What Does Real Time Collaboration Look Like?
This article looks at some of the key components within the Collaboration process and has been divided into two parts - People and Technology.
There are some great collaboration tools and applications readily available to a wide range of end users from children, single business owners, SME to global corporations. Most of us have all used these various technologies, with varying degrees of success and frustration. These have included Telephone and Video Conferencing (when it worked), from hand written letters to email, Skype, WebEx, FaceBook, YouTube, Google, the list goes on to the more specific commercial applications and technologies. With the constant innovation and emergence of new solutions, such as Microsoft imminent release of their Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), deciding how to collaborate and what to use is going to be a challenge.
In my view, collaboration and technology are being driven by some key trends, which I have listed in no particular order:
Social Networking - Twitter, facebook, YouTube - Video Mobile Devices - there seem to be more mobile phone shops on the street than all of the supermarkets added together
Internet - Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud as long as it has Cloud in it, your okay
Cultural and Social Change - people are more open to collaborating without physically meeting one another
Sustainability - green, environment, jobs, society, buildings, energy, water, value.......
Economic recession - let's try and talk about growth instead
Globalisation - the network is complex, extensive and has no borders, thanks to the Internet
There is also a change in daily vocabulary when people are articulating or presenting a point of view - words that were not used several years ago but our now common place. The few that I have noted are:
"Sustainability" - I started hearing and using this after Al Gore's video, "An Inconvenient Truth"
"Billion" - until the economic implosion you hardly ever heard this number, now even my 6 year old son uses it when describing how many sweets he would like!
"Collaboration" - use to be communication, but I think this word has now taken over and includes communication
What has always been a key test for me when looking to use technology is to see it in action as early as possible to determine if it is real or just hype. Having some basic "requirements" in your head helps you to mentally verify if this is going to work or not. In this case being able to demonstrate "collaboration" to potentially "billions" of people around the world in a "sustainable" way, could be one of them.
Real Time Collaboration I suggest contains several key components and it's not all technology either.
Firstly and most importantly, there has to be a need for people to do it, followed by the people willing to do it. Not all of us are extroverts wanting to collaborate with external people, let alone our internal colleagues, although I am sure that's because of other reasons which we won't go into here. Importantly, collaboration does not happen without people!
This links to one of my previous articles about Strategy Collaboration where people need to be involved, take ownership rather than letting other people decide and being told "this is how you will collaborate". So importantly, if you want to do this (real time collaboration) and no disrespect to our IT colleagues, do this collectively and collaboratively. It's not just an IT solution. Technology adoption is still one of the biggest barriers to manage and overcome. Collaboration solutions need to be co created by the users, otherwise they don't get used.
The global recession has identified the need to collaborate. With the inevitable reduction in resources and the need to do more with less, collaboration has been seen as one of the strategic initiatives to deliver higher productivity through more efficient and effective collaboration. Need I say more?
Secondly, technology is an enabler that helps to make this happen in a cost effective, intuitive, simple, and yes, "sustainable" way. With limited space I don't intend to go through the various technology solutions this time - maybe that's another article if people are interested? However, what I will share with you are several technologies that I have used in delivering collaboration services and workshops. I have summarised these into four key components. I know there are many different ways of doing this and technologies, but from my perspective, delivering collaboration services to major corporations on a global basis, all of the technology applications and services are provided by others, except for the content and IP that I include that makes it unique. These services, provided by others I believe is another basic requirement that needs to be adopted and fulfilled. Moving on, the four components:
Collaboration Platform - various applications exist but the one I use extensively is an application called sharpcloud (see it's got the "Cloud" word in it). I know this is obvious but this is a cloud based application that allows people to collaborate in a visual and intuitive way, to develop their "Stories". These Stories can be strategies, roadmaps, value propositions, marketing plan, project portfolio and many other end user applications. One of the main benefits here is that you can be up and running within minutes - no extra hardware, software, IT Infrastructure to justify, purchase, install and commission and it is all maintained and managed by somebody else.
Collaboration Content - these are the tools, templates and presentations that you can create using technologies such as sharpcloud as well as other applications like Mind Manager, PowerPoint as well as video content using Cam Studio and YouTube. All of which can be shared and used as part of your collaboration platform to facilitate workshops, collaborative meetings, project reviews, product development and many more end user applications, whilst saving time and cost, as well as improving productivity.
Collaboration Delivery - there are various options such as WebEx, which some of us have experienced. One of the simple ways that I use to get people collaborating is having everyone log on to sharpcloud and dial in using a telephone conference. This gets everyone online and collaborating quickly and simply using everyday technology such as the Internet and a telephone. WebEx is another technology that I use and is great for training, webinars and meetings. Finally a solution from RADVISON called Scopia is a great Video Conferencing solution - this enables us to initiate video conferences to virtually any end point, such as a laptop, existing Audio Video Conferencing Systems, desk top Telepresence to mobile smart devices. This type of technology is delivered as a service via the Internet, integrated as part of your Outlook (like WebEx) but can take care of the various technology issues that use to be major barriers on early Video Conferencing Systems when trying to connect to a multitude of different end points. Potentially a big barrier to Real Time Collaboration!
Collaboration Interaction - this is both people and technology here. Online collaboration is flexible, productive, cost effective and once you have mastered the slight time delays, it can be an enjoyable experience. However, when using these tools, such as sharpcloud, with relevant content, in a physical room, through a Touch Screen ("Minority Report" in Action), this really gets the interaction and collaboration going, both on a physical and personal level.
Clearly there are many solutions that can help us all collaborate - as long as we/they can connect to one another.
So coming back to what Real Time Collaboration Look Like? Getting some basic requirements and breaking the Collaboration Process down into components, which are aligned to your business or organisation is crucial.
There is one final key point. The technology solutions that have been described above are all provided by others, as a service via the Internet. There is no computer room, IT staff, infrastructure and the like. That in itself demonstrates how businesses can collaborate with one another, without ever physically meeting, to deliver real value to customers, clients and partners in a very cost effective and sustainable way.
The effect it has had on me personally is that my air miles have reduced dramatically, due to less travelling and more efficient and effective collaboration. That's not good for getting free flights but the overall beneficial value we get from real time collaboration, means we save money as well as the environment - and they're real benefits!
About the Author
Jason Hier helps businesses and organisations to
Visualise
their complex "stories" and Accelerate their understanding and execution. Contact Roelto to find out more and get a
FREE 1/2 Day consultation/workshop
Web accessibility in civil society: Persons with disabilities in today's educational environments
[simpleaffiliate source="amazon" results="10"]green energy powerpoint template[/simpleaffiliate]
[simpleaffiliate source="cj" results="10"]green energy powerpoint template[/simpleaffiliate]
[simpleaffiliate source="clickbank" results="20"]green energy powerpoint template[/simpleaffiliate]
No comments:
Post a Comment