The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• If you are planning a new collaboration strategy, Jason argues that you have to include email in your planning. “Email, whether we like or not, is the lowest common denominator other than face-to-face. You would be hard pressed to name any mid-sized to large business or enterprise that doesn’t significantly rely on email. If we accept this premise, then it follows that a collaboration solution must somehow leverage email content to be effective. Most people working in business are going to have a difficult time changing their job and day-to-day processes to account for new collaboration platforms.” He continues to talk about how his firm has embraced email content in its collaboration platform.
• Want a collaboration platform that your users will actually use? Forget wikis, and go with email lists, says Steven.
• What factors are necessary to stimulate collaboration? Jason thinks three are central: (1) incentives, (2) the right tools, and (3) recognition. Question from Michael: Do we have to have this discussion re email? Why not?
• Nancy from Guided Insights offers a great collection of articles on virtual meetings, global teams, project leadership, and communications excellence.

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Google unveiled Google Sites, a team collaboration offering based on the technology acquired through the JotSpot acquisition. It is part of the Google Apps suite. “Google Sites, a new offering from Google Apps, makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document. Use Google Sites to centralize all types of information — from videos to presentations — and share your site with just a few people, your entire organization, or the world.” See coverage at Redmond, CMSWatch and ChannelWeb. Matt argues that the focus on wikis for all collaboration is misplaced.
• AvePoint released the DocAve eRoom Migrator, to enable organizations to migrate content from Documentum eRoom to Microsoft SharePoint 2007. “With DocAve eRoom Migrator, administrators can easily perform seamless, full-fidelity content migration to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services version 3. It supports selective migrations and allows for the co-existence of multiple platforms as businesses migrate content incrementally into SharePoint.“
• Funambol announced a strategic partnership with Simdesk, for push email extensions to its hosted messaging and collaboration offering. “Simdesk’s decision to license Funambol software marks the strengthening of its mobile services focus and comes during a year that will see a deeper convergence of mobile services for enterprise users and consumers. This convergence is compelling SMBs to integrate mobile capabilities with their workers’ diverse array of personal phones. By using Funambol open source software, Simdesk will provide a mobile messaging solution that offers the broadest mobile device compatibility in the market.“
• The SharePoint team at Microsoft has released new guidance of deploying SharePoint 2007 geographically. This is interesting advice (emphasis added): “First, there are a couple of tools that can be used to extend SharePoint to the desktop when clients are offline or are working across unreliable WAN links. The easiest to implement is Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. Users can connect to a SharePoint library directly from Office Outlook 2007 and take documents within the library offline. While offline, users can easily access, preview, search, and edit documents. When online, users can use Office Outlook 2007 to synchronize their changes. Users can also view and update SharePoint calendars and view and create tasks on a SharePoint site directly in Office Outlook 2007. These capabilities provide a personal offline experience and are not intended for offline collaboration with team members. For team collaboration, consider using Microsoft Office Groove 2007. By deploying an Office Groove 2007 environment, global workers can collaborate on SharePoint sites even when not connected directly to the server farm.“
• IntraLinks launched DealStream, a deal management solution for syndicated loans build on Salesforce.com. “IntraLinks has leveraged salesforce.com’s market-leading Force.com Platform to create DealStream, a customized, comprehensive deal management solution for the loan syndication process. Through this integrated web-based platform, users can easily manage their syndications process and track and report the deal pipeline across a bank’s regional or global footprint. DealStream also facilitates investor communications, including a full suite of call-note, email, activity tracking and an easy-to-use report wizard to instantly generate custom reports.“
• Mike argues that economic concerns will increase interest in web conferencing. “Every so often, economic downturns, health-related outbreaks or acts of terrorism cause organizations to prioritize alternatives for corporate travel. Given growing energy costs and recession concerns, decision-makers are likely to “dust off” prior programs aimed at streamlining travel budgets. While there may not be as much waste in current travel programs, I suspect that we will see an upswing in web conferencing over the next several months.“
• … and continuing the idea of doing things differently when money is tight, Abigail outlines how to run a leaner intranet team, and in particular, what to focus on doing.

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Want to know where your time goes every week? Try RescueTime, for Mac and Windows: “RescueTime is a web-based time management and analytics tool for information workers who want to be more productive.“
• Adrian is developing the A-Z of personal productivity.

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Don’t miss the small details in other people’s success.
• Trafford, an option for self-publishing.