IDG Research Services recently queried 144 CIO Magazine subscribers to gain insight into how and why collaboration technology is creating competitive advantage. This summary report explores different market trends with commentary from key respondents as well as WebEx's Knight, an industry expert. Learn more today!
E X E C U TI V E S U M MARY
Market
Pulse
COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS
SURVEY REVEALS CLEAR BUSINESS ACCELERATION USING ON-DEMAND COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY
Research conducted by
CXO MEDIA
Sponsored byExecutive Summary
In the new global economy, a company's competitive edge is intrinsically tied to the ability to quickly col-laborate with co-workers, partners and customers.
This is certainly evidenced in a recent survey in which the majority of respondents confirm that on-demand collaborative tools can accelerate business processes and help knowledge workers work better, faster and cheaper.
"This is why collaboration tools have become an integral part of day-to-day interactions between employ-ees, partners and even customers," says David Knight, vice president at WebEx. "And it's not just about auto-mating obvious applications like IT support." Rather, savvy CIOs are opening communications lines in core business processes-like sales and product development-to deliver top- and bottom-line value.
IDG Research Services recently queried 144 CIO Magazine subscribers to gain insight into how and why collaboration technology is creating competitive advantage. This summary report explores different market trends with commentary from key respondents as well as WebEx's Knight, an industry expert. The survey's key findings include:
ß The most innovative companies are leveraging collaboration technology to accelerate business processes inside and outside the firewall.
ß Supporting knowledge workers and interacting with external audiences is highly important to the majority of respondents.
ß Companies using on-demand software are indisputably experiencing its many benefits.
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APPLICATIONS ABOUNDBusiness communication has reached new levels in complexity. Team dynamics have evolved from local-ized groups in one building into dispersed groups-both inside and outside the four walls of the business. But the need to interact on a moment's notice remains a constant. As a result, collaboration software has emerged as a key component in today's arsenal of communications tools.
Fluor Corporation, for example, uses a variety of collaboration technologies to support its 56% of respondents strongly global workforce and project execution requirements. John McQuary, vice president of Knowledge Management and Technology Strategies at Fluor, says the company engages the agree that on-demand can entire project team, including the home office, site personnel, clients, vendors, fabricators accelerate business. and suppliers to communicate and collaborate, regardless of team members' locations.
Indeed, collaboration applications abound. One might simply consider traditional interac-tions to appreciate its role-business trips, conference calls, and service visits that can now be accom-plished faster and more cost-effectively through virtual collaboration.
IDG survey respondents concur, indicating that collaborative tools are currently being used for a host of applications. Remote IT support is the number one use cited (at 75 percent). "The traditional phone-based approach to IT support centers around users describing a problem and the service rep providing a diagnosis based on that input," says Knight. "But hands-on access represents an infinitely better way of getting that job done." That's probably why this application is at the top of respondents' lists.
Other fairly common use scenarios include online training (66 percent), online meetings (65 percent), por-tals (61 percent), instant messaging (59 percent), and online webinars/events (57 percent).
EXECUTIVE S U M MARY
Respondents indicate that usage over the next 12 months will focus on the same applications, but with More than two-thirds are currently using remote varying ranks of priority. In the near future, for exam- IT support, online training and online meetingsple, portal applications will top the charts for 48 per- Q: Which of the following collaborative tools or software does your company cent of respondents. "Portals are collaborative 'team currently use and which will your company consider for in use in the next 12 months? spaces' that are being used in a variety of ways to fa-cilitate the interactions associated with business pro- 75%Remote IT ... [download for more]
