Groupware and Online Collaboration: Collaboration Series #4 by Joe Miller
This article is the fourth of a series of articles exploring specific aspects of groupware. The brief informational articles in this series discuss some of the technologies associated with groupware, as well as some of the characteristics of groupware. ... Online Collaboration Online collaboration consists of sending emails back and forth to edit and review attached documents, like market reports, budgets, contracts, and press releases. ... After all, online collaboration has become an ad hoc process, and document versions get saved in multiple email boxes and on multiple hard drives.

Groupware Finds Home in American Business: Collaboration Tool Analysis by Joe Miller
What is Groupware? Have you ever had to manage document collaboration in a hurry? No need to be ashamed if you said "yes." Virtually every American business has experienced moments of ad hoc team collaboration. In other words, the ideal business collaboration method involves meticulous record... Your usability analysis of groupware as a collaboration tool must take into account online collaboration. ... Email is an example of how collaboration is so often done online. ... Having analyzed the set-up costs, it is time to move on to analyzing the usability of groupware as a collaboration tool.

Can Group Collaboration Software Meet Business Needs? by Joe Miller
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... 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...

Groupware: What Works the Way Businesses Do? by Joe Miller
Groupware The internet is full of 1.5 million to 7 million indexed pages of groupware packages available on the market today. Every business needs groupware to control, manage, or track documents. Groupware is similar to other systems that enable document management, often using a centralized... In searching through the groupware available, there are technologies to keep an eye out for which enable document tracking during hectic, ad hoc, document collaboration. ... Ad Hoc Collaboration Often times, however, businesses do not, or cannot, follow an outlined document collaboration process.

Electronic Document Management Systems by Eric Morris
An electronic document management system is a computer-based system whereby software tools are used to capture, process, index, store, retrieve, distribute and dispose of the documents. The documents may be in the form of spreadsheets, word processing documents, multimedia files and the like. ... A user can create a document, attach graphical images and index the document along with the attachment, using the software. ... An electronic document management system ensures against misplacement or loss of files due to the provision of an online security system.

FREE Google Docs & Spreadsheets ‘Challenge’ MS Office? by Wong Hing
Google Office? No..We called it Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets? Simple. It is lightweight alternatives to Microsoft Office Word and Excel. Only that Google offer online free word processor and spreadsheet, and they allow collaboration... Well, being able to jointly create and edit... Since Google Docs & Spreadsheets saves to a secure, online storage facility, you can access your documents and spreadsheets from any computer, anytime and, in the event of a local hard drive crash, you won't lose your saved content online.

The Email Alternative: Using An Extranet For Online Document Sharing by Rick Mosenkis
Why is an extranet better than email for sharing documents? The answer is simple: email is perfect for one-to-one communication, but not ideally suited for groups engaged in project collaboration. Most e-mail programs provide little – if any – effective way to prioritize your messages and... In addition, an extranet can handle any size document. ... An extranet assures that important documents get to the right place, ready for instant response. ... Many extranets make it even easier, using automatic email alerts that inform the recipients that the presentations are available, and providing...

Online Spreadsheets vs. Microsoft Excel and How a Combination of Both Works by Reto Laemmler
There has been lots of rumor about Google's plan competing with Microsoft's most profitable office product suite. The acquisition of Writely (online web processor) followed by the release of Google Spreadsheets made it pretty obvious that the leader of search engines is also interested in... The downside of an online spreadsheet is that a user needs to learn a new tool. ... Xcellery let's you share and edit spreadsheets online using Microsoft Excel itself. ... An online spreadsheet on the other hand is stored on a server and can only be opened with a web browser.

Powerful Online Publishing Software At Your Fingertips by Peter Morgan
There are a number of highly reputable online publishing software products, some offering free products downloadable from the Internet. Adobe is one of the online publishing software companies, and it offers an Acrobat Reader that allows online users to download software for reading and printing... With Adobe's online publishing software choices you can find readers, viewers, players, print publishing, Web design and publishing, collaboration and communication tools, server applications, tools for developers, technical communications such as e-learning, digital imaging, mobile...

Using a Client Extranet for Efficient Online Collaboration by Rick Mosenkis
Efficient collaboration with clients is essential for any service firm. Traditionally, collaboration has focused on face-to-face meetings, supported by email to share work in progress. Over the past several years, a new tool has grown in popularity: the client service extranet. ... While face-to-face meetings remain the most effective (and essential) collaboration tool, extranets have replaced email as the favored forum for sharing and organizing the vast number of documents that are part of all client/agency relationships.