Enterprise Collaboration Tools

Posted by Sean Doherty on December 3, 2004

Tags: Entopia Quantum 1.6.1,  Hummingbird Enterprise Collaboration 5.2,  Interwoven WorkSite MP 4.0,  Microsoft SharePoint Services 2.0,  Open Text Livelink 9.2.0,  SiteScape Forum 7.1,  Stellent Universal Content Management 7.1.1,  Vignette Business Collaboration Server 5.6.3,  asynchronous tools,  digital workspaces,  document management,  filesharing,  virtual workspaces,  workflow,  Collaboration Software,  Content Management,  Desktop Applications,  E-Mail,  Enterprise Applications,  Instant Messaging,  Other,  Portals,  Software,  Software and Web Development,  Unified Communications & VoIP,  collaboration

Channel: Content Management, Other, UC & VoIP

Product Roll Call Entopia Quantum 1.6.1 Hummingbird Enterprise Collaboration 5.2 Interwoven WorkSite MP 4.0 Microsoft SharePoint Services 2.0 Open Text Livelink 9.2.0 SiteScape Forum 7.1 Stellent Universal Content Management 7.1.1 Vignette Business Collaboration Server 5.6.3 Dig Deeper (on-site search queries) Document Management Collaboration Read On Enteprise IMs Sharing is Daring

Collaboration servers devour CPU and RAM resources. Each system we tested requires a dual-processing Intel PIII or a single Intel P4 environment with at least 1 GB of RAM. Web collaboration doesn't assume client processing power, so servers bear the burden of supporting client activities. The servers authenticate users, enforce security profiles, serve and render documents in HTML, process e-mail and create and search indexes.

Some platforms, like Entopia Quantum and SiteScape Forum, edit documents online from within browsers. This takes even more horsepower. Most products stream documents to users through the browser and let the browser handle them according to MIME type. It's also possible to edit documents online through WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning). Either way, using a local client to view and edit documents in their native format off-loads processing from the server. But server processes still keep resources busy.

The systems tested require user training. Quantum, Hummingbird Enterprise Collaboration, Microsoft SharePoint Services and Forum are easy to navigate. Interwoven Worksite MP, Open Text Livelink, Stellent Universal Content Manager and Vignette Business Collaboration Server (VBCS) are more complex.

All the vendors had a difficult time calling a duck a duck. VBCS refers to its system as Group Memory and to workspaces as communities. Hummingbird also uses communities. Interwoven works with realms and facilities, while Entopia builds a Q-File. Once we got a handle on the vocabulary, we saw that each vendor provides check-in/checkout features with versioning control. And all but Microsoft include a tool for workflow.