Groupware Best Practices in Groupware Implementation Strategies

Groupware

Best Practices in Groupware Implementation Strategies

Based on a comprehensive review of groupware adoption studies, analyses of usability, and key success factors, the following best practices in this area o information systems technology has been created. Groupware is often a disruptive technological innovation in many companies, as it forces higher levels of communication and collaboration than people are accsut9omed and comfortable with. In changing how people create, share and use information, it also completely reorders the status and rank of people in a company's formal and informal reporting structures (Perez-Alvarez, 2009). Information is one of the most powerful political assets any employee can have, and since groupware only works when they contribute what they know, there is often a very high resistance to change. Add in the high level of uncertainty regarding the current economic environment globally, the fear of losing status or position, it is understandable that the processes that groupware is designed to accelerate often fall short of being attained (Dennis, Carte, Kelly, 2003).

Ironically, if employees were to band together and drive for the development of a unified knowledge platform that uses their collective expertise, their entire companies could be more successful in a drastically shorter period of time (Artail, 2006). The best practices of groupware show this dynamic occurring, where the shared expertise on portals, content management systems, and applications all combined to transform knowledge into a strategic In short, groupware can become a strategic weapon that is cable of propelling companies to their goals much more efficiently than has ever been the case in the past (Belanger, Allport, 2008). The intent of this paper is to analyze the three most important strategies in implementing and growing groupware strategies across an enterprise. Based on the literature review completed the three most critical success factors are active CEO and senior management involvement and support, process re-engineering that leads to greater levels of employee ownership and involvement, and the development of a technology platform agile and flexible enough to keep pace with changing organizational needs.

Critical Success Factors in Groupware Implementations