The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• What percentage of collaboration software implementations fail? CIO Magazine pins the number at 80%, but Todd argues that its more like 40% fail but 95% fail to succeed. “Why would be have such a high degree of failure? Perhaps the answer it we have been so successful and we continue to apply our old rules and definitions of success. The reason these application don’t succeed is that the majority of implementations don’t focus on succeeding but rather they focus on not failing. I like to use the terms Components of Failure vs. Components of Success.“
• Snapshot of how Weichert Real Estate Affiliates is using HyperOffice in its operation.

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Yugma released Version 3.0 of its Web collaboration service, for virtual meetings and sharing applications over the Internet. “The newest version of Yugma adds features that make the service even easier and more fluid to use than before. It includes the ability for users to schedule online meetings in advance; meet “on the fly;” chat; collaborate interactively on documents, applications or virtual whiteboard; share files; change presenters, and record sessions for subsequent playback or webcast.” Available immediately.
• Robert released the SharePoint Shepherd’s Guide for End Users. “The book itself is a collection of 116 step-by-step guides for how to use SharePoint. It covers the core tasks that every user needs to be able to do. It’s not things that just the power users need to do, or that the site administrators need to do. These are the everyday tasks that every user needs to do. From uploading a document to recovering an item from the recycle bin, there are step-by-step instructions on where to go and what to do.” Available immediately.
• Ask the right question: What problem are we trying to solve?, not “What tools should we use?” “But it’s human nature for people to use the technologies they understand and figure out the application after the fact. Unfortunately, that can waste a lot of time and effort. E-mail is terrible for communicating between groups of more than about five recipients, yet people routinely organize massive projects with dozens of participants by e-mail. Even if the tool is poorly suited for the task, they reason, at least people know how to use it.“
• Oracle announced an interoperability agreement with Nokia, for linking Nokia devices with certain Oracle applications.
• Near-Time released Near-Time Connection, a mobile device extension to its hosted collaboration service. “Near-Time Connection neatly packages the rich functionality of Near-Time into a Widget, providing an easy and flexible way to access content and interact with users associated with Near-Time spaces from smart phones, blogs or personalized homepage portals like iGoogle. Near-Time Connection is free to Near-Time users.“
• Twiddla introduced a team whiteboarding service. “Twiddla can be used to mark up web sites, graphics, photos, or even start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Users can either sign up for the service by creating an account, or can just start using it in “guest mode.” A public sandbox is also available if you just want to check it out to see if it would work for you.“
• The GSA claims a $1 million per year savings as a result of having instant messaging services available to everyone in the agency.

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• See the complete extent of your problem, and then work out what you need to do about it.
• If you want to write better in business, follow Michael’s 5 ideas.

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Safe texting. Padded lampposts.