Chapter 1: Groupware - The Changing Environment

By David Coleman

ISBN# 0-13-727728-8, Copyright 1997, 720 pp.
Now available through Prentice Hall

1.2.1 Groupware Taxonomy

Following is a partial list of products associated with each category and a sampling of outstanding issues for each category. These issues direct attention to some of the technical, organizational, and cultural challenges associated with each category and often present questions one might ask if considering the use of this product category in a specific organization. It is important to realize that many products fit into more than one category. For example, Lotus Notes fits into many categories because its broad range of functionality.

1. Electronic Mail and Messaging:
Includes messaging infrastructures and e-mail systems.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Standards, XAPI, MAPI, X.400, X.500 (directory services)
• How to integrate multiple mail systems in one enterprise?
• Security, and who owns my e-mail?
• Etiquette and the efficient use of e-mail
• Filters, agents and the ability to deal with 100s of messages a day

2. Group Calendaring and Scheduling
Products for calendar, meeting and resource coordination.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Proliferation of meetings because they are now easier to schedule.
• Privacy for personal calendars (big brother is watching!).
• Having enough users in the company to make it worth while.
• Scheduling across multiple time zones.

3. Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS)
Real-time conferencing systems (local and remote) as well as collaborative presentation systems.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Integration with calendaring/scheduling systems
• Post-meeting follow through; action items, goals, commitments
• Affordability of desktop videoconferencing
• Availability of multi-point conferencing
• Lack of standards is limiting the application of this technology
• Acceptance within the corporate culture

4. Desktop and Real-Time Data Conferencing:
The focus is on real-time, rather than BBS or Notes. All products in this category store documents, and/or allow others to see and work on documents simultaneously, or on each others' screen or on a whiteboard.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Control of the cursor on the screen?
• Number of people who can conference efficiently?
• Role of the facilitator. Is a facilitator needed?
• Interaction/baud rates, equipment compatibility
• Internet and intranet availability
• Post-meeting follow through; action items, goals, commitments

5. Non-Real Time Conferencing
Synchronous conferencing is most like a bulletin board, where you carry on a conversation over time, leave a message for someone and they answer it, and your can respond back to them later. These messages can be public ( as in a BBS) or private ( as in a Notes discussion database).

Sample products:

Issues:

• Number of people who can conference efficiently?
• Role of the facilitator. Is a facilitator needed?
• Maximizing the benefits of conferences/discussion databases; ROI
• Replication, network topologies, scalability
• Transaction-based vs. store and forward databases
• Support for worldwide locations
• Integration with legacy systems
• Integrating with electronic calendaring and scheduling systems
• Post-meeting follow through; action items, goals, commitments

6. Group Document Handling:
Group editing, shared screen editing work, group document/image management and document databases.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Page mark-up standards such as SGML, HTML and CALs?
• Support for word processors and page layout programs
• Version control and document security
• Integration with enterprise document/image databases or repositories
• Where does group document management stop and multimedia begin?
• Data integrity and integration with other documents and repositories
• Compression issues

7. Workflow:
Workflow process diagramming and analysis tools, workflow enactment engines, electronic forms routing products.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Workflow coalition standards
• Passing documents and information between products
• Automating poor processes
• Integration with EDI and other customer services

8. Workgroup Utilities and Groupware Development Tools:
Utilities to support,group working, remote access to someone else's computer and specific tools for workgroup applications development.

Sample products:

Issues:

• What functionality should be part of the OS and what functionality should be part of the application?
• What are the decision-making issues when deciding whether to develop for the OS, GUI or network?
• How to insure issuer compatibility; standards; object-oriented (reusable) code; licensing (network, multimedia, intellectual property rights)?

9. Groupware Frameworks:
This meta-category focuses on products that help integrate "islands of collaboration" to make seamless across computer platforms, operating systems, e-mail systems and network architectures.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Integrating the desktop while supporting collaborative efforts
• Security
• Can frameworks-products help collaboration outside of the organization?
• Will establishing groupware standards make frameworks less attractive

10. Groupware Services:
Services to support collaboration.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Expertise is a most valuable commodity in the groupware market. It is highly unusual to find all the necessary expertise in house. Additionally, no single vendor offers a complete groupware solution and re-engineering often requires a multiple of products and service vendors in order to collaborate. How do you identify and pull together the resources best suited to your organization?
• How are meetings facilitated successfully?
• What tools are best suited for re-engineering?
• How to identify the problems with the greatest potential for turn-around from groupware?
• How are consultants best used? What do they know that people in your organization don't?
• It is imperative that top management and all stakeholders support any process change. How do you enlist and sustain their support?
• How to evaluate the return on investment of your groupware?

11. Groupware Applications:
Vertical applications that use collaborative technologies to either enhance processes or support collaboration in a specific work environment.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Customizing applications; infrastructure and cost issues
• Vertical market competition
• Does application solve specific collaborative business need
• Integration with existing legacy systems

12. Collaborative Internet-Based Applications:
Many collaborative functions are moving to the WWW and use the Internet as the input and output while still using traditional groupware on the LAN.

Sample products:

Issues:

• Application customization for seamless collaboration on the WWW
• Costs of publishing to/from the Web
• Data/information storage
• Balance between security and collaboration
• Limitations of traditional groupware relative to Web applications
• Limitations of Web applications relative to traditional groupware
• Integration with existing legacy systems
  

Although a taxonomy is useful for classification, do not get trapped into believing your product or the product you have selected will fit neatly into one category. The Web has changed everything for collaboration; vendors of traditional groupware are moving their products onto the web and adding functionality that lets them support multiple categories.