Shared Spaces ... the Collaboration Advisor

Shared Spaces Briefing, Apr 29

Today's highlights: Tipic timp.net Enterprise 2005; Allstream Hosted Collaboration Solution; GroupWorld.net;

• Tipic released timp.net Enterprise 2005 and TipicME 3.0, its instant messaging and presence server and mobile phone IM client respectively. The server uses the XMPP standard for interoperable IM, and TipicME supports a range of mobile phones. Available immediately. eMediaWire


• Allstream, a business communications solutions provider in Canada, added Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005 to its Allstream Collaboration Suite hosted offering. The offering already includes Windows SharePoint Services. Available immediately. Yahoo


• GroupWorld.net released its namesake collaboration and conferencing product, featuring online meeting capabilities, file sharing, and desktop sharing, among others. Available immediately. pressbox.co.uk

This Briefing was written by Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research & Consulting Ltd. Email or IM Michael to discuss any of these items further.

Vocality 1(2) Distributed, Apr 29

The April 2005 edition of Vocality, the free email-only monthly newsletter from Shared Spaces, has just been distributed. If you have subscribed but don't receive it, please let me know. If you intended to subscribe, but haven't yet, then it's not too late.

Items considered this month:

• Innovative work from three vendors in the collaboration technology market.


• The three top news events of April ... along with additional commentary.


• The current research programmes that I'm working on, many in preparation for the Collaborative Technologies Conference in June in New York. If there is an alignment between what I'm doing and what you're focused on, let's talk.

Pillar 6: Enterprise Action Management, Apr 29

(PDF, 10 pages, 1084 KB)

"Teams need a way of tracking outstanding action points that gives shared visibility regarding who is doing what, and explicitly links next actions to team goals and enterprise mandates. Emails, meetings, threaded discussions and videoconferences give rise to tasks that team members have to do. There is a disconnect in today’s systems, however, between the tracking and management of outstanding next actions at the enterprise, group, and individual levels. Individuals create their own next actions based on team goals, but have no simple way of associating their next actions with the mandates of the team. Put in reverse, the team manager or project leader cannot see a consolidated list of the next actions that individuals are working on in the context of the team’s goals and priorities. Tasks and next actions are stored in different applications that do not communicate with each other."

For people to get things done at the office, they need to know what they should be getting done. This self-evident truth applies even more when a group of people are working together toward a jointly agreed outcome. If they don’t know what they should be doing, or if there is a lack of clarity as to who should be doing it, then the team’s efforts will be stymied. For the benefit of the individuals on the team, the team itself, the management structure around the team, and whoever else has an interest in what the team is supposed to be delivering, clarity about intended actions is vital.

Pillar 6 of the IT-Enabled Team Productivity series considers how tasks and action items are managed in today’s enterprises. It is based on the assumption that having a single consolidated task list for each individual is a good idea because it enables the person to select the most appropriate thing to do next.

This paper discusses:

• The Situation Today ... details what team members have to do today to work with assigned and delegated tasks, and why it is mostly bad.


• Negative Effects on Team Productivity ... as a result of having insufficient tools for tracking and managing action across the enterprise.


• Case Study ... about how Microsoft shows how not to do task consolidation between Project 2003 and Outlook 2003.


• The Ideal Future Situation ... a set of requirements for optimizing the management of action and tasks across the enterprise.


• Positive Effects for Team Productivity ... in what ways do teams get benefit as a result of having an enterprise action management system.


• Technologies to Consider ... how Documentum eRoom and Vignette Collaboration Server go some way toward addressing the requirements.

What's Next
There is one final Pillar to address in this series on what teams need from IT systems in order to be productive in their work, and that's Pillar 7 about broadening the network through automatic discovery services, finding new people who possess appropriate skill, expertise and focus to contribute to the team. As I write that, please feel free to drop me an email if you have feedback or comments on this Pillar. In particular, does your organization have an enterprise action management system that meets the requirements I've outlined here?

Shared Spaces Briefing, Apr 28

Today's highlights: Laplink Everywhere 4; SusQtech SharePoint City; Statera and Microsoft on Enterprise Project Management; SealedMedia $8.5 million VC; CourseForum ProjectForum 4.3; Wainhouse Research Paper on Team Workspaces and Real-Time Interaction; Wireless Services Corporation; AOL "Triton" Beta; TeamPoint Web Seminars on Team Collaboration; Osterman on SharePoint; Intralinks 206;

• Laplink released Version 4 of Laplink Everywhere, its web-based remote access control offering. Enables users to remotely control Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2000/2003 machines over the Internet. New features: a new non-ActiveX web interface option, extended handheld compatibility (eg, use a Pocket PC or Palm device to remotely control a Windows XP Pro box), fast remote access, and online/offline support, among others. Available immediately. Laplink


• Sysquehanna Technologies released SharePoint City, a hosted edition of Microsoft's Windows SharePoint Services. Free 30-day trial, with monthly pricing starting at $49.95 for 25 users and 50 MB of storage space. Available immediately. eMediaWire


• Statera and Microsoft are jointly sponsoring an in-person seminar on May 4 in Colorado on enterprise project management. The seminar will include a demonstration of Microsoft Project Server 2003. Yahoo


• SealedMedia announced (a) $8.5 million of new equity, and (b) Sealed Email for Blackberry. The new monies will be used to fuel growth in selected markets. The Blackberry support enables sealed files to be accessed on a Blackberry handheld. Available 3Q2005, starting at $20,000. EContent


• CourseForum Technologies released Version 4.3 of ProjectForum, its Web-based collaborative workspace for project teams. Available immediately. (Good work Mark & team!) I-Newswire


• Wainhouse Research released a white paper on the integration of team workspaces and real-time interaction technologies, following on from its Web seminar yesterday. Registration required (name and email address). Interwise


• Wireless Services Corp. added JP Mobile's SureWave offering to its line-up for carriers, enabling carriers to offer wireless access to their hosted email servers for their own subscribers. BusinessWire


• AOL released a beta of Triton, the code name for its next generation IM client. New features include a Quicknote window to replace the initial IM pop-up, a tabbed messaging interface, and integration with AOL Talk for voice conversations. Available in beta immediately. BetaNews


• TeamPoint Systems announced its upcoming online seminar schedule, with a focus on improving team performance through collaboration tools. The Web seminars will include a demonstration of TeamPoint's collaboration offering. BusinessWire


• Osterman Research on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services: "if you care about adhering to Microsoft's roadmap for the future .... [and] want to remain with the Microsoft vision for computing, ... you should be thinking about SharePoint within the next couple of years". SearchExchange


• Intralinks said that 206 M&A deals were hosted on its online workspace platform during 1Q2005, a 60% increase over 4Q2004. The virtual workspace provided by Intralinks gives a secure way of transacting business, and adhering to compliance regulations. BusinessWire

This Briefing was written by Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research & Consulting Ltd. Email or IM Michael to discuss any of these items further.

Shared Spaces Briefing, Apr 27

Today's highlights: EMC Web Seminar; Microsoft and SAP; Polycom in Court; Vignette Financials;

• EMC Documentum is hosting a Web seminar entitled "Boost Project Performance with Enterprise Project Collaboration" on May 5 at 10-11am PT. It will be focused on eRoom's recent announcement about integration with PlanView's Enterprise project portfolio management offering. Registration required. EMC Documentum


• Microsoft and SAP announced a joint product deliverable, for integration between SAP's enterprise resource planning software and Microsoft Office. The intention is to integrate SAP's time management, budget monitoring, organizational management, and travel and expense management directly into Office. ComputerWorld


• Polycom introduced a new range of solutions aimed at the judicial market, enabling video and audio communication in judicial, legal, and penal environments. The intention is to enable the use of video and audio conferencing for depositions, trials, and consultations. Available immediately. BusinessWire


• Vignette announced its financial results for 1Q2005, with total revenue of $45.6 million, and GAAP net income of $2.7 million. Vignette

This Briefing was written by Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research & Consulting Ltd. Email or IM Michael to discuss any of these items further.

Notes from Wainhouse Research, EMC and Interwise on Team Workspaces and Live Conferencing Capabilities, Apr 27

This morning I attended CollaborationLoop's Web seminar on Merging Live Conferencing with Collaborative Group Workspaces. Alex Dunne of MediaLive did the initial introductions, and Andy Nilssen and Alan Greenberg at Wainhouse Research presented much of the upfront analysis. Neil Lieberman of Interwise and Lance Shaw of EMC Documentum eRoom talked about the integration of Interwise's ECP Connect conferencing capabilities with a Documentum eRoom.

Comments from Wainhouse Research
Team collaboration is set for a breakthrough. Web conferencing, a synchronous real-time communication, has been very successful. It deals with people in different places. Team workspaces, an asynchronous solution, enables shared information. Deals with people in different time zones. Growth of both product categories has been independent, but they naturally dovetail now.

Audience poll on the use of Web conferencing:

• 34% ... formally sanctioned usage


• 32% ... informal "renegade" usage, on an as needed basis


• 8% ... web conferencing is not used at all


• 0% ... what's web conferencing?

The Business Issues
We work in a global economy, and we have a global technology infrastructure. How do we get information to flow between team members while maintaining digital security. Time and distance are two hurdles that need to be overcome, and can be overcome with appropriate technology use.

The IT Issues
Web conferencing is moving from renegate use to centralized control, and toward integration with IT infrastructure and workflow applications. Users need secure access, the ability to distribute and manage newly revised content, and processes for managing team workflow and processes. Team workspaces are used to involve people outside of the organization, and give a way to hold impromptu meetings from the team room. Definitely need single sign on between the two.

Poll on the use of Team Workspaces:

• 7% ... only use team workspaces


• 12% ... only use a document repository system


• 34% ... use both team workspace and document repository systems


• 14% ... use neither platforms


• 33% ... no response

Key Technology Capabilities for Teams

• Immediacy ... talk to them when you want to talk to them


• Intimacy ... the ability to talk to them


• Joint focus ... share and work together on specific things


• Access to domain SMEs ... whether they are formal members of the team or not


• Structured and unstructured interactions


• Tools that speed solutions and resolutions


• Real-time tools for presenting, sharing documents, whiteboards and annotations. Presence is good, as is audio and video options.


• Structuring of team information ... in a variety of ways


• Secure access to project information


• Environments conducive to idea generation and iterative interactions


• Baseline capabilities ... team rosters, discussion threads, planning tools, calendar, version tracking

Wainhouse had a good slide about how and where to integrate team workspaces and real-time capabilities. In this case, users start in a team workspace, decide to share content in real-time, work on it, and then save the revised content back into the team workspace.

Poll on Top Benefits of Merging the Synchronous and Asynchronous Tools:

• 4% ... for cost savings


• 19% ... for better productivity


• 1% ... for quicker time to market


• 4% ... for a greater sense of immediacy between team members


• 33% ... for alignment of collaboration tools to meet team needs


• 43% ... no response

Business Benefits
Hard savings ... reduced travel (expenses and time, CPE-based web and audio conferences)
Soft savings ... gauge use from log file reports, productivity and process improvements, from access to team data to work at any hour, from encouraging interaction with larger audiences, and from having an infrastructure to float new ideas and engage as a team.

Bottom line assertion: integration between the two delivers strategic benefits in fast time-to-market, better decisions, and quality of life.

Interwise and EMC Documentum
Neil from Interwise and Lance from EMC Documentum took the stage about 30 minutes into the web seminar. Neil argued why real-time capabilities were needed if the organization already had a team workspace solution, and Lance argued why a team workspace solution was needed if the organization already had a real-time solution. I felt that the arguments had already been made sufficiently well. It would have been better to focus exclusively on case studies, show screen shots, and demonstrate how the alignment and integration worked.

One slide showed the potential integration between an eRoom and Interwise's conferencing platform:

Questions from the Audience
Q2. Why Interwise and Documentum not IBM and SharePoint?
(Alan) What are organizations looking for? Who are they using for other existing technology platforms? Use that to drive the decision as to what is most appropriate.
(Lance) It depends what is in house and what they want to leverage. If you need a solid content management platform behind the collaborative environment, then Documentum is a good choice.

Q3. Can any eRoom participant start an Interwise Web conference?
(Lance) No, rights can be assigned on an individual-by-individual basis.

Q4. Where does data warehousing and knowledge management fit into this?
(Lance) The most relevant example is EMC itself. It wanted to simplify the approach to its data over its lifecycle.

Q5. How do I justify these technologies?
(Alan) See Wainhouse Research's Web metrics surveys.
(Neil) Add up what you current spend per year on point solutions, eg, e-learning, Web conferencing, audio conferencing ... and then compare that to an integrated solution.

Reaction to the Use of Interwise's Conferencing Solution
Interwise's conferencing platform was used for the session, and it worked flawlessly on my end on Windows XP (I couldn't get it to work on Safari on the Mac, however). The Internet Explorer Java plug-in worked great, the voice quality was entirely sufficient, and the polling with the audiences worked fine. Highly recommended.

I also had a couple of Interwise-powered chat sessions with other attendees. While the chat window would disappear after submitting a chat comment, it would come back when the other person responded. The complete chat thread was retained, however.

Finally, Interwise had a very good process for reminding registered participants about the upcoming event. I received email reminders 24 hours, 1 hour, and 20 minutes prior to the event. That was helpful.

Attendees
There was an average of 94 attendees across the duration of the conference.
05m ... 97 people
10m ... 102 people
15m ... 109 people
20m ... 111 people
25m ... 108 people
30m ... 104 people
35m ... 103 people
40m ... 98 people
45m ... 88 people
50m ... 81 people
55m ... 76 people
60m ... 55 people

What About You?
Do you see good value in having integration between collaborative team workspaces and real-time interaction technologies? Or is it just a "normal and standard" thing that is "obvious"? Please share your thoughts in a comment below, or send email to michael.sampson@shared-spaces.com.

Vocality 1(2) Is Coming, Apr 26

The second edition of Vocality, the free monthly newsletter from Shared Spaces, will be distributed by email to subscribers at the end of this week. If you haven't already signed up and want to receive this email-only publication, please do so today.

Shared Spaces Briefing, Apr 26

Today's highlights: Tacit ActiveNet 3; DoD Next Generation Collaboration Service; Oracle Fusion Middleware; InstaColl market research;

• Tacit Software released Version 3 of ActiveNet, its collaboration auto-discovery platform for organizations. Intention is to help users find others who already know things about a priority issue at hand. New features: enhanced support for key business applications, opt-in user participation model, increased user interface customization capabilities, and aggregated activity views. Available immediately. Tacit Software



• The Defense Information Systems Agency has begun a pilot of its next-generation collaboration service, offering audio and video presentation capabilities, along with joint editing and review capabilities. The underlying service is provided by WebEx. GCN. See Military Information Technology for an interview with Debra Filippi, on where this collaboration service fits with the other 8 services in the Net-Centric Enterprise Services plan.


• Oracle introduced an umbrella brand for its products, "Oracle Fusion Middleware". However, the breadth of products covered, and the fact that existing names remain too, could mean that it just leads to conFusion. I hope not. Oracle


• The founder of Hotmail, now the front man for InstaColl (a new entrant offering real-time joint editing and review capabilities for Microsoft Office documents), has this to say of InstaColl's market analysis: "In that sense, this is not a product for the common man. That's right. It's more for corporates or for that matter any company. We have already tested this product in many companies and the response has been positive. Microsoft has so far only spoken highly about collaboration. We have made it into a reality". Times of India

This Briefing was written by Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research & Consulting Ltd. Email or IM Michael to discuss any of these items further.

Orative Enterprise Server, Apr 26

I recently spent some time investigating Orative, and its great way of leveraging presence and IM style capabilities in a mobile environment. However, rather than coming at it from the point of merely adding presence and IM to small form-factor mobile devices, Orative set out to resolve two specific problems facing mobile users everywhere:

• ... your mobile phone rings at an inconvenient time, but you think it might be that important call ... you take it, and it's not;


• ... other people keep ringing-and-ringing you, trying to get through, because they absolutely have to talk to you, but you are stuck in a meeting and have no way of communicating with them.

As part of my investigations, I spoke with Paul Fulton, CEO of Orative (who is one of the panelists on my "Extending Collaborative Applications to the Mobile Worker" panel at CTC2005 in June). I left that call very impressed with what Orative have pulled together, and have added it to my "must watch" list. I encourage you to read my analysis of Orative's offerings, just published at CollaborationLoop.

Schedule-Enabled Applications, Apr 26

Along with Eric Mack of ICA, and Eva Wiley of Unisys, I presented at the April 1997 conference of the Electronic Messaging Association. Our topic was the future of collaborative applications, and I recall talking about "schedule-enabled applications", those that would read your current appointments, and take actions based on those, eg, route phone calls to your mobile phone automatically because you were driving between meetings. I've lost my slide deck, but I know Eric still has the recording somewhere.

In the past couple of days, I've met up with two vendors offering (my term) "schedule-enabled applications":

• Orative's Enterprise Server will use the existence of meetings in a user's calendar to automatically set that user's presence to something other than "available". When the meeting time rolls around, the user doesn't have to change their presence and availability ... the Orative solution does it automatically.


• SiteScape's Enterprise Forum and Zon offerings deliver interactive real-time collaborative capabilities with a workspace metaphor. In a future release, presence and availability will be automatically set by reading the user's calendar.

Way cool. Here's to more of this in the future!