The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Loneliness in Virtual Work … There are many benefits for organizations and individuals who can work virtually–but how have you answered the “loneliness” issue? “Granted, it’s not a majority, but for some, telework brings a sense of feeling “left out,” perhaps to the extent of missing opportunities for advancement, or to influence the opinions of others with a viable presence in the office. For a few, they just miss the structure of an office and find working at home to be more distracting than inspiring. Some employers willingly welcome these folks back into the fold, while others address this by providing resources, support, and training to their telework forces that help them adapt to working from home, enable them to make better use of technology, and learn how to interact effectively and productively in an electronic environment.” Lancelot
• KM Team Size … Steve argues for a smaller KM team rather than a large one, for three reasons: (a) less time spent on coordinating and meeting, and more on actual planning and implementation; (b) it forces the team to focus on doing only the most important things for the organization; and (c) the team is less likely to be a target for downsizing and cost cutting. HP
• APQC Research Study … APQC is running a multi-customer research program investigating the integration of emerging technologies with KM and collaboration efforts. Key questions to be addressed: (a) how to support collaboration among globally dispersed, multi-divisional teams; (b) how to adopt and implement new and evolving tools and technologies; (c) how to identify the “right” collaborative tools to use; (d) how best to manage a portfolio of tools; and (e) how to address generational differences in the use of collaborative tools. APQC
• Make the Work Interesting … Key strategies for cultivating engagement among employees where jobs aren’t particularly stimulating: (a) have a very enthusiastic manager; (b) seek out opportunities to help staff grow and develop in their professional fields; (c) treat people to a morning tea or lunch. Manage Smarter
• Rules When You Are the Only Person Dialing In … If you are the only person dialing into a conference call, Jessica points to some guidelines from a recent edition of WIRED. “Announce yourself when it begins and remind people that you cannot see air quotes or scribbles on the whiteboard. Have an intern email you digital snaps. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification. And mute your phone when you’re not speaking, so no one hears SportsCenter in the background.” Jessica Lipnack

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Leverage Adding Wikis … Leverage Software is planning to add wiki capabilities to its social networking offering. It wants to compete more with Microsoft and IBM for enterprise customers. “Walsh said he expects Leverage to have about 1,000 customers by the end of next year, about 20% to 25% of which will be enterprises using the service to help their employees collaborate.” CBR
• Answering the SharePoint Question? … Who “owns” the content within your organization or your customer’s organization? “If you compete with Microsoft (and who doesn’t?), you are a fool to believe you can do so effectively without answering the SharePoint question. Ultimately, it’s a question of content: who owns and controls it? If you don’t have an answer to SharePoint in your product arsenal, I guarantee that Microsoft, not you, will own your customers. They might be your database customer today, Oracle, but SharePoint requires SQL Server. And IIS. And Microsoft Office. And…you get the picture.” builder.au
• InfoWorld Reviews SharePoint … Brian and Oliver at InfoWorld provide a 5-page overview of the installation, pricing, meta-model, integration with Office applications, and key concerns (large hardware requirements, IT support needs, pricing — “it’s not cheap”) regarding SharePoint 2007. “As far as SharePoint goes on its own, this article can give only a skeleton outline of what can be accomplished with this platform; a complete accounting would turn this into one of those musty tomes a librarian can’t move without a handcart. For now, let’s just say that calling MOSS a collaboration tool with an Office front end is the new definition of oversimplification. MOSS is at once a collaboration platform, an application development platform, a homegrown workflow engine, and a business intelligence tool. We’ll cover all these points in detail in this piece and the following three.“InfoWorld
• RIM = Easy … Eric argues that the beauty of the RIM BlackBerry lies in its simplicity and easy of use. “RIM makes them so intuitive to use that anyone can figure them out in about 5 minutes. Including cavemen. Aside from delivering an unending stream of e-mails to your hip, they also run a host of third-party applications that let enterprise workers be productive when out in the field. So, it’s no big surprise that enterprise professionals rank them highly.” Over the Air
• Meeting Maker on PocketPC … Vargon Software offers MMSync, for synchronizing a Meeting Maker calendar with a PocketPC. Available immediately. deBlor
• Jive Takes $15m … Jive Software announced a $15 million venture capital infusion from Sequoia Capital. “To that end, Jive will use its fresh cash to promote Clearspace, the collaboration software package that Jive has sold to a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Nokia Corp., Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.” Portland Business Journal

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• One Thing … What David talks about regarding “one-firm firms” can equally apply to individuals. What are you the best at? David Maister
• Email = Stress Inducing … A third of respondents in a recent survey said that the number of emails they receive causes “stress”. One strategy: check less frequently. BBC News, Scotsman (hat tip, Jessica)
• Overcome Tiredness … Brad’s six steps for overcoming tiredness: (a) high aerobic exercise, (b) cut the sugar, (c) eat a good breakfast, (d) eat a light lunch, (e) take time during lunch for you, and (f) cat-nap. Getting a night of unbroken sleep helps a lot too! Achieve-IT

Other Noteworthy Insights

• VMware Fusion 1.0 … Chris looks at some of the reviews coming in for VMware Fusion 1.0, a new virtualization offering for Mac OS X. Some early adopters claim it is much better than Parallels, the current market leader. Chris Pirillo
• NZ Already Okay for Videoconferencing … Based on my recent experience with Tandberg for video conferencing with the East Coast of the US, Bruce challenges the idea that current ADSL infrastructure in NZ is insufficient for global business. Bwooce’s Log