methodologies that - when working in concert - will work together to achieve corporate-wide productivity targets.

As a result, many so-called "soft" issues relating to collaboration initiatives are either not adequately addressed, or seldom receive the necessary attention they deserve. And it is the softer issues that touch the hard reality of project failures, which can definitely be measured in monetary terms.

Ironically, is it is often a soft issue that could make a contribution to a corporate cost cutting initiative...

Nevertheless, there is light at the end of the tunnel and, almost by default, collaboration solutions are slowing emerging from the wings to take centre stage.

This is because resource constrained organisations are being forced to prioritise their work in favour of initiatives that are most aligned with their business directions.

Organisations are attempting to improve their project schedules and shrink their product development cycles.

But how can they ensure that their critical human resources are spending their time on those important activities? If time is not captured, it can`t be managed or aligned. The door for collaborative software has been opened.

Building a collaborative enterprise is a leadership issue. Management should look to itself to create the climate for the application of new collaborative systems that will leverage existing technology - and build on the strengths of older systems and platforms.

Collaborative systems are not comprised of mere technology alone, but are actually a mix of people, process and technology.

They should - at least initially - design systems that employ simple technology to handle high volumes of routine tasks. And then weave in human procedures to handle the non-routine tasks needing special attention.

Collaborative systems based on this model are much easier and less costly to build.

The beginning of wisdom in this arena is having an acute sense of what is possible; so management should not over-commit. When defining business goals and the collaborative systems needed to reach those goals, aim for objectives that are within reach. In other words, set challenging goals but not hopeless goals.

Project failure - of any kind - is disheartening for those involved. A mere reinforcement of effort or simply "trying harder" is not a sufficient enough change to ensure the success of the project the second time around.

At times like these, people are demoralised and they will not rise to the challenge of redoing the necessary work unless there are meaningful upgrades in the approach.

This is where the introduction of collaborative solutions will be of utmost value. However, these solutions must incorporate a comprehensive spectrum of business tools, including instant messaging, chat, co-browsing and Web-based audio/video conferencing to be effective.

In fact, user awareness, as facilitated by a Web portal structure, will enable effective multi-party, ad hoc and scheduled collaboration with secure real-time interactive viewing of content and applications.

This will spur communications and the exchange of information, ideas, data and knowledge across networks of employees, partners, customers and suppliers - to the ultimate benefit of the project or endeavour.

In conclusion, here is a list of seven rules or guidelines for the resourceful use of IT. The first guideline cannot be ignored under any circumstances and it is best to follow the other six as well. If more than two of them are ignored, failure is the inevitable result.

* Closely align IT projects with business goals.

* Use systems to change the competitive landscape.

* Leverage the strengths of existing systems.

* Use simple combinations of technology and business procedures to achieve the needed system performance requirements.

* Structure the system design to provide flexibility in the development sequence used to build the system.

* Do not try to build a system whose complexity exceeds the organisation`s capabilities.

* Do not renew a project using the same organisational approach or the same system design after it has once failed.