In the coming year, I believe we’re going to see a fundamental change in the architecture of collaboration software. We’ll see it move out from individual silos of collaboration functionality into much more of a distributed capability that permeates right across the spectrum of business applications. I don’t suppose that means the stampede into SharePoint will slow anytime soon, but it will put more pressure on Microsoft to open up SharePoint to connect into collaboration and chatter that’s happening elsewhere.
I was trying to avoid using the word chatter back there, but there is no word that better encapsulates the combination of collaboration, communication and status updates that is emerging, thanks to the rise of Enterprise 2.0 and its adaptation of social computing to help automate the human dimension of business structures and organization. All credit, then, to the product managers at Salesforce.com, who chose the name Chatter for its new collaboration technology. We still have to see how Salesforce.com will execute on this yet-to-be-released innovation — and indeed there is still some work to be done within enterprises to understand how best to harness it productively. But the notion of providing a mechanism for bringing information, collaboration and status updates into the applications where people are doing their primary work activities seems to me the most productive way to deliver collaboration. While there will always be some activities where people need isolation to get a result, the majority of enterprise endeavors happen as teamwork. Therefore the more non-intrusive contact people can get with other members of their team as they move forward in those endeavors, the more successful they’re likely to be. That’s why I’m putting the phenomenon of ubiquitous collaboration on my 2010 list of trends to watch.
It was this kind of thinking that made me wonder last month, Is Chatter the Killer App for Force.com? [as a matter of disclosure, I should mention that Salesforce.com is an occasional consulting client]. I believe there are three characteristics of Chatter that give it an edge over other more established collaboration technologies — but there’s no reason why other vendors can’t adopt the same characteristics to compete in the ubiquitous collaboration space. The three characteristics are…
In terms of ubiquitous collaboration, if we can’t achieve true collaboration in a personal setting, with a project, a meeting etc. where we can see and read each other, how can a piece of software, arguably just copycat software “completely transform the way you collaborate with people in your company?” (taken from their website)
[...] Collaboration software – Coupled rather closely with cloud computing and the whole "we don't need no stinkin' servers" mentality, there will be a great push away from individual silos of information and applications, and to more centralized, multi-user friendly applications. [...]