Can Group Collaboration Software Meet Business Needs?

According to a survey conducted by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures entitled "Content-Centric Collaboration," 51 percent of businesspeople utilizing technology such as Microsoft Office and e-mail collaborate almost daily as a part of their business operations and need group collaboration software to support electronic collaboration.

The report indicated that the need would continue to grow over the next year. This stat is not surprising because technology can be very valuable in improving business operations. However, two challenges seem to stand in the way of supporting electronic collaboration: "convincing users to consistently take advantage of capabilities" and "encouraging users to contribute information into the system." One of the questions that has arisen from these challenges is "Is there a group collaboration software that is simple for users to adopt?"

Since two-thirds of businesses collaborate using e-mail, one of the biggest tests for group collaboration software is whether it can integrate with e-mail. When considering the type of collaboration that takes place with e-mail, businesses see that e-mail collaboration includes attachments created mostly in Microsoft Office applications. This means there is another test for group collaboration software, "Can it integrate with Office applications.

User Friendly Group Collaboration Software

The first two challenges of adopting group collaboration software are not uncommon to adopting any new technology. Often times a new technology can be very intimidating. Is there group collaboration software out there that is user friendly?

First, it is important to recognize that group collaboration software packages available today include different components which vary according to the package you select. Most businesses may begin looking by typing "group collaboration software" in an online search engine. This will yield 19,500,000 indexed pages.

In order to narrow down your choices for a non-intimidating group collaboration software package, begin by searching for a package that does not require IT (information technology) infrastructure. This means that you do not have to add any new technology to your computer in order to use the software. No IT also means that the software works automatically with your applications, without having to install and maintain separate servers or applications. There is group collaboration that you can download and then sit back, relax, and let it work for you. Use the free demo option to see how the group collaboration software works for you.

Integrating Group Collaboration Software

More than half of technology users already collaborate almost daily using email and attachments. When searching for the right group collaboration software for your business, there are helpful technologies included in group collaboration software packages which make integration with email and MS Office possible.

Digital Thread technology allows group collaboration software to track documents as they are sent back and forth and altered. The Digital Signature displays the tracking information (the who's, what's, when's, where's, and how's) every time you open any draft of the document from e-mail, your desktop, or any other drive on your computer. A Version History puts all of the tracking information together in a family tree of the document and its versions, making collaboration even easier because you always know what you are working on, where it has been, what changes have been made, who made them, and where it is saved.

A group collaboration software package which includes these technologies easily integrates with email and MS Office applications, even if there are others with whom you collaborate who do not yet have group collaboration software.

It is true that the need for group collaboration software is increasing rapidly, and so is the number of group collaboration software packages. These tips are meant to help you sift through the millions of options available to you and to help you to find group collaboration software that is user-friendly and that can integrate with the most commonly used office applications available.

Joe Miller is specialist in online advertising. For more information on group collaboration software, please visit NextPage.com.

---

Great Plains Customization Upgrade? Overview For CIO/IT Director

Around the same time Microsoft made its move with .Net... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Distribution, Barcoding, Consignment ? overview for consultant

Microsoft Great Plains ? ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and... Read More

IT Department Skills to Support Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM

Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as... Read More

10 Ways to Learn a Software

Following tips help you to learn a software in lesser... Read More

Information Products: A Business Owners Best Friend

We live in a post-industrial age where information is the... Read More

Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application

User interfaces and accessibility are some of the most important... Read More

Performance Tuning of a Daffodil DB / One$DB -JDBC Application

This article illustrates the best practices to improve the performance... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Manufacturing or Bill of Materials - Overview for IT Specialist

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions product, targeted... Read More

What to Do if All Screensavers Fun is Grayed Out?

Finally, you have some time to personalize your desktop with... Read More

Windows Screensavers Explained

In this article you will find some background information about... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Collection Management ? Overview For Consultant

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very good fit for... Read More

IT Strategy for Midsize Business: Microsoft vs. Java, Great Plains & CRM

Midsize business or non-profit organization should decide if one-vendor solution... Read More

Microsoft Blues

With the advent of 'Service Pack 2' for Windows XP... Read More

Instant Messaging is a Sweet Way to Communicate

MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft RMS Integration ? overview

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More

Oracle Development: JDeveloper 10G ? Java, J2EE, EJB, MVC, XML - Overview For Programmer

In 2004 Oracle, Inc. made its new step toward J2EE... Read More

Running a Program on a Remote Server Using SSH

How do you run a program on a remote server... Read More

Mozilla Vs. Firefox

For those who are unclear on the differences between the... Read More

Review on QuarkXpress 6.0

After almost two decades of existence, Quark has become the... Read More

Corporate ERP: Standard vs. Rich functionality ? Microsoft Great Plains

Traditionally we were considering functionally rich systems, such as SAP,... Read More

QuarkXpress Tips: How to Move Content Between Print and Web Layouts

Since its release in 1987, QuarkXpress had made an immediate... Read More

eStore Advantage ? Extending Microsoft eConnect for MBS Great Plains

eStore Advantage allows front-office applications to communicate with back-office business... Read More

Groove Network. Are you in it?

If you are in a business that passes documents around... Read More

Defining OLAP Solutions and Data Warehouse design

This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More

Microsoft CRM Implementation for Large Corporation ? overview

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is now approaching the phase of... Read More

New SQL Delta Version 3.1

COMMAND LINE FUNCTIONA powerful command line script processor has been... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains international implementation ? USA / Mexico ? overview for consultant

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was purchased from Great Plains... Read More

How to Tell You Have Spyware, Ad-ware or Viruses

Usually, the easiest way to tell you have spyware is... Read More

DVD Burning Tips

CD and DVD replication is a process that works by... Read More

Lotus Domino: Application Integration ? A Programmer View

There are two approaches for application integration:? Programmer's approach ?... Read More

Story Development Software: Good or Evil?

In the early days of the personal computer, we're talking... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Integrations ? Retail Management Sample

Microsoft Business Solutions is emerging as very attractive vendor for... Read More

Microsoft CRM Customization: Integration with Third Party SQL Application/Database

Microsoft CRM ? Client Relationship Management package from Microsoft Business... Read More