FEATURE EDITORIAL

Collaboration Technology Strategy in 2008

Forrester Research recently published its finding from a survey of over 1000 IT decision makers in the US and Europe regarding their plans for implementing a formal collaboration technology strategy in 2008. The respondents were equally split: half saw it as a priority and were doing something about it, and half didn't. You can read more about the survey at CIO Magazine.

These are my reactions and thoughts:

With all of the attention (books, articles, consulting, coaching) that the issue of email overwhelm receives, one might think that IT decision makers would be taking a proactive stance on seeking out better ways than email for people and teams to work together and communicate. However, the survey results do not bear that out. Fully 70 percent of the respondents say that they are going to invest in more messaging technology in 2008. I thought that if you kept on doing the same things you got the same result. What's going on here?

There is heavy interest in Microsoft SharePoint among the respondents, which is hardly surprising. It's from Microsoft, and given Microsoft's incumbency within most large organizations, there is a direct line of influence between a Microsoft account manager or business partner and the decision makers being surveyed by Forrester. With the decision makers working at firms with more than 1,000 employees, there's enough of a revenue upside for Microsoft or a business partner to give customized attention and briefings around the possibilities and prospects for SharePoint. That's my explanation as to why these respondents gave SharePoint such a high ranking. It is top of mind, and they haven't paid attention to other alternatives. SharePoint has defined the area for them, and if they evaluate other tools, the reference point is SharePoint.

Forrester reports that 68 percent of its respondents indicated plans to invest in "real-time collaboration software", a phrase that generally means instant messaging. Technology for enterprise instant messaging has been widely available for many years, so what's with the high interest now? My sense is that the employees at these firms have already fully embraced free public instant messaging services, and IT is in catch up mode to deliver an enterprise-class and enterprise-secure IM and presence service. They wouldn't do it if they didn't have to, but those on the business side are now so fully invested they won't let it go. IM has proven its value, and is now being demanded.

Net-net of the report: IT will put money in 2008 into areas that it (a) already understands or (b) is playing catch up. There is little or no forward-looking investment in collaboration tools (yes, the 28 percent that are investing in social software is a "little"). Thus, if you want to see IT pay more attention to collaboration software in the next five years, start a grassroots movement to embrace and adopt the tools for team and group work. Let the business side drive the interest and adoption of these tools, and then in three to five years IT will be in catch up mode on collaboration. Once the business users start demanding it, IT will have to move.

And maybe, just maybe, the embrace of this strategy is the real path to success that Microsoft has ridden with SharePoint. As the CMS Watch news item below reports, when IT goes a-looking they find a huge number of SharePoint sites in existence already, and people wanting to use it, and therefore they are forced to do something at the IT-level with it. It's a strategy that has worked for many other tools that were once maligned by IT and are now seen as core business. Why do we think that it will be any different with collaboration technology?

In closing, let me ask three questions:

1. What should a "collaboration technology strategy" encompass?
2. How should IT decision makers go about developing one?
3. What are we to make of the 50 percent of respondents that expressed little or no interest in collaboration technology for 2008?

I'd love to hear your thoughts msampson@messagingnews.com for input into a future edition of Collaboration Newswire.

This is the final edition of Collaboration Newswire for 2007. Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends, and may 2008 bring many opportunities to learn more and contribute better.

Michael Sampson

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

SharePoint = "Virus"

CMS Watch concluded that the latest edition of SharePoint is being embraced without adequate planning, and this is opening significant risks. "As the number of MOSS instances grows, enterprises can in fact reach a point of negative returns where an inability to manage proliferating SharePoint silos becomes a hidden but serious enterprise management risk. Customers then require compliance tools are needed along with industrial strength archiving - costs that most enterprises have not budgeted for."

For more: PharmaLive

Cultural Journey at Janssen-Cilag

Nathan reports on the cultural journey that his firm, Janssen-Cilag, has been on with the adoption of a wiki for collaboration. "Success is defined by what we do, not what we have the opportunity to do. Implementing a wiki isn't success, building an organization that will take collective ownership and collaboratively edit content is. Technology creates opportunity for changes of behavior and helps shift the conversation away from excuses (it's too hard) to reasons (it's too risky). Frankly, at Janssen-Cilag, we don't yet know exactly how we should be communicating and collaborating. But, we do know that the steps we've taken so far have improved communication, increased our flexibility and given people the power to run with ideas. We want to continue this journey, pushing more power to the edge of the organization."

For more: e-gineer

ikordo

ikordo shifted its calendaring scheduling service out of beta. "ikordo uses advanced natural language processing to understand written email responses and communicates back and forth in a friendly fashion, negotiating a time and date acceptable to everyone. In the words of a recent new user 'You put in who needs to be at a meeting, general time frame, and topic. ikordo emails everyone back and forth and nails down a perfect time for everyone! How easy is that?' Well we think it's really easy!"

For more: ikordo

We welcome your ideas and your news for Collaboration Newswire's News & Trends in Collaboration. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Michael Sampson. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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