Web Collaboration: Project Management, Databases and Application Integration

Know More: Applications, Collaboration 2.0, Applications

So far in this series I've discussed what Web Collaboration is and why it is important to teams and what the basic features of most applications are. Features that are less standard in web collaboration applications, and help distinguish one service from another fall under three categories: Project Management, Databases and Integration with desktop applications.

Project Management
Visual project management aids such as Gantt charts, flow charts and mapping are available in some applications. They can be useful, even for small businesses or projects, by providing a visual roadmap that keeps the team on track.

Databases
A few application allow users to set up basic databases within the workspace. Examples often given include contact management database, price lists or inventory tracking for sales people. Many companies, however, are already going to have in-house databases with this information and keeping an additional database updated does not make sense. What would be ideal is the ability to access the in-house database right from the workspace. Outside of Sharepoint, I'm not sure which, if any, other collaboration application offers this.

A somewhat easier work-around for small to medium businesses would be to publish an excel spreadsheet to the workspace with current information. I suspect this would be adequate for price lists and other information that doesn't really change on a daily basis.

Integration
Sharepoint, being a Microsoft product, is unique in how it integrates with MS Office products. When you open a workspace document, Office adds a right-hand tool panel with features from your Sharepoint workspace, including seeing who is online. Office 2007 adds the ability to publish a document right to a Sharepoint site (or any document server).

In my next post I'll discuss servers vs. P2P and the pros and cons of each for web collaboration.

Real Time Collaboration and Web 2.0 tools, tips, and reviews

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