September 25, 2000

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Teamwork Via The Web

Tools let companies give employees online collaboration

By Larry Greenemeier

More on project management:

Business-To-Business Apps Provide Quick Data Access (8/14/00) Internet Week: COLLABORATIVE APPLICATIONS (8/28/00)

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eams of distributed workers often struggle to get projects completed on schedule, primarily because it's difficult to build consensus and resolve issues when team members are scattered throughout various regional offices. Some companies are trying to break down time and space barriers by providing employees with access to a digital "meeting room" on the Web for project collaboration.

Software tools such as eRoom Technology's eRoom, SiteScape's Forum, Involv's Teamspace, and Lotus' QuickPlace let companies easily implement collaboration applications that can be accessed using a Web browser, says Gene Phifer, a Gartner Group VP. Phifer says such tools don't offer application development capabilities found in more sophisticated groupware products, such as Lotus Notes, "but they do excel in the rapid deployment of an infrastructure and providing the technology to support collaboration."

The eRoom software, for example, lets members of a work team publish and manage project-related content, engage in threaded discussions, communicate through instant messaging, and check project status through a calendaring feature.

Leo Burnett Northstar, a marketing-services firm in Chicago, plans to implement eRoom by next month for use by its 300 employees. The subsidiary of Bcom3 Group Inc. wanted to improve workflow and communications among employees assigned to specific projects. "We were looking at ways to better work together within the agency," says Donna Mains, associate director of database marketing for Leo Burnett Northstar.

Mains says the firm selected eRoom because it gives managers the flexibility to assign employees to various work groups at any time. That's unlike some competitive offerings that require managers to establish specific work groups and employee access before the beginning of a project.

Although Leo Burnett Northstar is implementing the eRoom software as part of its IT infrastructure, eRoom also offers a hosted version of its collaboration application for a monthly fee. Ketchum Inc., a New York public-relations firm and subsidiary of OmniCom Group Inc., chose to use the hosted version. "We needed a tool that allowed our workers to share and access files over the Web without them having to use local file sharing or [send] E-mail documents all over the place," says Paul McKeon, Ketchum's chief E-business officer.

Both Leo Burnett Northstar and Ketchum plan to allow their clients access to the virtual work rooms eventually. "Public relations is a very relationship-based business," McKeon says. "The more you can work with your clients like partners, the harder it is to break those relationships."

Pricing for the eRoom software license is $10,000 per server and $200 for each user license. Pricing for the hosted version of eRoom ranges between $149 and $999 per month, based on the number of eRooms and users.

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