"Collaboration isn't an easy destination to reach. But while the journey might be arduous, the payoff once you arrive can be well worth the effort."

Photo credit: Mark Robbins

The above is extracted from an excellent article written by Alice Dragoon for CIO online, Australia magazine for online executives. It has lots of good insight, and lots of concrete information about the experiences and issues discovered by those that have already been there.

One of the essential lessons learned by those organizations that have understood that effective collaboration goes beyond selecting the latest technology, is the one relating to the issue of competition versus the one of co-operation.

"To arrive at collaboration, companies will need to get over their win-lose mentality, and solve a host of technical and cultural challenges. Here's a road map for the journey."

Issues of competitiveness, lack of trust, security concerns, cost and complexity, have in fact prevented effective collaboration between businesses to fully bloom. But, at least according to what you can read in this CIO article, things are starting to change.

To help would-be online collaborators inside small and large organizations out there, this introductory travel guide to technology-facilitated collaboration offers

a) an overview of types of collaboration and their benefits,

b) a look at potential challenges, and

c) a roundup of collaboration best practices and technologies that companies such as Procter & Gamble, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, BAE Systems and Visa have been leveraging to make collaboration work for them.

"As communications costs fall, it becomes possible and desirable for many more people and organizations to collaborate in ways that would never have been feasible before," says Tom Malone, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, founder and director of the MIT Centre for Coordination Science, and author of The Future of Work.

...

In its purest form, collaboration consists of two or more individuals or companies working together to achieve a common goal or create mutual value.

By combining resources - whether that means sharing customer information, supply chain data, intellectual property or R&D expertise - collaborators jointly create what they cannot produce efficiently on their own. Forms of collaboration can be classified by the relationship between the collaborating parties, which often sets the tone for the partnership."

The travel guide to collaboration highlights with good, detailed information the potential but also some of the other key dangers to effective enterprise collaboration, like:

• Win-lose mentality - Mistrust
• Intellectual property issues
• Lack of security
• Technical integration obstacles

In this guide, as much space is given to some great examples highlighting the best practices to bring enterprise collaboration about:

• Clarify Mutual Value
• Build Trust
• Provision of the right tools and minimizing the need for integration



"The line between real-time and asynchronous tools is beginning to blur, however, as some collaboration tools are starting to offer both real-time and asynchronous/persistent functionality. For B2B collaborations, establishing a shared workspace on neutral territory, administered by a third party, can help put collaborators on equal footing and allay concerns about who controls shared data. Groove Networks' peer-to-peer collaboration software and the hosted version of EMC/Documentum's eRoom service avoid the problems that arise when a single company owns the collaborative space.

This pay-as-you-go shared working environment is secure and offers such collaborative functionality as integrated online meetings and workflow. Collaborators don't need to deal with the hassles of integrating systems or invest in a specific technology as a precondition of working with business partners; they just need Web access and money to pay for the service. If a collaboration proposal or project bid doesn't go forward, the companies haven't spent a fortune on infrastructure that won't get used. And because this shared space is normally hosted by a third-party company, no single collaborator is seen to "own" the workspace or the data therein, establishing a more level playing field."

There's lots and lots of great content to read in this travel guide to collaboration. well researched and well written.

Recommended reading.



A must read article.:
A Travel Guide To Collaboration
by Alice Dragoon
February 4th 2005