The 3Cs of collaboration  

Aparna Lal






NEW DELHI: Collaborate! This has been the latest buzz among businesses, be it
SMEs or big enterprises. While companies see several tangible and intangible

benefits of collaborating, there is a big gap that needs to be filled and a lot

of awareness and education is required to take the enterprises up the

Collaborative Maturity Model (CMM).






Communication, whether verbal or written is the most important channel for
exchanging information and ideas in an organization, as of today the most

commonly used medium for communication is email. While the market is flooded

with communication tools like instant messengers (IM), Voice over Internet

protocol (VoIP) clients, web conferencing tools etc the problem comes when one

wishes to use them all together in tandem with each other. The scare of

integrating these tools, configuring them, puts off many a user.






“While everyone wants to collaborate, a lot needs to be done to take the end
user from level one of the CMM model that is emailing to the nth level of

knowledge-management, to realize productivity gains,” opines Ashwani Chandok,

business development manager, content and collaborations solutions, Oracle

India.






Oracle has taken a leap in this direction by enhancing its content management
solution with collaborative workspace functionality in its Oracle Collaboration

Suite 10g. Based on the '3C' model of collaboration, the suite offers

Communication tools, Content Management tools as well as Context capabilities.






Built on Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g, Oracle
Collaboration Suite 10g is the first of its kind to support seamless management

of all structured and unstructured enterprise information on a single

architecture.






Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g adds enhancements to content services, real-time
collaboration, unified messaging and introduces new features with Oracle

Collaboration Suite 10g Workspaces.






According to Ashwani, “Oracle Collaboration Suite has raised the bar for
collaborative software by enabling users to manage and deliver the right

information to the right people in the context of their current activity.

Oracle's integrated tools enable users to communicate from anywhere, at any

time and with any device-making collaboration a far more valuable corporate

asset.”






Built on the Java framework, the suite makes use of the Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA) and offers several out-of-the-box services that can be

consumed by the calling program. SOA allows collaboration to become a seamless

part of the application infrastructure, helping drive higher efficiencies and

levels of productivity.












Content Services





Formerly known as Oracle Files, the collaboration suite's content services
enable customers to gain control of their enterprise information and policies to

support regulatory compliance and mitigate risks associated with poorly managed

content. It offers enhanced file management and sharing capabilities and adds

new document lifecycle and records management functionality and business process

automation capabilities.












Communication Services





Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g's Unified Messaging provides a unified platform
for managing email, voicemail and fax messages in the highly scalable and

reliable Oracle Database 10g. By supporting standards like the Push-IMAP

protocol, Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g Unified Messaging enables delivery of

emails to a variety of wireless devices over public networks, reducing the cost

of deploying this solution.






Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g Workspaces introduces new capabilities for
collaboration that enable project teams to easily organize and manage documents,

messages, meetings, tasks and discussions within a cohesive secure environment.

The workspace captures all activities, discussions, meetings, actions, tasks and

emails related to a particular project in one location. This enables the users

to capture, manage, find and utilize all the knowledge. It leverages the

capabilities of the underlying database to manage structured information and

ensure that assets are properly managed for policy, records and as corporate

knowledge assets.












Context Services





Using the context services of the collaboration suite customized interfaces can
be developed with the existing application programming interfaces (APIs). Any

third-party solution or customized solutions can in turn call and consume the

out-of-box communication and content services of the collaboration suite.












Can collaboration be disruptive?





Well yes, but not if used properly. According to Ashwani, a collaborative
environment can be effective only if implemented properly. While the fact that

information about anything, anybody is available at a mouse-click can be

disruptive the control for the same lies in the hands of its users who can make

relevant policies and create access rights. The collaboration strategy of an

organization has to be in sync with its work culture and needs to be properly

communicated to one and all.












Proper implementation of such systems can ensure an organization's growth up
the CMM ladder into the realm of knowledge management, which can lead to better

productivity and cost advantage.