Collaboration Management
Posted by Arjun ThomasThere is a very interesting story on collaboration Management written by Teresa Leung at Computer World. It talks about how Business leverage new technologies and tools to promote collaboration within their organziations.
Collaboration has become a buzzword in the past two years. But businesses have been using tools to help workers collaborate for decades. From pure voice tools to unified messaging and high-end telepresence, the range of choices keeps increasing.
According to IDC, Hong Kong’s collaborative application market is estimated to reach HK$106.69 million in 2008 and achieve a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7.9 percent from 2008 to 2013. The research house added that the Asia Pacific market excluding Japan is expected to hit US$368.13 million in 2008 and reach a CAGR of 9.7 percent in the same period.
Hot picks in Hong Kong
Messaging applications, said Sheila Lam, senior market analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific, remain the most widely adopted collaboration software in Hong Kong. She noted that IDC’s definition of messaging apps includes e-mail, instant messaging and unified messaging applications.
“It may not sound very exciting or edgy,” said Lam. “But collaborative applications, by definition, are tools to enable information workers to work together by sharing information and processes. Therefore the value of these tools relies on their pervasiveness, regardless of company size or industry.”
Among these apps, unified messaging is the most popular among business today because it integrates all means of pervasive and mature communication technologies, including e-mail, fax, and voice, Lam said, adding that these technologies have also been integrated as part of business processes.
But as technologies advance and business processes evolve, the popularity of collaborative tools changes accordingly, according to Lam, adding that CIOs shouldn’t ignore other upcoming collaborative tools.
Videoconferencing is one of the examples. The tech first stole the limelight in 2003 when SARS hit Hong Kong. But the high cost of adoption prohibited video conferencing from going mainstream, Lam said.
As the technology and network infrastructure matures, video conferencing is now available at a more affordable price with higher stability, she noted. The cutback of business travel during the current economic recession is expected to raise popularity of video conferencing among enterprises, she added.
Read the entire article here.
Related posts: