Enterprise Collaboration - Role of Technology
I tend to group these into 3 perspectives:
1. Information Perspective - Make it easy to find and share information
Most large enterprises have teams spread in several geographies. Finding information and managing shared information is becoming increasingly difficult. Most of these organizations are recognizing the need for an enterprise wide information management strategy that takes into account not just structured but unstructured data as well. If most of the documents in your enterprise are being shared using emails irrespective of number of recipients and it's hard to find information when you need it, I think you know what I am talking about.
Movement of large platform vendors and increased adoption of collaborative information management tools like Microsoft SharePoint Server is a clear indication that enterprise are taking this aspect of collaboration quite seriously. From a Microsoft point of view, this has enabled them to move from a successful information worker tools provider into the Information Management space.
2. Communication Perspective - Make it easy to express and communicate effectively
I often feel the need to walk up to the person and express myself, especially when the problem or idea is not well defined or still in conceptualization phase. With distributed teams, effective communication of ideas\problems etc is an important aspect of collaboration. Depending on factors like the number of people I am communicating with, the time zone factor, urgency level and complexity of the message, I would like to use different set of communication tools. While a plethora of tools are already available for communication in most enterprises, the disjointed manner it which these are being made available is impacting adoption (after the initial excitement). Clearly, there is need to deliver enhanced communication capabilities in an integrated and synchronized manner.
Several enterprises are already laying foundations for this through a variety of technology initiatives like VoIP enablement, messaging upgrades, integrated presence, mobility etc. However, the human aspects or the experience aspects of these still being neglected due to which a lot of money\effort is likely to be spent after the deployment in trying to make people use the technology. Clearly, there is a need to focus on human and experience aspects early and take a unified people or role oriented approach for such initiatives.
Microsoft, which has already large deployments of Exchange and Messaging software and a popular mobile platform, is investing heavily the unified communication area. These are still early days and it will be interesting to watch in what direction does the market moves.
3. People Perspective - Make it easy to find people and connect with them
One of the other aspects that people in global enterprises are struggling with is "finding the right people" and connecting with them. Most of the tools or applications are tuned to finding and managing people you already know. With talent distributed across the several locations and several people on the move, it is often hard to find the right people at the right time. Networking opportunities like company meetings, coffee breaks, hallway conversations are also limited. However, a few enterprises are realizing how important networking opportunities are, for not just sharing and ideation, but even for executing day to day work. They are already experimenting with enterprise social networking sites to help people from different locations to "get to know" each other and establish a level of trust which is fundamental for collaboration.
As far as enterprise collaboration technologies are concerned, we are still in early days. Collaboration is an important aspect for doing business in the flat world and role of technology will become increasingly important especially in the global context. I believe that eventually, global enterprises will need to address collaboration from all the 3 perspectives - information, communication and people in an integrated fashion to realize the foundations of a "true collaboration platform".
