Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (October 10, 2007)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Blogging at Northwestern Mutual ... A case study from Forrester Research on the benefits of blogging at Northwestern Mutual. "While the bloging initiative was designed to improve the culture of openness and honesty, the biggest benefits were seen in project and team management. About 70% of the active blogs at Northwestern Mutual focus on project management." Holtz

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• ikordo for Outlook ... ikordo released a private beta for its plug-in for Outlook. "These features will allow you to schedule a meeting using ikordo directly from MS Outlook. You'll be able to add attendees based on your contacts stored in MS Outlook and the integration will also give ikordo a starting place for scheduling a meeting based on your availability in your Outlook calendar." ikordo, ikordo Blog


• Near-Time Widgets ... Near-Time formally announced the availability new widgets and Web services for integrating with other applications on the Web. "Examples of supported add-in modules include real-time applications, rich media, spreadsheets, databases, polling and surveys. With this upgrade, Near-Time users can quickly build and deploy solutions that tap into the interactive and collaborative nature of Near-Time wikis and weblogs. Roles and permissions functionality enable organizations to deploy the resulting solutions to internal groups, channels and customers or open applications and content to the general public over the Web." Available immediately. BusinessWire

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Focus Tool ... When trying to concentrate on a task, seeing all the other activity on your screen can be distracting. "Zorro is like placing a cardboard on the screen with a rectangular hole - you focus the Zorro views screen over any area of the desktop (or any running software application), hit the ESC key and Zorro will blank all the outside portion. Distractions, if any, won't be visible unless you escape the Zorro mode (i.e., remove the cardboard)." For Windows only. Digital Inspiration


• Dealing with Quiet Times ... Laura shares a strategy for handling the inherent or unforeseen quiet times in work. "If you are experiencing a slow time, don't get bored or frustrated until things pick up again! Take advantage of it and even things out. Take the time to start those projects you've had on the backburner that "you never have time to get to" during the regular season." Laura Stack

Comments

[John Reiling, PMP]

It is interesting but not surprising that the collaboration at Northwestern Mutual is largely being used by project teams. With project teams more dispersed and virtual, and with the technology available, this is surely a wave of the future, as project teams again act as if they are in closer proximity with thea id of the collaborative technology.
____________________________
John Reiling, PMP
Project Management Training Online
www.pmtrainingonline.com
Lean Six Sigma Training Online
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[Sham]

We are looking at some office product solutions, and need to know whether there is a product that can help manage Tasks and projects (Outlook is not flexible enought), AND manage/connect forms to Clients (i.e. customer has a contract, billing, case notes, receipts etc.). If there is one product great, but otherwise we may need 2 products.

I have heard about these (BaseCamp, ActionThis, TimeBridge, IKORDO, MS Sharepoint), but it is not clear if they are task specific or are flexible enough to allow for what we need.

Thanks

Sham

[Michael Sampson]

Hi Sham ... great question ... it definitely sounds like a consulting question to me. Happy to help ... get in touch via http://co.michaelsampson.net/contact.html

M.