IntraConnections comes with more than 30 collaboration tools, including IM, to-do lists, contact lists, image viewers, collaborative Web browsers, group calendars, and a database for tracking product parts or other project elements. Vialect will develop additional custom collaboration tools for an additional fee.
According to the vendor, IntraConnections' high cost—$150,000 plus $60 per user per year for a perpetual license—is due to the product's comprehensiveness and ability to support millions of users. The hosted prices aren't as prohibitive: They start at $300 per user per year for as many as 25 users and drop to $250 per user per year for 251 to 500 users. Intra.Net isn't as costly as IntraConnections. The cost of Intra.Net's perpetual license is $3893 for as many as 20 users and $22,583 for 251 to 500 users. Intra.Net's hosted prices are $15 per user per month for as many as 50 users and $8 per user per month for 201 to 500 users.
Although Intra.Net doesn't have as many collaboration tools as IntraConnections, Intra.Net's tools are substantial and robust. Like IntraConnections, Intra.Net lets group members import and export entries between digital workspaces and Outlook. In addition, Intra.Net's digital workspaces provide threaded discussions, image viewers, and document libraries with version control. Although participants can't use Intra.Net (or IntraConnections) to collaboratively edit applications' documents (e.g., Word documents) in realtime, Intra.Net provides IntraEditor. Participants can use IntraEditor to collaboratively develop or edit HTML documents for intranet sites. Participants don't need any HTML programming skills. One Intra.Net feature even lets the team leader provide an overview of the project on the digital workspace's home page. One feature that Intra.Net lacks is an IM component, but you can obtain that capability through Exchange 2000 if needed.
Although Intra.Net lacks the ability to create a portal to the digital workspaces, senior executives can view the status of each team. To configure that capability, you select which parts of each digital workspace you want to include in a What's New section on the company's Intra.Net home page. IntraConnections doesn't include a portal to the digital workspaces either, but Vialect can develop a portal for an extra charge.
Documentum eRoom
Like most of the products I've discussed, Documentum eRoom provides a rich set of collaboration tools that participants access through a Web browser. The product offers common groupware features, such as threaded discussions and import and export capabilities between Outlook and digital workspaces. The product also features version and access control for group documents, public and private chat areas, a shared sketchpad, polling capability, and a database for storing information. This product even features realtime collaborative writing and editing of all types of documents. Team members simply drag the file to the appropriate tool. Team members can group related items, such as a product photograph and an associated discussion thread or Word document. They can also search the entire digital workspace for notes, photos, threaded discussions, or other items that match a certain criterion.
With Documentum eRoom, you have broad customization options, including changing the color scheme and branding. The company makes connectors that let participants view CAD files and Microsoft Project data, but these connectors cost extra. The product comes with an API that lets participants view data from enterprise applications, but you have to write code that accesses and interacts with the enterprise applications or pay an extra fee for the company to write the code.
You can purchase a perpetual license for Documentum eRoom ($16,995 per server and $249 per user; volume discounts are available). You can also subscribe to its hosted equivalent, Documentum eRoom.net ($199 per month). The perpetually licensed product automatically delivers email notifications to all participants whenever one user updates or changes any of the workspace contents, but this feature isn't available on the hosted product. However, both products let the team leader create a portal for the workspace, which lets all participants get a quick update of the workspace content changes when they launch the product. As Figure 5 shows, the portal feature gathers the status of the participant's task assignments from each project workspace he or she is involved in and presents the information neatly on one screen. Because the portal feature is based on Microsoft's digital-dashboard specification, team members can view data from other applications that support the standard.
Effective Project Management
Groove Workspace, SharePoint Team Services, BrightWork, IntraConnections, Intra.Net, and Documentum eRoom all provide compelling features that let teams work together more effectively. These groupware products are especially helpful for large projects, in which a project's complexity or the number of team members can make project management a real chore. Even if your projects are small, the ability to extend your team processes to business partners and customers can make the investment worthwhile, especially since subscriptions to the hosted versions won't break the bank or require IT involvement.
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