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“Team members can read and write documents associated with the project from multiple locations; they are not tied to their desktop computer at their desk in the office. Access may be given through a wireless connection on a laptop, a secured web page through an Internet café, or via synchronization capabilities for disconnected usage.”
The key to buying real estate is Location! Location! Location! The key to being productive as a member of a team is Wherever! Wherever! Wherever! Or to be proper in my use of English, the changing geographical location of a person should not preclude them from having access to the data, people and applications they use for doing their work. The data is the documents, conversations and other digital assets of the team. The people are the team members, as well as supporting organizational structures such as divisional managers, advisory boards, and programme managers. The applications are the general computer software programs used by team members to read and write data, and those used for engaging at various levels in communication activities within the mandate of the team.
The Situation Today
The real estate dictum is too often the team dictum: thou shalt be on location in the office to do the work of the team. This is because the tools and technologies made available for teams prohibit access from anywhere else. Those tools are:
- Documents that team members create are stored on file servers. Due to a perimeter-based approach to security, IT will not permit access through the firewall to these documents from anything other than work-issued computers.
- Team members are tied to a physical desk since their work computer is a desktop PC. Desktop PCs signify that work can only be done in a certain place.
- Team members have to be in the office to see if others are available, either by looking into their office or calling over the partition. Being present means being there physically.
- Business systems used for doing the work of the team are tied to the office.
Negative Effects on Team Productivity
Location-dependent access to team data, people and applications crimps productivity in the following ways:
- Only people who can be physically present can be part of the team. Outside experts, independent contractors or consultants, and partners in other organizations are limited in their ability to fully contribute to the outcome of the team.
- Team members traveling on business are out-of-the-loop on team activities. They can’t see what is being said and discussed, they can’t contribute to such discussions, and their expertise is lost for the duration of the trip. If they are a key player in the team, the team’s work may grind to a halt.
- Productive work on team products can only be done in the office. High leverage ideas that form outside of the office can not be captured immediately, having an effect on time-to-market, particularly when team members are spread across multiple time zones. For example, if a team member thinks of a brilliant idea on the train on the way home at night but has no way of adding that into the system until the next morning, other team members working 4-8 time zones away will not be able to use such insights for up to 24 hours.
- People needing access to the data of the team must normally be given full access to everything, eg, a password for entry into the secured team space. In the case of external contractors or independent experts, that can sometimes give away too much. Extra-ordinary measures must be taken to ensure that external people can’t abuse confidential documents after they have been shared, eg, by mandating access only within a secured physical room, or alternatively merely trusting that the individual will delete such documents when the engagement has ended.
- Team members can’t take advantage of the bursts of creativity that often arise from shifting temporarily to a different place. When ideas for project completion and next actions are stuck, being able to leave the confines of the office and get some fresh air and a fresh view is helpful.
The Ideal Future Situation
The ideal scenario is where team members can access shared data, other members of the team, and required applications from any physical location. The following are key capabilities:
- Access from a variety of devices. Data is accessible from desktop and laptop computers of various flavors, eg, Mac, Linux or Windows. Small form factor devices, such as a Pocket PC or Palm PDA with integrated wireless capabilities, can also provide access for those times when key people are out-and-about.
- Access over a variety of networks. Access to team data, people and applications is not tied to the physical office network. Team members can used wireless-equipped laptops when at the airport or a Starbucks, a CDMA or GPRS telecoms card when traveling between offices or out of range of a wireless hotspot, their in-home broadband Internet connection, or even a dial-up connection as a last gasp measure.
- Digital rights management over team data. The individual documents, discussion items and other digital assets of the team should be protected individually wherever they are, not just when they reside in the team’s secured space (akin to a safe box at a bank). Documents or text composites should know their lineage, and enforce rights over reading, editing and printing based on the identity of the current user. Obviously this requirement relies heavily on a robust identity management framework and infrastructure.
- Presence integrated into every team document, shared space and application. The network presence of key people of the team, as well as supporting boards members and managers, should be shown in every team document, shared space and application. It is harder today for teams to be physically co-located, but the presence and availability capabilities made common by instant messaging clients have much wider applicability. By threading presence and availability into every artifact used by team members, they have an immediate sense of connection with others, and when needed, can use one or more methods to communicate, eg, text chat, IP telephony call, or a videoconference.
- Secure browser access. Any time that team members are traveling without their own laptop or handheld device, some other form of access needs to be made available. The best alternative is secured browser access, either from an Internet café or perhaps a friend’s house. Web-friendly applications for storing, reading and editing team data are essential.
- Synchronization capabilities for offline or out-of-the-office access. I used to be strongly of the opinion that some form of synchronization capability was essential for a team collaboration offering, but I’m wavering in that. With our increasingly wired and wireless world, it comes down to the traveling habits of members in the team. If team members are generally connected via a wired or wireless connection, they local replication is much less important as a key capability. However, if team members travel frequently, and in particular spend many hours on planes, then a local replication capability is very important. The airplane is one of the final frontiers for real-time network access, but that too is changing with airlines embracing in-the-air network systems.
Positive Effects for Team Productivity
The availability of tools and technologies to provide location-independent access to team data, people and applications enhances team productivity in the following ways:
- When a co-located team needs to leave the office for a day of strategic planning, they can do so without losing access to their shared data. Access is available via local replication on laptops within the room, or via a wireless link back to the office.
- Organizations can engage world-class experts to assist with specific deliverables within the team’s charter. Since the expert is unlikely to live next door, they can access the data of the team from wherever they are. In addition to enhanced productivity, the organization also gains effectiveness benefits.
- Documents within the team space can be easily shared with external people because of post-sharing digital rights management. Those rights can even be changed after delivery, either to increase the level of rights (can print, can read for longer, can forward to others), or to immediately revoke access in part or whole.
- People are aware that the other members of the team are available or not, even for those not in the same room. They have quick recourse to document sharing (Pillar 3) and other interactive tools (Pillar 5). Time is not lost trying to dial someone down, or waiting until the next shared in-person meeting.
Technologies to Consider
Aside from digital rights management over team data, there are a number of well-placed solutions on the market to address this pillar of IT-enabled team productivity. As before, this just a sampling:
- Laptops. Instead of relying on desktop computers, issue laptops to your team members. Applications for creating and revising content within the charter of the team can be used anywhere. My current recommendation is something from Apple
- Lotus Notes and Domino. From the beginning of its life, Notes has offered the ability to replicate team data, discussion databases, and other Notes databases to a desktop or laptop for offline or disconnected usage. It’s an out-of-the-box capability. For individuals without a laptop, access can be given through a Web browser, or via a mobile device. Starting with Domino 6.5, presence can be tightly threaded through applications. www.lotus.com
- Groove Virtual Office. Groove works on the model of local synchronization of data, and has presence information threaded throughout. It doesn’t support access from a Web browser (unless you sign up for a third-party service), nor access to Groove spaces from Palm or Pocket PC devices. If all team members carry laptops wherever they go, then Groove is a potential solution. www.groove.net
- Documentum eRoom. In my mind, eRoom is the grand-daddy of the collaborative workspace market, having been around for a long time. Data in an eRoom can be accessed from many locations, and the product has a strong history in the financial services market. www.eroom.net
- Socialtext Workspace. The Socialtext enterprise wiki offering takes a new approach to meeting the majority of the requirements for location-independent access. Out-of-the-office access is available wherever there is a web browser; documents are not written with Microsoft Word, so contributions can be made from anywhere via a Web browser; and pages within the wiki are not generally detached and saved locally, thus negating the need for digital rights management. There are no offline access capabilities via synchronization or local replication, but wireless equipped mobile devices with a Web browser can also access the wiki. Workspace 1.5, released in early February 2005, added presence to the mix. www.socialtext.com
The use of digital rights management as a method for securing team documentation is in its infancy. In general, today’s solutions are not integrated with collaborative environments, requiring instead a separate process for assigning rights. One of the cleanest implementations involves the combination of Documentum eRoom (a collaborative workspace) and Sealed Media’s rights management offerings. The vendors have an established partnership for the automatic assignment of rights to documents put into an eRoom, and those continue to apply even if the document is subsequently detached from the eRoom.
What’s Next?
Location independence is an important pillar of IT-enabled team productivity. Again, however, it is only one of the seven pillars. Next time I will be exploring pillar 3, real-time joint editing and review of documents. Until then, I’m open to a discussion on the points I’ve raised above, or on the seven pillars in general. Drop me an email, or leave a comment below.
