Select the Right Collaboration Platform
August 31, 2010Organizations 
are increasingly leveraging collaboration tools in order to enhance team work, but only 6% of organizations are seeing high usage.
Selection of a standard collaboration platform and toolset used to be easy: Microsoft or IBM Lotus. But now there are many competitors in this market, fueled by the rise of Web 2.0 collaboration paradigms, requiring organizations to know what the problem is they are trying to solve.
We can help you understand and identify collaboration opportunities that exist within your organization, identify leading vendors and compare capabilities, and select the right solution to implement.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Teams and communities collaborate differently, therefore organizations must ensure they understand the target audiences they are designing for before selecting products.
- Expecting the infrastructure to grow organically is wishful thinking. Put strategic intent behind the tool by defining specific use cases or risk spending money on a tool that users ignore.
- Microsoft SharePoint enables collaboration around content, but it is not a complete collaboration toolset. Don’t eliminate the niche vendors out of the gate – many of them built their platforms with specific collaboration goals in mind and may provide an improved experience over the more established vendors.
Impact and Result
- Plan and select a collaboration solution that brings distributed people and information together to get more done in less time.
- Use Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape to compare the major collaboration platforms available and prepare a vendor shortlist, saving time and money in the selection process.
- Use Info-Tech’s collaboration platform RFP template and demo scripts to prepare solid requirements for vendor finalists and select the right product.
Get to Action
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1. Plan the selection process first
Ensure smooth collaboration platform selection project execution.
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2. Understand and identify collaboration opportunities
To determine if a formal collaboration platform will deliver value to my organization.
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3. Compare collaboration platforms available and arrive at shortlist
Understand the dynamic vendor landscape for collaboration platforms and narrow the product selection.
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4. Select a collaboration platform
Finalize on a set of tools, based on their ability to support your defined collaboration strategies, and providing the most value to your organization.
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