|
Online collaboration has been a boon for multi-location
companies. It provides you with all the facilities of a regular
conference. Attendants can see each other, deliver presentations,
have discussions on an issue or work on a report or design. Video
conferencing has been existence for a long time now. It never created
waves in the corporate community as it was expected to, but it silently
crept into the day to day functioning of many organisations. Important
meetings are still held face to face, with no hardware in between.
Day to day meetings & multi-location teams working on a single
project benefit a lot from online collaboration. Apart from saving
communication costs, it speeds up decision making or project execution
if the right collaboration software is in place.
Choosing the right collaboration software is no easy
task though. No web based collaboration application stands out today
as the clear market leader. There have not been many success stories
to bank on. These applications are today limited by their level
of collaboration. Real-time collaboration is rarely seen & support
for MS Office™ is limited at the best. Products are improving
though & their usability factor is on a upswing. Making it easy
to use is half the battle won, as proper communication ensures success
in team efforts. More the tools the team uses, more is the chance
of a successful collaboration, which in turn increases the confidence
of participants in the system.
This comparison chart reviews 5 popular collaboration
tools. We have mentioned their advantages & disadvantages. Most
of these companies offer a free trial on their website.
| eRoom |
Website |
Price |
 |
http://www.eroom.com/ |
$10,000 per server and
$199 per user |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Drag & drop windows files |
Price |
| Offline editing
of eRoom files |
|
| Syncs with MS Outlook |
|
| SiteScape |
Website |
Price |
 |
http://www.sitescape.com/
|
$6,995 for one to 200
users |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Innovative pricing, no need
for SMEs to worry about individual licenses |
CGI based scripting, leading
to a interface that lacks the useful features of current
scripting languages |
| |
Very little support for MS Office |
| |
Lacking in document management |
| Groove |
Website |
Price |
 |
http://www.groove.net/
|
$49 per user (standard
license) OR $99 per user (professional license) |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Created by the inventor of Lotus
Notes |
Uses peer to peer technology
& not client server |
| Microsoft extends its support
by granting it collaboration access to MS Word, MS PowerPoint
& MS Outlook, MS Project in v2. |
Groove's MS Office collaboration
features are no match for Microsoft's OSE |
| Very cost effective |
Security a major concern |
| Intel & Microsoft are stakeholders,
making it a relatively stable company today |
Central file management not
available |
| QuickPlace |
Website |
Price |
 |
http://www.lotus.com/
quickplace |
$7,995 per
server & $29 per user |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Collaboration leaders |
Price |
| Draws from the experience of
Lotus Notes & a host of other collaboration softwares
like Lotus Sametime |
|
| MS
OSE |
Website |
Price |
 |
http://www.microsoft.com/
office/ork/2000/five/
75ct_1.htm
|
$1,800 starting price
for 200 MB space on OSE pre configured server & NIL
per user |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Fast initial deployment |
Very limited customizability |
| Has been in circulation for
2 years, major bugs fixed |
|
| Bugs/security holes will be
discovered & fixed faster |
|
| Assured compatibility with future
releases of MS Office |
|
| Cost effective |
|
| Steep learning curve for MS Office
users |
|
|
Although we have reviewed these 5 products, there are more than
a score of such products available. The criteria that we used for
choosing products for evaluation was that they should be web based,
the company behind the product should display some stability and
the product should have some support for MS Office. Even using these
criteria, we found reviews on the net where products topped comparisons,
but do not feature here. There are comparison reports available
on the Internet on sites like http://www.gatedway.com/cs_shop/csi_shop_rtc_Rev01.php,
but rather than evaluating these softwares on the basis of written
reports, it would be ideal if you could use each of the above five
softwares for a few days, as most of them have free evaluations
available & use the one that can deliver the goods for you.
A product, however feature rich, may not be suitable
for every organisation. One of the welcome side effects of using
a collaboration tool is capturing data which can enhance the knowledge
of the corporation. With no facility to process the accumulated
data in most collaboration tools, knowledge intensive organisations
opt to build their solutions from scratch. The advantages &
disadvantages of products are given below:
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Fast implementation |
Limited customizability |
| Well researched product
features |
Difficult to add a product
feature that you may need |
| Product upgrades available from time to
time offering new functionality (such as mobile collaboration
which will feature in all major product upgrades this
year) |
A much needed feature for you may not get
incorporated in the next update or not get incorporated
at all |
| Cost effective in most
cases |
Many of the vendors are
single product wonders & are highly unstable |
| Security loopholes will be identified &
resolved faster |
Will have to be completely discarded when
new requirements like knowledge management arise &
transfer of legacy data will be an issue |
|
your
comments on the article
contact
the author
Share the wealth!
If you know colleagues who would be interested in this newsletter,
please direct them to http://www.webizus.com/newsletter.html
To unsubscribe from the monthly newsletter, click
on the link below to e-mail your request to us. YOU WILL RECEIVE
NO FURTHER NEWSLETTERS from Webizus Technologies if you do.
newsletter@webizus.com?subject=unsubscribe
Webizus takes your privacy seriously. To learn more
about Webizus' use of personal information, please read our Privacy
Policy at http://www.webizus.com/privacy.html
Disclaimer:
Webizus through the content published makes no warranties or guarantees
about the products/ services represented or about the articles presented
in the newsletter. The articles by various authors are entirely
their own opinion. Webizus holds no responsibility to any damage
or loss incurred in any form to any person or organization due to
the publication of any of the issues.
Copyright ©1999-2002, Webizus Technologies, All
Rights Reserved.
For more information mail us on info@webizus.com
Contact us today for a demonstration of how we can
cut down your costs and improve your business:
Email us at: info@webizus.com
or call us at +91-9821634476 / +91-22-55910132
Download
our corporate profile
|
