Shared Spaces ... the Collaboration Advisor

A New Mountain to Climb, Apr 6

I have a new adventure in front of me, a new opportunity to pursue, something very new to do. As of Monday April 17, I will be working for a vendor of collaboration software, in a product strategy and market communications role. I'm very, very excited / thrilled / delighted at the opportunity that has opened up to make a significant impact on people's lives through helping with the design and delivery of great collaboration software ... it will be perfect for driving toward some of the ideas and concepts that I've spoken freely about here at Shared Spaces.

Who will I be working for? All will become clear ... soon.

Vocality 2(1) Distributed, Apr 2

The March 2006 edition of Vocality, the free monthly newsletter from Shared Spaces, has just gone out. If you haven't signed up, please do so, and if you did sign up but haven't received your copy, please let me know.

Thoughts on Sponsored Research, Feb 23

Earlier this week, Foldera, Inc. released a sponsored white paper (PDF) I wrote under commission for them (see press release). Mike sent me this note today in reference to the paper:

Sorry, couldn't resist chiming in on this one. You obviously know your stuff and I can certainly understand that a guy needs a payday now and again, but the Foldera piece seemed to be more a paid cheer-leading assignment than an objective overview of a "new" service. I say "new" because it isn't, not in concept, interface or functionality, all they offer and more has been around for a while...seems more like a PR and financial engineering exercise cloaked in Web 2.0 guise if you ask me. If this sounds like sour grapes...it is, I am getting a little tired of these "new" services claiming "never before" and "AJAX" enabled...and, oh yeah...my favourite, "coming soon" under beta. Whatever.

As I said in my response to Mike, I appreciated him taking the time to share his thoughts and views on what I'd written and about Foldera and the industry in general. Since others are likely to have the same reaction, I wanted to share my view on accepting sponsored research and white paper projects. My rules for doing so are:

1. The paper has to align with my previously published research views. If I've previously written "X" about a product or category in an independent Shared Spaces paper, I can't turn around and write "Y" merely because it is a sponsored white paper. For example, when EMC commissioned me to write a comparative white paper of eRoom and SharePoint, it was easy to do so because of previous publications that I authored that were entirely consistent with the final report to EMC. In the same way, the Foldera white paper reflects clear alignment with my published work on collaboration software clients, the need for collaborative workspace products to make life easier, not more difficult, for the end user, and some of the items in the 7 Pillars series about dashboarding and consolidation across spaces.


2. The paper has to help my ultimate customer ... the organizational decision maker. The purpose of Shared Spaces ... the core reason why I do what I do ... is to help organizations select, deploy and roll-out collaboration tools to drive productivity, process compliance, efficiency and effectiveness. If the proposed white paper project helps with those, I'll take it. If not, I'll steer clear. As I say to my organizational consulting clients, I truly don't care which vendor wins in the market ... what I'm 100% passionate about is that the organization makes the right choice in light of their requirements.


3. There needs to be some substance to the product, and not a "just done this week" thing. Foldera has been in development since 2001. I've spoken with Richard Lusk, the CEO, on-and-off for the past 18 months. I spent a day in Huntington Beach with Richard and his team in early December. So, sure, while Foldera is playing off the current hype around "Web 2.0", the product is more mature and has a well-thought out lineage that pre-dates the hype.


4. The conclusion and recommendation has to be consistent with the facts. Once you've read the white paper, you'll note that my recommendation is "if you fit the profile, try it out". Not, "drop everything you're doing and only do work via Foldera for the next 10 years". As an independent analyst, I would have no credibility to say the latter, unless the facts were extremely strong. You'll note, too, that there is no mention of the enterprise market in the paper. That market has different needs and requirements, and as a hosted / outsourced service, Foldera will find it more difficult to play there. If they deliver an onsite solution, it gets a bit easier. Time will tell.

My four points may make no difference to Mike's reading of my white paper, or his reaction thereof, but "dem da facts".

Happy to discuss further ...

Vocality 1(11) Distributed, Feb 2

The January 2006 edition of Vocality, the free monthly newsletter from Shared Spaces, has just gone out. If you haven't signed up, please do so, and if you did sign up but haven't received your copy, please let me know.

Directing Vendors

We engage with vendors to help them create collaborative business offerings that work. Given our widely-recognized independent position in the market, we are perfectly placed to help with product design, market place education, and market research projects.

• Strategic Product Design Review. Get an independent perspective on your collaborative business product or service from an industry expert. We will review your offering, and give detailed feedback on what works and what doesn't. If you are open to our ideas, we'll inject some new thoughts into your product plans. Clients often find that just one of our ideas makes the review invaluable.


• Educating Your Prospects. Let us examine your offerings and prepare an independent educational White Paper or Web seminar to assist you in educating your prospects and customers. We've recently helped EMC Corporation, Open Text Corporation, and Foldera, Inc. in this way.


• Market Research on Key Initiatives. "What don't you know?" that is holding back your product and service planning, your go-to-market initiatives, and your overall success in meeting customer requirements? We can answer your questions, through designing a customized market research program to drive insight and strategic clarity.

What our Vendor Clients Have Said
In their words, not ours, here's what some of our vendor clients have said ...

"Shared Spaces provided excellent research and insightful analysis to support a critical go-to-market initiative for us here at Open Text. I’d highly recommend Michael for both strategic and tactical projects."
Jared Spataro, Open Text Corporation

"Michael's expansive view on the industry has been mission-critical for us in working toward the release of our new Foldera Activity Folders service, and the ideas and concepts that he brought to the table when he visited us in Huntington Beach helped shape our thinking on how to make our service even better."
Richard Lusk, CEO and Founder, Foldera, Inc.

"Michael Sampson delivers a clear, independent vision into the collaboration marketplace with perceptive analysis and a fresh approach. Michael is a pleasure to work with and has been very helpful to us here at EMC in our market analysis and research and we look forward to working with him in the future."
Lance Shaw, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, EMC Software Group

"Michael Sampson posseses an uncommon ability to create useful and valuable insights from large volumes of information. As an analyst, he is a professional and a pleasure to work with. His depth of knowledge in areas of collaboration and communication will well serve any organization attempting solve problems related to these areas."
Alex Pozin, reflecting on working with Michael at a previous employer

Next Action
If you are a vendor of collaborative business products or services, we should talk about working together. As a first step, please contact Michael Sampson to schedule a briefing.

Advising Organizations

We work alongside organizations to advise how to best embrace collaborative business. After developing a clear definition of the desired outcome that you are seeking, we work one-to-one, in small group settings, and in workshop / seminar mode to help you realize your objectives. During the last year, we have worked in the following areas:

• Collaborative Business Adoption Strategy. When you seek to introduce a new collaborative business technology platform, what is the best way to go about doing so? How do you get people on board, upskilled, and willing to change their behavior so as to take advantage of the new tools as a driver for productivity, innovation, consistency, and more? We can drive this.


• Collaborative Business Technology Strategy. Your people are stuck in email for doing group work and coordinating group action, and you know that more and newer and better is needed. But what does that actually mean? With hundreds and hundreds of different "collaborative business" alternatives on the market, what should your organization do? We will tell you.


• Collaborative Business Optimization Strategy. How do you make the most of your collaborative business technology platform? What other things does it need to integrate with, and when is it practical to consider migrating from one platform to another? We help you frame the decision.

Shared Spaces is entirely vendor-neutral and vendor-independent. Our concern and focus is that you get what works for you.

Next Action
If you are looking to take advantage of collaborative business, we can drive successful realization of your objectives and desired outcomes. Please contact Michael Sampson to schedule a no-obligation free initial consultation.

Explaining Collaborative Business

We explain what is going on in the area of collaborative business; what are the key trends, new technologies, and things to watch out for so that you can be successful in embracing collaboration as a way of doing business.

The whole Shared Spaces site is dedicated to this purpose. You will find numerous resources that are provided to help you educate yourself on what is going on.

• Daily Briefing Service. What are people saying about collaborative business, what new products or services are available or updated, and what else is going on in the industry. It's all here.


• Free Monthly Newsletter. Our free monthly newsletter, called Vocality, is a three page snapshot of the most important happenings from the previous month. It is delivered by email. Sign up here.


• Articles and Reports. From Strategic Viewpoint Reports to ongoing Research Viewpoints, we write about the key happenings in the industry, and are not afraid to take a strong position. See what we are writing about.


• 7 Pillars of IT-Enabled Team Productivity. How do you think about building a technology environment for conducting collaborative business. The 7 Pillars series of White Papers makes it clear.


• Annual Subscription Service. The premier for-fee annual subscription service on collaborative business is available from Shared Spaces. It includes a healthy mix of written reports, engaging discussions, and Web seminars on topics of strategic importance. Learn more here (and request the fact sheet!).

Next Action
Feel free to browse the Shared Spaces site for material of interest, search for topics of current focus, subscribe to our Web feed for the latest in goodies from Shared Spaces, or contact Michael Sampson for specific enquiries.

Office Closed through January 23 2006, Take 2

Okay, let's try that again. See you on the 23rd!

And have a Happy New Year, y'all hear?

Vocality 1(10) Distributed, Dec 31

The December 2005 edition of Vocality, the free monthly newsletter from Shared Spaces, has just gone out. If you haven't signed up, please do so, and if you did sign up but haven't received your copy, please let me know.

Office Closed through January 23 2006

The Shared Spaces offices will be closed through Monday January 23 2006. That means there will be no further postings here until then. This year has been very full and rewarding, in ways that I didn't foresee at the beginning of the year. Thanks to all who made it so. Given that it is the middle of summer down here in New Zealand, that means it is time for a vacation. I won't be checking email or RSS until then, so if you have an urgent matter that requires my attention, please leave a voice mail at +64 3 317 9484.

Have a blessed Christmas and restful New Year.