The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• John provides some ideas on making workflow and collaboration work in document exchange situations. He looks at basic things (organizing document collections, version control, markup and document comparison approaches) and more complex things (real-time simultaneous editing of documents).
• The power of Facebook: the disintermediation of the enterprise protective barrier. “What I see so far is intriguing. I see that Facebook mail is all about between-enterprises rather than within-the-enterprise. Between-enterprise mail is largely about business and rarely about politics. Within-enterprise mail is often about politics.“
• One writer argues that if you own a BlackBerry, you are not in control of your workload, tasks and projects. “How much focus can you possibly have when you’re working away on something and your Blackberry buzzes on your desk or at your side? What’s the first thing you do? You drop everything and attend to it, like it was a crying infant in need of food. You just broke your focus. You fiddle with your device, and then you try to regroup with your previous task, only to be interrupted again minutes later by another Blackberry alert. Multiply this out hundreds of times a day, and you get nothing done. It’s no wonder you need to carry it 24×7 and work until 7pm at night. You’re not productive at all, you’re barely scraping by.“

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• If Web 2.0 applications on the Internet are a security threat to organizations, Scott advocates that the answer is to create behind-the-firewall 2.0 systems. “Rather than tightening the screws, maybe there’s a better answer. Companies embracing and implementing Enterprise 2.0 applications behind the firewall take control, manage the process, keep their proprietary information secure, energize their workforce and reap the collaboration and communication benefits that come from creatively using social networking software to get work done. Managed RSS platforms can be securely set up behind the firewall to automatically and intelligently deliver relevant content from internal and external news sources, blogs, wikis and forums.“
• Project Partners announced consulting services for enterprise project management solutions. “These Project Portfolio Management services enable project-centric customers to take full advantage of industry-leading enterprise project management systems, and to measure, develop and mature the project management practices of their organizations.“
• Oracle announced new content and email archiving solutions, based in part on technology it acquired with the Stellent acquisition. Universal Online Archive is for content and files, and sits on top of Oracle 11g. On the email side, “Oracle E-Mail Archive Service, is designed to provide a means of storing content from Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes and SMTP-based mail systems.” Release dates not disclosed.
• Google announced Salesforce for Google Apps, which adds the collaboration and communication capabilites of Google Apps to Salesforce.
• WebEx added support for Mac OS X Leopard and Safari to its online collaboration, meeting and conferencing tools. “The expanded support for Mac OS X Leopard spans the entire Cisco WebEx collaboration suite to ensure Mac users receive the reliability, speed and support similar to what PC users enjoy. Mac clients will see increased speeds, better sharing and improved presentation sharing performance in WebEx products. Up to six videoconferencing channels are now supported within a WebEx Meeting Center session.“
• Microsoft released 14,000 pages of technical documentation on using the protocols of Exchange, SharePoint and Office. “The new documentation released yesterday describes the use of protocols for “connection points” between several products, including: Outlook and Exchange Server 2007; Office client applications and SharePoint Server 2007; SharePoint Server 2007 and other Microsoft server products; and Office client applications and other Microsoft server products.“

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Be happy: do things that involve novelty and challenge.
• Matthew shares a list of ideas with a big “wow” factor. This quote from Tim was on the list: “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.“
• Why do some people walk out on an organization? Disorganization. “She left because the senator’s chief of staff couldn’t manage the workflow in the office and organize the commitments that needed to be fulfilled. It wasn’t the chief of staff’s messy desk that was the problem, either. It’s that the chief of staff had a nasty habit of handing off work that needed to be done by the next morning around 6pm the night before — because she wasn’t on top of her work. Faced with a non-stop series of “emergencies” that forced her to stay late at the office, the fundraiser quit. And she was followed by several more staffers over the next few months, because the environment had grown so toxic and stressful.“

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Ergonis Software released Version 3.0 of Typinator for the Mac. “Typinator is an automatic text software that boosts your productivity and eliminates errors by automating the process of inserting frequently used text and graphics and auto-correcting typing errors.” I can not live without this tool anymore — it is a TREMENDOUS time saver.
• Roger van Oech has written a 25th anniversary edition of ‘Whack’, a great book on creativity. Due May 2008.