Comments on: Why any collaboration strategy must include email http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/01/22/why-any-collaboration-strategy-must-include-email/ Thoughts on Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, and SaaS Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:38:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Jason http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/01/22/why-any-collaboration-strategy-must-include-email/#comment-4 Jason Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:00:29 +0000 http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/01/22/why-any-collaboration-strategy-must-include-email/#comment-4 Deano, Thanks for the comment. Your points are well taken. We are trying to be very deliberate in what we add and when. Our priorities have been very foundational thus far i.e. engaging and easy to use UI, semantic technology to make best use of the content, adding email in capability, etc. We definitely want to add IM at some point in the future. We are also looking at wikis, polls, and other features. One idea based on your comments is if you are having a really great discussion about an issue, it would be great to schedule a meeting directly from the tool and add it to people's calendars. Thanks again for the post and keep them coming. Jason Deano,

Thanks for the comment. Your points are well taken. We are trying to be very deliberate in what we add and when. Our priorities have been very foundational thus far i.e. engaging and easy to use UI, semantic technology to make best use of the content, adding email in capability, etc. We definitely want to add IM at some point in the future. We are also looking at wikis, polls, and other features. One idea based on your comments is if you are having a really great discussion about an issue, it would be great to schedule a meeting directly from the tool and add it to people’s calendars. Thanks again for the post and keep them coming.

Jason

]]> By: Deano http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/01/22/why-any-collaboration-strategy-must-include-email/#comment-3 Deano Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:06:30 +0000 http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/01/22/why-any-collaboration-strategy-must-include-email/#comment-3 I agree about the significance of email, but I'd actually extend this to apply to all "data exchange protocol standards"... If you need to communicate general information/URLs immediately, your tool should work with email or even IM to do so; If the information is date-based, please send it to my calendar (or email as an ical/vcal file)... I'm sick of re-inventing the wheel for each web app I buy. And it's not just communication, but authentication, storage, ACLs, etc. If I'm a small business, I may be really excited that your solution has everything in one place, but if I'm a larger business (or a growing smaller business), I want OPTIONS. But, specifically with email: I certainly can only rarely convince my workers to use a new collaboration tool every few years (if that), and I have no control over my outside folk. To be able to have everyone feed my system using email, I can get the direct benefits of the tool/app myself, and show that off to convince people to join me... But, if they never do, I'm not stuck. With good email integration, I can still gain the benefits of collaboration/project management whether my partners/clients/etc realize it's happening or not. At work, we were able to integrate a PM tool with a helpdesk and mailing list precisely because each tool could send things along an "email chain". Would it be great to have all the features in one tool, just the way I want it? Sure! But, I like the flexibility that if a better helpdesk comes along, we can swap that piece out, with a minimal impact on the other parts. I agree about the significance of email, but I’d actually extend this to apply to all “data exchange protocol standards”… If you need to communicate general information/URLs immediately, your tool should work with email or even IM to do so; If the information is date-based, please send it to my calendar (or email as an ical/vcal file)… I’m sick of re-inventing the wheel for each web app I buy. And it’s not just communication, but authentication, storage, ACLs, etc. If I’m a small business, I may be really excited that your solution has everything in one place, but if I’m a larger business (or a growing smaller business), I want OPTIONS.

But, specifically with email: I certainly can only rarely convince my workers to use a new collaboration tool every few years (if that), and I have no control over my outside folk. To be able to have everyone feed my system using email, I can get the direct benefits of the tool/app myself, and show that off to convince people to join me… But, if they never do, I’m not stuck. With good email integration, I can still gain the benefits of collaboration/project management whether my partners/clients/etc realize it’s happening or not.

At work, we were able to integrate a PM tool with a helpdesk and mailing list precisely because each tool could send things along an “email chain”. Would it be great to have all the features in one tool, just the way I want it? Sure! But, I like the flexibility that if a better helpdesk comes along, we can swap that piece out, with a minimal impact on the other parts.

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