Solutions for collaborative working are high on today’s agenda. SharePoint 2010 has been released. Businesses and organisations are looking for ways to make the best use of their expertise and get the most out of their investment. Many employees are already experienced users of social media such as Facebook and Google Docs. They expect to use similar tools at work. What potential does this offer for your organisation?
Technology has come a very long way. A wide range of functionality is available, and there can be no doubt that the IT solutions that are now available offer great potential for today's knowledge-based and expertise-intensive organisations. To mention just one example, businesses can halve the time they spend locating the right expertise and documents.
Collaborative working solutions are now available in entirely new ways. Advanced solutions for sharing documents, project plans, workflow and work lists across an organisation can be set up in a single afternoon. Setting up new work spaces with Wiki, or blogs for technical networking, takes just 15 minutes.
However, a collaborative working solution will be of little value unless it satisfies the following requirements:
- It must satisfy a genuine need, and deliver real value for the organisation.
- Users must understand how to use the solution. - Users must be willing to use the solution.
- It is typically the case that a solution will only deliver value if it attracts a critical mass of users.
- The solution must work in the way it was designed.
- Factors and circumstances that are external to the solution may prevent its value being realised. These constraints must be identified and appropriate measures implemented in order to ensure that the benefits offered by the solution are realised.
The full value of a collaborative working solution will only be realised when these requirements are properly addressed.