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Where does groupware sit in today's enterprise
IT architecture? As demonstrated in Figure 6, it lies on a network
infrastructure that includes PCs, cabling, network operating systems
and administration utilities, or phone lines for a wide area network
(WAN). Although groupware is part of the networked applications
environment, not all networked applications constitute groupware.
For example, access to a corporate database through a network is
not necessarily groupware.
Interactive or discussion databases may
be part of a groupware application. Often groupware applications
are workgroup-oriented and not enterprise-oriented. The issues involved
in scaling up these applications for a multinational corporation
are not trivial and often require the cooperation of competitive
vendors, establishing standards, and a mature supporting infrastructure.
Many of the requirements for "enterprise-ware" are not
yet available today. Yet the advent of IP networks, especially the
Intranet are driving this new collaborative infrastructure at a
frantic pace.
Figure 1.3
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