Enterprise Collaboration
Enterprise Collaboration (EC), is the collection of products and services used by individual users or groups.
Why does any organization need Collaboration tools?
Collaboration is the essential needs of every organization and it consists of:
- People
- Process
- Data
- Technology
- Applications
Depends on how well these components are working together like a well-oiled machine, will determine the success of your organization. Hence, collaboration is one of the key factors that will play a significant role in the overall functioning of the organization.
The average age of an S&P 500 company is under 20 years, down from 60 years in the 1950s, according to Credit Suisse – read
Building Blocks
Followings are the primary building blocks of Enterprise Collaboration. When you’re defining a strategy for Enterprise Collaboration, you need to ensure that your strategy is based on a solid foundation:
- Solutions
- Enterprise Social Network
- Telephony
- File Sharing & Synchronization
- Portals & Intranet Platforms
- Project Management & Analytics
- Unified Messaging
- Services
- Managed Services
- Professional Services
Key Players
There are many players in the Enterprise Collaboration eco-system, but the biggest piece of the pie is been owned by Microsoft (Office 365, Microsoft 365), Google (Google Workspace), Atlassian (Jira, Confluence), Zoho, etc. You can review the list here.
There are niche players who offer a unique solution and addresses the specific needs of the organization. For instance, Slack offers a chat-based collaboration hub and integration with a large number of applications, Box/Dropbox offers secure content management, Zoom/RingCentral offers enterprise audio/video communications.
Market Opportunity
The worldwide market for collaboration tools is expected to grow from an estimated $2.7 billion in 2018 to $4.8 billion by 2023, nearly doubling in size, according to Gartner, Inc. Read the detailed report here
So if you are in the business of providing collaboration implementation services or planning to develop a product, then buckle up you have a large market to conquer.
Strategy
There are overall two strategies for Enterprise Collaboration Implementation:
- Best of Breed
- Best of Suite
Depends on the organization’s goal, leadership’s like/dislike, budget, etc the organization tends to adopt one or another strategy. Each strategy has its own benefits and limitations.
Best of Breed strategy enables organizations to leverage a tool that has the edge in a specific domain. For instance, Okta is one of the market leaders who offers identity and access management solutions, whereas Microsoft SharePoint offers content collaboration and intranets capability.
This strategy has its own limitations such as complex operating model, required more specialized skills-set, integration, security, legal and compliance, feature parity, feature dependency, troubleshooting, etc.
Best of Suite strategy enables organizations to leverage as many products or services offered by the same vendor. The natural outcome is the products integrate seamlessly, offer a greater user experience, greater control, security, and last but not least, it is more cost-effective. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Atlassian Product Suite are some of the big players in the space.
As you're planning to leverage a single vendor, many products or services they are offering may not address your needs. Depends on the vendor's priority, customer's demands, external factors, they decided to invest their time and resource. You might also experience that turnaround time and at the speed, they're introducing new features might not be at par with what niche players are offering.
In today’s market when the existing players are trying to incorporate new products and services, new players are giving them tough competition (Facebook Workplace). Every organization is different so depends on your requirements and business needs, you can tailor your strategy.
Let me know in the comments, what strategy your organization using for enterprise collaboration.
Cheers,
Satish