Online Collaboration Tools - Are You Ready For Primetime?

There are not many areas of technology that have improved in usability as much as online collaboration tools. By online collaboration tools I am referring to solutions that provide all or some of the following functionality in an online, real-time, architecture:

-Email
-Calendaring
-Document Access
-Document Version Control
-Intranet and Extranet Access
-Screen Sharing
-Conference Calling
-Video Conferencing

What has changed relative to the usability of online collaboration tools is the way that they can be easily shared via the internet. There are solutions on the market today that enable participants to all log into the same web based meeting and conference call. Video conferencing using real-time cameras can also be utilized if participants want to see who is in the meeting. Most importantly, meeting participants are now able to view information on one person's screen. This provides the ability to view presentations, demonstrations, view documents, etc., and not only one person's screen can be viewed during the meeting. Todays web based meetings provide for the switching of the screen being viewed from one meeting participant to another in real time, and as much and as often as desired.

Web based document publishing systems are now making it possible for meeting participants to locate and retrieve documents in real time. This capability has added tremendous value to web based meetings, especially in certain industries like the legal and medical fields, or in functional areas of organizations such as contracts, software development and human resources. One can only imagine the number of times that documents need to be located and shared during web based meetings. Using practical solutions enable documents to be located and retrieved during meetings in real time. Not only do these solutions provide the ability to search for documents by title, they also provide the ability to search by keywords.

The ability to combine multiple technologies during web based meetings provides a greatly enhanced meeting experience for all participants. Meeting invitations are sent to individuals or distribution lists via email. Invited participants can not only accept or decline meeting invitations via email; they can also provide access to their calendars. This makes it possible for meeting initiators to confirm every individual's availability prior to selecting a meeting time. Have you ever considered the amount of time that is spent going back and forth between meeting participants in order to determine a time when everyone is available? Since everyone in the meeting has the ability to share screens, every document, email, spreadsheet, demonstration, presentation, etc. on each participant's network can be accessed. Think about the possibilities that this creates for interacting with associates, vendors, customers, partners, etc.

The world is a better and much more productive place today because online collaboration tools are now working the way that they were originally designed to work. The only downside is that now everyone needs to keep their calendars up to date!