Hot off the press.. New MWD Collaboration report!
I'm pleased to announce that MWD's new report,
Ideals and reality: understanding the context for your enterprise collaboration strategy, is now available for free download from our website. The report offers our perspective on the role of technology in enterprise collaboration, and highlights the key issues facing organisations looking to implement collaborative working practices.
One of the most interesting messages to come out of the report is the fragmented nature of the collaboration software market today, both in terms of the breadth of tools classified as collaboration tools, and the lack of cohesion between those tools when it comes to implementing them in an enterprise setting. The lack of adequate standards for integrating the different functions - both with each other, and with organisations' existing IT environments - basically means that an organisation is left to take all the risk if it wants an integrated environment. The cost and complexity of integration, and the likely possibility that any custom integration work will need to be re-built with every new product upgrade, places additional pressures on already challenging cost justifications for collaboration. This is of course also a major issue for the software vendors, as it will serve only to dampen collaboration market growth potential.
It's important for organisations and vendors alike to remember that collaboration software does not equal a collaborative working environment; there are many more factors that need to be considered. This report calls out some of the key organisational, cultural and governance challenges that organisations face in implementing collaboration - and offers advice on how to deal with them.
Click here to read the report, and I welcome your comments!
Labels: collaboration, integration, MWD, report
