Groupware Technology

Nitesh Sudan Pooja Shukla Neha Aggarwal Nidhi Chattwal Amit Beniwal Gagandeep

Introduction
Groupware is a technology designed to be used by group of people for sharing information. Groupware is an environment where all users can share there documents at a platform where daily task of communicating , collaborating and coordinating with others take place. It automates business processes by using workflow management and collaborated computing techniques.

WHAT IS GROUPWARE?
Groupware is technology designed to facilitate the work of groups. This technology may be used to communicate, cooperate, coordinate , solve problems, compete, or negotiate. While traditional technologies like the telephone qualify as groupware, the term is ordinarily used to refer to a specific class of technologies relying on modern computer networks, such as email, newsgroups, videophones, or chat.

Groupware technologies are typically categorized along two primary dimensions: Whether users of the groupware are working together at the same time ("realtime" or "synchronous" groupware) or different times ("asynchronous" groupware), and Whether users are working together in the same place ("colocated" or "face-to-face") or in different places ("non-colocated" or "distance").

SAME TIME Synchronous

DIFFERENT TIME ASYNCHRONOUS

Same Place

Voting, presentation support Videophones, chat

Shared computers

Email, workflow

Different Place

Why organizations are using groupware Quality improvement Better customer service Support for TQM Provide better services Allows for fewer meetings Increased competition

Groupware and levels of collaboration

Groupware can be divided into three categories depending on the level of collaboration. Communication can be thought of as unstructured interchange of information. A phone call or an IM Chat discussion are examples of this. Conferencing (or collaboration level, as it is called in the academic papers that discuss these levels) refers to interactive work toward a shared goal. Brainstorming or voting are examples of this.

 Co-ordination refers to complex interdependent work toward a shared goal. A good metaphor for understanding this is to think about a sports team; everyone has to contribute the right play at the right time as well as adjust their play to the unfolding situation but everyone is doing something different - in order for the team to win. That is complex interdependent work toward a shared goal: collaborative management.

GROUPWARE: APPLICATIONS
1)Asynchronous Groupware Applications
Email: basic email systems today typically include interesting features for forwarding messages, filing messages, creating mailing groups, and attaching files with a message. Workflow system allow documents to be routed through organizations through a relatively-fixed process. Group calenders allow scheduling, project management, and coordination among many people, and may provide support for scheduling equipment as well.

2) Synchronous or Realtime Groupware Applications Shared whiteboards allow two or more people to view and draw on a shared drawing surface even from different locations. This can be used, for instance, during a phone call, where each person can jot down notes or to work collaboratively on a visual problem. Chat systems permit many people to write messages in realtime in a public space. As each person submits a message, it appears at the bottom of a scrolling screen.

Collaborative management Tools

Internet forums (also known as message boards or discussion boards) a virtual discussion platform to facilitate and manage online text messages Online chat a virtual discussion platform to facilitate and manage real-time text messages Instant Messaging Telephony telephones allow users to interact Videoconferencing networked PCs share video and audio signals Data conferencing networked PCs share a common whiteboard that each user can modify

 electronic calendars schedule events and automatically notify and remind group members project management systems schedule, track, and chart the steps in a project as it is being completed workflow systems collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business process knowledge management systems collect, organize, manage, and share various forms of information prediction markets let a group of people predict together the outcome of future events extranet systems (sometimes also known as 'project extranets') collect, organize, manage and share information associated with the delivery of a project (e.g.: the construction of a building)

Design and implementation issues

The complexity of groupware development is still an issue. One reason for this is the socio-technical dimension of groupware. Groupware designers do not only have to address technical issues (as in traditional software development) but also consider the social group processes that should be supported with the groupware application. Some examples for issues in groupware development are:

 Persistence is needed in some sessions. Chat and voice communications are routinely non-persistent and evaporate at the end of the session. Virtual room and online file cabinets can persist for years Authentication has always been a problem with groupware.

 Multiple input and output streams bring concurrency issues into the groupware applications. Cost involved:
Implementation
Server and Networking Hardware

Training programs Technical Support

ADVANTAGES OF GROUPWARE
Groupware offers significant advantages over single-user systems. These are some of the most common reasons people want to use groupware: to facilitate communication: make it faster, clearer, more persuasive to enable communication where it wouldn't otherwise be possible to enable telecommuting to cut down on travel costs

 to bring together multiple perspectives and expertise to save time and cost in coordinating group work to facilitate group problem-solving In addition to the benefits of groupware, another good reason to study usability and design issues in groupware is to avoid a failed design.

CONCLUSION
This is what Groupware is all about. Thus we have seen the utilities and the advantages of groupware in organizations. Hence Groupware is the best solution to provide faster communication, to form groups with common interest where it wouldnt be possible to gather a sufficient number of people face to face, to solve group problems easily. Thats why more and more people are realizing its utility and are shifting to Groupware. This is todays stage. This stage lays solid foundation for tomorrow.