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The trend toward collaboration is a strong
one, fueled from two sides, technology and culture. Technology includes
the increased proliferation of networks and startling growth of
the Internet. Network growth has been explosive, 30% on average,
for the last eight years. This trend will probably continue over
the next decade, as less than 60% of the computers in the U.S. are
networked, only 45% of the computers in Europe are networked and
less than 20% of Japan's computers are on a network (these figures
are approximate and derived from a conversation with Karl Wong of
Dataquest, San Jose, CA). Network growth is fueled by economic and
organizational pressures such as increased global competition and
a worldwide recession which was felt first in the U.S. then Europe
and most recently, in Asia.
Cultural changes are the second driver
for collaboration. As our world becomes more like a global village,
we have greater involvement in other cultures. Whereas, just a few
years ago, we traveled thousands of miles, taking days out of our
regular routines to meet with people in other countries, today,
desktop video and data conferencing provides an immediate, inexpensive
and minimally disruptive method to conduct the same meeting. This
interaction with other cultures drives changes in our own organizations.
In addition cross cultural issues, implementing any new technology
or program forces change in the organization, many of which are
characterized by teams and other collaborative paradigms.
The third driver for collaboration is the
"net." Even though the Internet and WWW are not fully
interactive or collaborative, vendors are incorporating collaborative
functionality into new versions of web-based products. The acquisition
of Collabra by Netscape is a good example. Netscape bought Collabra
in order to integrate CollabraShare's collaborative functionality
into its product line. Additionally, HTML 3.0 can now support forms,
and companies like JetForm are developing products to route these
forms in both simple and complex workflows. Research performed by
Collaborative Strategies showed that most collaborative functions
were migrating onto intranets (the network inside a fire wall),
and would not move out to support inter-organizational collaboration
until the 1998 time-frame.
Other examples that highlight the movement
toward collaborative functions on the internet include Lotus' InterNotes
Publisher 4.0 which allows bi-directional information flows between
the Web and Notes. Also, InterNotes now includes a browser. There
are five functional differences between traditional groupware and
WWW collaboration which will be discussed later in this chapter.
The fourth driver for collaboration is our ongoing effort to realize
greater efficiency. Collaborative technologies support our efforts
to create new relationships and new ways to work. These efficiencies
challenge the old hierarchical organizational structures which are
often not flexible enough to meet today's demands; especially the
increasing velocity of information and an environment where "right"
decisions must be made quickly. Many businesses are reinventing
or re-engineering themselves using groupware tools to meet these
challenges.
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