In kindergarten, we learn that one plus one equals two. When the right people get together to work on a project or solve a problem, one plus one can add up to much more than two. Ideas are shared, amended, restated and massaged until they actually address the issue at hand. In a structured environment, previous attempts to solve the same problem are discovered, and the discussions surrounding those deliberations can be used so earlier mistakes aren't repeated. Collaboration leads to better ideas, more satisfied customers, higher profits, improved relationships among co-workers and more efficient business processes.
We are convinced that information technology and the Internet can be instrumental in helping companies produce the right environment for structured collaboration. Based on our experience, asynchronous collaboration products -- that is, the products that provide a collaborative environment in which not all team members must be present at the same time -- provide the best environment for today's fast-paced, geographically dispersed businesses.
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We invited six vendors to participate in a review of collaborative products. The six vendors have shown commitment to providing asynchronous work spaces via an ASP model or in a self-hosted environment. Of the six, Bungo-ShareHQ, eRoom Technology, Intraspect Software and SiteScape jumped at the chance to participate. Hummingbird chose not to participate, while Lotus Development sent the wrong product and never corrected its mistake.
The applications we did test share a common goal: to help your users share their knowledge and ideas with one another in a structured way via a Web-based interface. Over the past couple of years, vendors in the asynchronous space have begun to add real-time features, either to their base products or as new products that enhance their asynchronous offerings. We also wanted to take the real-time collaboration features into account, so we invited vendors to include their real-time products, and we evaluated those features as well.
Four Network Computing editors -- in Boston, Washington, Syracuse, N.Y. and Green Bay, Wis. -- put these packages through their paces (see "How We Tested Collaboration Tools"). Each editor rated the features individually; we tallied those results to produce our report card (above) and select our Editor's Choice. We were amazed to find that after all the poking and prodding we did, two of the four products tied for the top spot: eRoom Digital Workplace and Intraspect 5 Applications -- Product Collaboration.
Both have reached version 5, which means they each have a significant history behind them. This is a good thing. ERoom is the Microsoft Word of asynchronous collaboration products. The list of features in this product is the yardstick by which the others are measured. Our judges were impressed with eRoom's well-designed user interface and its combination of asynchronous and real-time features.
Intraspect was the dark horse and fared well enough in a number of rating categories, especially our price/value and enterprise fit categories, to overcome its lack of real-time features.
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