Collaboration Tools: Information Technology For Managers

2e
Chapter 6
Collaboration
Tools
Information Technology for Managers

George W. Reynolds
Strayer University
Copyright ©2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
Learning Objectives
• How do managers determine which collaboration
tools are most effective for meeting the needs of
their organization?
• What benefits can accrue from the use of
collaboration tools? What issues are associated with
their use?

2
Why Managers Must Understand
Collaboration Tools
3
Need for Understanding Collaboration
Tools
• Enable employees to access corporate data and
critical messages regardless of the time or location
• Allow organizations to conduct virtual meetings
• Help to deliver information and training
• Allow companies to get closer to their customers

4
Collaboration Tools
5
Electronic Bulletin Board
• Allows users to leave messages or read public
messages about upcoming events and products
• Attracts a community of users and increases site
traffic
• Users should be cautious when posting content to
public bulletin boards

6
Blogs
• Web sites in which contributors provide ongoing
commentary on a particular subject
• Organizations use corporate blogs for branding and
marketing purposes
• Growing number of organizations allow employees
to create personal blogs related to their jobs

7
Figure 6.2 - Southwest Airlines
Corporate Blog
Source: © 2014 Southwest Airlines Co. All Rights Reserved.
8
Calendaring Software
• Allows people to capture and record scheduled
meetings and events
• Enables individuals to check the electronic
calendar of team members
• Permits to send notifications and reminders to
meetings and event participants

9
Desktop Sharing
• Allows remote access and collaboration on a
person’s computer
• Remote log-in: Enables users to connect to their
office computer from outside office
– Helps technicians to access users’ computers
distantly to perform setup, diagnostics, and repair

10
Instant Messaging (IM)
• One-to-one conversation in which one computer
communicates with another for exchanging text,
images, and more
• Works on multiple platforms
• Involves the risk of unintended release of private or
sensitive information
• Freemium model: Core product is given away free
of charge to a large groups of users
– Premium version is sold to a smaller fraction

11
Table 6.3 - Popular Web-Based IM
Applications
12
Podcast and RSS
• Podcast: Digital media file intended for playback
on mobile devices and personal computers
– Podcasters create audio programs which are
uploaded to Web sites
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
– Family of data formats
– Helps people automatically receive feeds anytime
there are new postings at specified Web sites
– Content is read using software called an RSS reader

13
Shared Workspace
• Area hosted by a Web server
• Enables project members to share information to
keep each other current on the status of projects
• Software products
– Box, eXo Platform, Producteev, and SharePoint

14
Online Project Management
• Provides a set of tools for project managers and
members to report project plans and status
• Allows real-time collaboration on project
documents by team members and other
stakeholders
• Software products
– Mavenlink, Podio, Projectplace, and Wrike

15
Web Conferencing
• Method to conduct live meetings or presentations
over the Internet
• Offered on a per-minute usage basis or for a fixed
monthly fee
• Features
– Interactive multimedia presentations
– Live video via Webcam or digital video camera
– Panoramic video
– Active speaker indicator

16
Web Conferencing (continued)
– Application sharing
– Public events page
– Personal recordings
– Virtual breakout rooms
– Text chat for live question-and-answer sessions
– Polls and surveys

17
Webcast and Webinar
• Webcast: Form of Web conferencing that uses
streaming media technologies
– Broadcast video and/or audio from a single content
source to many listeners or viewers
• Webinar: Seminar delivered over the Web
– Led by a presenter
– Less collaborative in nature

18
Table 6.4 - Comparison of Top-Rated
Web Conferencing Services
19
Wikis
• Collaborative Web sites that allow users to create
and edit Web page content freely
• Support hyperlinks and have a simple text syntax
• Constructed from all types of corporate data
• Allow users to determine the relevancy of content
• Organizations provide style guides for wiki pages to
maintain consistency

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Benefits of Corporate Wikis
• Easy to link to useful corporate information
systems
• Reduce the amount of e-mail traffic
• Restricted access to view or edit certain pages
• Provide a tool for building consensus
• Allow users to build and organize useful new
sources of data

21
Presence Information
• Provides users the ability to see a colleague’s

availability status
• Saves time
• Allows coworkers to anticipate delays in response
to emails or messages

22
Unified Communications (UC)
• Communications system that fully integrates data,
text, voice, and video into a single solution
• Eliminates the need for multiple communications
systems and vendors
– Leads to a simpler communication processes
– Reduces telecommunications, hardware, software,
and support costs

23
Figure 6.3 - Unified Communications

24
Summary
• Collaboration is vital for the effective operation of
modern organizations
• Collaboration tools
– Electronic bulletin boards
– Blogs
– Desktop sharing
– Instant messaging (IM)
– Podcasts
– Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

25
Summary (continued)
– Shared workspace
– Online project management
– Web conferencing
– Webcasts
– Webinars
– Wikis
– Presence information
– Unified communications

26

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2e

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Source: © 2014 Southwest Airlines Co. All Rights Reserved.

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

• Provides users the ability to see a colleague’s

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

Information Technology for Managers

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