The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Keep everyone in your organization on the same page. Have a stand-up meeting (or call in meeting) day. Ah yes, “ambient collaboration”.
• Three keys to managing a virtual team: (1) communicate, communicate, communicate, (2) learn how to run effective online meetings, and (3) celebrate success.

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• ExportReports offers the ability to export Basecamp project data to PDF, for offline access and archival purposes. “Each report contains all your posts, messages, milestones, to dos and a list of the people on the project along with their contact information. You can get a report of your entire project or select a specific date range to report on.” Available immediately, in beta.
• Socialtext announced two new client wins: Hot Topic and Jet Propulsion Lab.
• Brien offers guidance on upgrading to SharePoint 2007, with a particular focus on custom web parts. “Although SharePoint comes with several built-in Web parts, many organizations develop custom Web parts for specific business processes within a portal site. This can be a problem. Although built-in Web parts typically work after an upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to MOSS 2007, custom Web parts will cause problems and may need to be recoded. Fortunately, there are guidelines that you can use to determine how much work is needed to upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to MOSS 2007.“
• Huddle.net unveiled a partnership strategy for resellers. “Resellers joining Huddle’s partner programme will receive full training, access to online support and participation in quarterly webinars. Their efforts will be backed by Huddle’s aggressive online and offline marketing campaigns. All partners can expect 30%+ commission on reselling Huddle packages. They will also receive a free branded enterprise package for their own use. “

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Microsoft released Version 7 of Messenger for Mac. “The biggest change in Messenger 7 for Mac is the ability for corporate users running Office Communications Server to engage in video and audio chats with one another. For non-corporate users, the biggest changes are the ability to give nicknames to contacts and search within one’s list of contacts.” See also Mac Mojo.