This is Part 4 of the Chaos in Collaboration series.

Now that we have talked about the concept of collaboration and the changing locus of collaboration, let’s address how to integrate collaboration tools into your current environment.

There are two broad approaches:

1. You can start with something new, and migrate your current information management systems over to a new platform. For example, you could start using GroupSwim, Jive Clearspace, or Atlassian Confluence.
2. You can look to see what your current Information Management vendor offers in terms of collaboration capabilities. For example, if you are using Open Text, it has been offering collaboration tools for a long time, and it also recently announced new Enterprise 2.0’ish capabilities. See Open Text Embraces Enterprise 2.0: Post-Publication Collaboration for more details.

Depending on many factors–the number of users you have, the scope of your current information management platform, the vendor alignment strategy you have in play, etc.–will dictate the path you follow.