Forrester Research has 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 gets, one might think that IT decision makers would be taking a proactive stance on seeking out better ways for people and teams to work together and communicate rather than email. The survey results don’t bear that out, however. Fully 70% 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 take 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% of its respondents indicated plans to invest in “real-time collaboration software”, a phrase which 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 catchup 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 so fully invested in it that they won’t let it go. It has proven its value, and is now being demanded.

Net-net: IT is putting its money in 2008 into areas that it (a) already understands or (b) is playing catchup. There is little or no forward-looking investment in collaboration tools (yes, the 28% 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 5 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 3-5 years IT will be in catchup 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 CMS Watch reported recently, 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’s going to be any different with collaboration technology?