Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (March 7, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

In 10 Rules for Creative Teams, Jeffrey shares strategies for effectiveness. Key suggestions: (4) establish processes for inter-team communication, (7) solve relationship problems quickly, and (10) be results oriented, not method oriented.

Doug posts notes from an interview with Lee Rosen, the president of Rosen Law Firm about how they use wikis. Key points: they are transitioning from an internal Notes infrastructure to a hosted wiki one, employees were offered prizes for contributing to the wiki, people in the firm asked if they could be part of the internal wiki trial, wikis are highly flexible and that has led to disagreement and thus communication and interaction, and people have to be reminded that the wiki can be used for communication, rather than using email. “Lee also drives people to the wiki by only publishing some information in the wiki. For example, monthly reports like time billed are only published on the wiki. Lee uses the wiki to host his video training. The wiki replaces weird URLs and DVDs. With PBwiki, the video can display right in the wiki page.“

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

Collanos released Version 1.3 of Collanos Workplace, its team collaboration offering for Windows, Mac and Linux. “The most noticeable improvement from a user´s perspective is the new task management function which is now accessible from all across Workplace. In an overview window, the user can view, track and maintain all the tasks across all his workspaces. In addition, a new Collanos Instant Messenger has been integrated into the teamwork environment. It allows team members to conduct dialogs, discuss issues and work out creative solutions by using the chatting function.” Available immediately.

Employee directories: from paper to the killer apps on the Intranet. Eg, the new Motorola intranet includes an employee directory that lists all of the standard stuff as well as the groups that people belong to.

Apple licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft, and will thus add Exchange capabilities to the iPhone in the next iteration. Apple also announced an iPhone SDK. Some of the IT executives that ComputerWorld interviewed were not impressed by the idea.

Sarah offers a feature-by-feature comparison of Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Google Docs. Net-net: “Although it’s very close when it comes to basic features of the two services, each stands out in its own way. Google Docs, although limited in its capabilities, offers real-time collaboration. Office Live Workspace, on the other hand, may not have the collaboration features of Google Docs, but the workspaces feature is unique. Plus, you have the capabilities of full-featured Office software available (assuming you own it)!“

Coveo Solutions announced $2.5 million more funding. Coveo offers enterprise search tools.

Google added the ability to sync Google Calendar with Outlook and Windows Mobile devices. “At long last, there’s finally a native sync solution between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. With a small download from Google, you can now sync appointments in a one-way fashion between the two calendar instances or have a full two-synchronization. There’s no setup involved: simply download and install the application, enter your Google Calendar credentials, pick one-or two-way synching and specify how often you want the data aligned.“

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

Steps to being the best: stay current with your field, seek feedback and self-evaluation, build capability to serve others, and stick around when the going is tough.

Are your business meetings really sick? The David Pearl Group offers The Meeting Hospital, a 3-month intervention designed to train new meeting habits and behaviors. “The Meeting Hospital program challenges participants over the course of three months. It comprises a full day followed by three months of bi-weekly personal prompts to remind those struggling with failing meetings to keep trying while offering tips for a speedy recovery. “

In the A-Z of personal productivity, J is for Just Do It. “There are almost as many reasons for not doing things as there are things to be done. Maybe the task will be too difficult. Maybe you’re scared that you’ll say the wrong thing. Maybe you don’t enjoy the task. You might be afraid of looking foolish, or that you won’t know anybody or find anyone to talk to you. It could be that you know full well that you can run those two miles, but you don’t relish the effort involved in your daily jog. If you can’t think your way out of this paralysis (and more often we think our way into this state, not out of it!) then the best course of action is just to do it.“

Other Noteworthy Insights

Microsoft Research took the wraps off InkSeine, a new way of working with a Tablet PC.

Michael Sampson