A social change

Screen test: Engineering and transport consultancy Mouchel is keen to put collaboration expertise at the heart of its business practices

Collaboration is about working together towards a common goal by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.

The approach often involves teamwork and definitely requires communication. In today’s fragmented business environment ­ – across geographical regions and time zones ­ – technology has been a great enabler in providing tools and communication resources to users within and outside organisations.

Most business is done in the context of a relationship, says William Buist, president of the BlackStar life community on business networking site Ecademy.

“With the current economic climate, cost will return to the corporate equation. Therefore, finding the right partner at the right cost makes collaboration even more important,” he says. “Big businesses need to understand exactly how to collaborate effectively, both internally and externally.”

Collaboration requires communication ­ – and if you are having trouble distinguishing your Facebook from your PowerBook, you may be in trouble. Forrester Research predicts the deployment of enterprise Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, wikis, RSS, mashups and social networking, will be big news in the coming years. “Until now, IT departments have resisted Web 2.0 tools, often viewing them as consumer grade,” says Oliver Young, analyst at Forrester.

Consumer-oriented communication and collaboration tools that have traditionally been used for social interaction are increasingly being considered for use within organisations. Five years ago, business led the way with regard to the richness of applications, and many corporate tools were adopted in the home to help boost productivity. Now the tide has turned and many business users are demanding the same level of connectivity at work that they enjoy at home.

Tim Jennings, research director at analyst Butler Group, says communication technology will need to become seamlessly integrated with collaboration tools and enterprise applications. “Social networking techniques and Web 2.0 functionality used in the consumer environment will be demanded by the enterprise workforce, who will expect new tools and technologies to be made available at any location and on any device,” he says.

If family members can regularly talk to cousins in Australia through a web camera and internet telephony, then surely corporate team meetings can be executed in the same manner? For the user, this request may appear simple ­ – after all, the technology exists and many workers are familiar with the systems. But for the IT department, progress is not as easy.

The casualness of home use does not sit well within the rigid demands of an enterprise, where security, reliability and scalability have to be taken into consideration. In their current form, many collaborative applications present a risk to the business. However, unless business versions are implemented, there is a danger that Web 2.0 will start to appear unannounced.

“Technology cycles mean that consumer and enterprise technologies often interconnect and influence one another,” says Jennings. “Internet telephony, such as Skype, and the use of instant messaging (IM) in the home is having an influence on the availability of software and advanced features in the workplace.”

Companies are now looking for tools that break down the barriers to communication that typically exist in a multinational organisation. Blogging ­ – the ability to comment on messages ­ – is proving particularly successful and can be used as a platform for open and honest discussion of company developments and issues.

Karl Hood, head of information systems at Partnership for Schools, the public body set up to deliver the government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative, says two-way communication technologies are essential.

“We want our stakeholders ­ – the governors, parents, teachers, pupils and community ­ – to become involved with school projects, and an online presence where people can comment is a great way to share information,” he says.

Partnership for Schools has recently launched a web site, based on Alfresco software, that incorporates social networking tools.

“It’s built around all the things that you find in Facebook because that’s the technology people use all the time,” says Hood. “If we want to promote knowledge sharing and debate then we have to use familiar tools that need no explanation.”

Collaborative working has always been integral to the construction industry, and for engineering company Taylor Woodrow, deploying Google Apps as a hosted service has offered increased flexibility and mobility to its communication strategy. IT director Rob Ramsey says collaboration is not just about delivering the applications; it is also about providing the security and archiving to make the chosen platform a robust business application.

“The Google suite is not a replacement for high-end collaboration tools,” he says.

“But it is excellent for immediate communication within smaller communities. We are getting better feedback and more continuity within our projects.”

Taylor Woodrow estimates it has saved more than £1m by moving to hosted email and collaboration for its 1,800 employees.

But to make conferencing and collaboration work, you need tight integration, according to Marek Suchocki, head of IT at engineering consultancy group Mouchel.

“It’s important that you don’t just end up with a mass of technology options,” he says. “Collaboration expertise has to lie with the user who knows which tools are most useful according to what they want to do. The technology is there to do the brokering between applications, but it’s the user who decides if they want to use IM, videoconferencing or presentation display tools.”

And the impact of travel, not only in carbon footprint but also in economic terms, is driving the push for businesses to use more communication and collaboration tools.

“The difficulties with rising fuel prices is bringing it home to people that perhaps they don’t have to get in that car, train or plane; perhaps they can achieve the same outcome from home or the office,” says Suchocki.

While Web 2.0 platforms offer the potential for encouraging collaboration, another key enabler to effective team work will be the introduction of true unified communications with a seamless, easy-to-use interface. Peter Hall, principal analyst at Ovum, predicts we will have systems that are really intuitive and usable in three years.

“The essence of the concept is the word ‘unified’,” he says. “It’s not about separate bits, but about having applications that work together and use common resources and interfaces. The goal is to provide a suite of collaborative applications that have common presence, interfaces and directories, regardless of device.”

Technology is making collaboration and team working easier and more interesting, with a diversity of tools from instant messaging to videoconferencing. For some companies, collaboration also offers productivity gains and financial benefits ­ – and the approach can be good for the environment, too. However, there is another more subtle benefit which is that no one, unless they choose, gets left out.

“Collaborative systems are also making it easier for corporations to actively engage in an inclusion policy,” says Suchocki. “It’s easier to install the relevant technology to allow a disabled person to work from home, rather than have to adapt office space and manage transport issues. By opening up broader opportunities through the use of collaborative technologies, the corporate diversity score goes up too.”

Next week: Computing speaks to IT leaders that have implemented collaborative technologies and improved business efficiency

Five technologies that are crucial to collaboration

Wiki
The Hawaiian word for “quick” has been adopted to denote a collection of web pages where content can be easily contributed to, or modified by, viewers. The increased use of wikis in business will produce collaborative web sites that replace static intranets and become a place to collect and disseminate corporate knowledge.

Unified communications
Bridging the gap between telephony and computing, unified communications (UC) offers the ability to improve how individuals, groups and companies interact. Available across a choice of mobile and fixed devices, UC offers telephony, email, conferencing and instant messaging, as well as calendaring, presence and contact information. Available within the same interface, users will have the ability to migrate a conversation across any media.

Cloud computing
Computing resources that are typically owned and operated by third-party providers in datacentres that are available across the internet and purchased on-demand. The increased use of cloud computing facilities will allow organisations to deliver unified communications and other collaborative tools, without worrying about increased cost or available capacity.

Videoconferencing
No longer will companies need to purchase specialist suites of high-performance video equipment to participate in a video conference. Desktop videoconferencing technology will enable low-cost, face-to-face meetings to take place from the comfort of your own computer. Quality may not be high on the agenda, but such issues are outweighed by the value that video brings to the communication and collaboration process.

Social networking
Offering a more natural working environment, social networking tools will continue to appear in the corporate environment, providing collaborative workspaces and augmenting the more traditional collaboration technologies. Easy to use, social networking environments are the stamping ground of the young and may be just the thing to entice high-flying graduates into the company.

Five companies that could boost your collaborative approach

Jive Software
Clearspace from Jive Software offers a neat package that is setting standards in corporate social networking. The platform incorporates tools for internal collaboration, sharing and working on documents, blogging, running polls, organising projects, and handling group tasks. Clearspace also uses social networking features to allow employees to learn about each others’ professional activities.
www.jivesoftware.com

Brosix
An instant messaging (IM) tool with built-in security, so that organisations can build their own IM network without the need for substantial investment in new hardware, software or infrastructure. Brosix includes text and voice chat and conferencing, whiteboards, screen sharing and file transfer. All traffic is encrypted.
www.brosix.com

MindTouch
Wikis are going to be big news for corporates in all industry sectors. Web sites designed for collaboration – where users can edit, update and add pages at will – are set to form the new platform for sharing knowledge, information and files. MindTouch’s Deki claims to add Web 2.0 functionality to the enterprise, without compromising existing privacy and security rules.
www.mindtouch.com

Abelard Management Services
Collaboration is not just about technology and tools, it is also about people. If your team has not yet bought into the concept of collaborative working then no amount of technology will help. Abelard can help you develop a collaborative community spirit and a sense of ownership within your business team.
www.abelard-uk.com

TeleWare
Communication is at the heart of collaboration. UK-based IP communications vendor TeleWare, with its hosted and onsite integrated unified communications platforms, may be worth a look when assessing the voice and data convergence market.
www.teleware.com

How can IT leaders focus collaboration on people?

Peter Burris, principal analyst, Forrester Research

Thanks to Web 2.0, enterprise collaboration applications are about to take a giant leap forward – if we can figure out what they are. Why is it that we know so much about collaboration technology, but so little about how to use it to build business applications?

Most experts answer the question with technical observations concerning Web 2.0 maturity, reliability or scalability. But the real answer is more basic – Web 2.0 is social technology, and businesses still do not know how to manage the required social changes.

The rules for using most business applications are embedded within the software. Decisions regarding functional access and administrative control are usually baked deep into the application.

Web 2.0 collaboration applications, in contrast, presume people are not users of systems, but critical system components, free to alter the structures governing system behaviours in significant ways.

Gaining insight into how best to manage the social change associated with enterprise collaboration technologies will be a major challenge for business technologists during the next few years. Here are five important tips to using Web 2.0 technologies to collaborate:

Trust matters
“Garbage in, garbage out” is one of the few universal truths in IT. But when it comes to collaboration we should update the truism to “distrust in, distrust out”. The key to collaborative applications is to keep providing information regarding the status of participants.

Encourage simple methods
Collaboration works best when all parties have a clear understanding of common purpose. Technology implementation is never automatic, but successful applications of collaboration technologies inevitably start with a well-articulated set of simple objectives.

Let change bubble up
The most successful principles for collaboration system design, implementation and operation have emerged from highly decentralised systems. Over time, the professionals that engage in and administer collaborative systems find and connect with other groups, swapping best practice. You can guarantee such connections are happening in your organisation, even if the effort is unseen.

Intercept and guide
The viral nature of many collaborative applications means use might scale faster than implementation. “Radical maintenance”, which involves overhauling a system without disrupting it, is a critical competence for any Web 2.0 technology specialist – and must be mastered by IT professionals.

Leave your systems open
Where trust, simplicity, a sense of shared ownership, and respect for community use exists, keeping collaboration systems open to alteration is both possible and preferable. Such an open approach affords greater flexibility in use and agility in implementation.

Are the above tips sufficient to create a tipping point regarding business collaboration? Perhaps not, but they are necessary. However, if nothing else, we need to learn how to use collaboration to foster better business working.