Solution Overviews » Management » Collaboration

Collaboration

Author: TechShortcut Staff | Article updated: October 19, 2009


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In general, any solution or technology that involves multiple users could be classified as collaborative. The purpose of this overview is to help answer the question, "What type of collaborative application do I need?" by exploring some common business needs matched with related types of collaborative applications. Since collaboration is possible in so many ways and there are many overlapping categories of applications, the bottom line is to keep your focus on your business needs.

Collaboration means people working together towards a common objective. A key to collaboration is communication. Thanks to the Internet, there are more options than ever for collaboration and it is possible to add collaboration to nearly any business process. Collaboration can range from a few employees working together on a project to including customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

In software solution terms, common collaborative applications include websites, groupware, knowledge management, content management and project management. Even office productivity applications like word processing, spreadsheet and presentation may include collaboration functionality.

In addition to software applications that capture and share information, there are technology infrastructure components that provide communication channels like video conferencing, audio conferencing, instant messaging, desktop sharing, networking and integration.

Collaboration Needs

Business Need Typical Solution Options

Internal Company Information Sharing

Provide information to bring new employees up to speed or provide a central place for tools to help employees become more efficient or effective. Employees may or may not be able to update or add input. The amount of functionality and structure can vary.

When you want to display information.

When you want to share devices and transmit information.

External Company Information Sharing

Provide resources or tools that only your customer or suppliers can access. Customer related examples include FAQs, customer service issue entry, quote entry and order entry. Supplier examples may include supplier training and inventory level details.

When you want to display information.

Send or receive information electronically like orders.

  • Integration

Managing Employee Email, Calendars and Contacts

When your business requires a lot of communication or interaction between employees, integrated email, contacts and calendars help ensure you can set up meetings quickly and easily. Knowledge workers, project workers and professional service workers typically fall into this category.

Transaction Collaboration

You may need input from employees, customers or suppliers to process a quote, order or purchase order or perform a key business process. Since transactions are typically managed by the accounting/financial management application, this is the ideal spot to keep related information so focus there first.

If your finance or accounting application can't support more details to enhance collaboration.

Project Management

Employees, and maybe even customers and suppliers, need to work together on a project. Project management applications are the first place to look. You will need to determine how much focus you need on scope, schedule and cost details.

Meetings and Communication

Do you find yourself wanting to enhance meetings by being able to add video or review a document on a computer? Looking for ways to reduce travel expenses? Options abound for interactive web meetings and presentations.

Share Computers or Peripherals

Need to share files or peripherals like printers or scanners?

Considerations

  • Business Process

    Detail the business process that needs collaboration. Do you need collaboration on a particular transaction like a customer order, project or a specific document?

  • Communication

    Do you need communication in multiple directions or will it primarily be one way.

  • Usage

    How often will you be using the application? Will collaboration be done all the time or just by exception?

  • Number of Users

    How many users will participate? More users usually means you will need a better security infrastructure to manage permissions and track changes.

  • External Users

    Will you only be including company insiders or also including customers and suppliers? If you are adding external users then security will need to be tightly controlled.

Outside Information

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