| Summary: This article is regarding
collaboration software which tracks documents across email and all MS office applications
on any drive. This informational article reviews new technologies available to manage and
track collaborative work.
Document Collaboration has made leaps and bounds since the
explosion of the technology revolution. In any business era, the need to collaborate
remains a constant. What varies is the ability of technology to keep up with demands of
the collaborators. GroupWare has risen to the challenge, delivering solutions that
streamline the editorial process - tracking documents, sorting, and even merging
documents, essentially answering the who, what, when, where, and how of collaboration.
Even within the family of groupware solutions, new
technologies are available to take document collaboration to a higher level. Since all
groupware technology is not created equal, it is important to search carefully. Millions
of indexed pages on your favorite search engine become the one groupware every business is
looking for when searching through the newest technologies available in groupware.
Digital Thread technology, Version History, and Document
Signature services form a new “triple threat” in document collaboration
technology. It is a time-saver, an energy-saver, and a money-saver.
In business efforts to preserve the bottom line, effective
management and thorough record keeping are paramount.
Consider the following example:
Negotiations for a contract between company A and company B
have been going on for months, with law firm C as the author and mediator of the contract.
Three representatives from A and B have been part of a drafting committee with a partner
from C, making a committee of seven, each with various electronic records of by laws,
budgets, minutes, and memos. The deadline for the final draft of the contract falls due in
a few weeks.
This could be a create-your-own-ending story, and you will
see two alternative endings.
First ending: The committee has a semi-organized pile of
various drafts of files distributed over seven separate hard-drives, with numerous copies
of the drafts sent via email to the other members of the committee. The report is almost
ready to be merged; however, as the committee members survey the documents on their drives
and emails accounts they realize they do not know who made certain changes, which drafts
they are to merge, when each of the changes were made, where the drafts are stored, and
how they are going to merge the changes all within the month remaining until the deadline.
Second ending: The committee has a semi-organized pile of
various drafts of files distributed over seven separate hard-drives, with copies of the
drafts sent via email to the other members of the committee. The report is almost ready to
be merged. Throughout the negotiating and drafting process, law firm C has had Digital
Thread technology inserting tracking data into the each document which the committee has
worked on. Because all of the documents have been tracked, even though others on the
committee may not have Digital Thread, the representative from law firm C can see the
genealogy of every document and its who, what, when, and where with Version History.
Representative C has spotless documentation because every time she sees a Document
Signature at the bottom of the first page of the document telling her which draft she
opened, when the latest changes were made, where it is stored, and who has taken action on
it.
Representative C merges the documents without disrupting
the order of the suggested changes, finalizes the document, rechecks the final draft with
both parties, and still has time before the contract is due.
This is of course a make-believe story, or is it?
Teamware: Answers the 5 Questions of Document
Collaboration
Every organization which creates collaborative documents,
whether they are budgets, presentations, reports, spreadsheets, or other documents
recognizes that collaborative efforts are requirement. That collaboration always forces
the 5 eternal document collaboration questions: Who? What? Where? When? How? The reason I
refer to them as eternal is that every day businesses are faced with these questions and
rarely find the answers when they collaborate on documents.
Business frantically searched for teamware or groupware
solutions that answers the 5 questions of document collaboration, and this informational
article is written to provide helpful information on technology that is now available to
bring answers.
Three helpful teamware software technologies will be
presented and referred to throughout this article as means of answer-finding, as a
refreshing relief to the more common question-making of collaboration. These technologies
are Digital Thread technology, Version History technology, and Document Signature
technology. These three teamware technologies function as the “triple threat”
against document chaos.
Who?
From the start, it is important to state that accurate
records are the key to keeping track of the editorial or collaborative process. So much
record keeping gets jumbled because documents and drafts are spread out across many
different places and collaborators like butter over too much bread. As the deadline nears,
searches become more frantic. “Who has which draft?” or “Who made this
change?” are questions that will frequently arise.
Imagine finishing up months of contract negotiation
yielding a contract of hundreds of pages and asking your committee at that point about
changes that have been made in an effort to track who did or has what. It simply will not
work. Not even the participant will remember all of their own contributions.
No business wants messy records. The teamware market has
advanced to such a point that a teamware solution to the question “who?” is now
available. Digital Thread, for example, creates a tracking device in the meta data of all
documents created in the everyday MS applications businesses use. This tracking reaches
across servers and emails to create a virtual family tree of document drafts, even if you
are working with clients or others who do not have this technology. Version History
compiles the document family tree into a flowchart, and Document Signature lets you know
who has worked on the draft every time you open a draft from your hard drive or email. You
will never lose track of who did or has what.
What?
Often, when opening an email attachment, you might be
asking yourself “What version am I looking at?” “What draft is this?”
“What am I supposed to do now?” or a myriad of other “what’s.”
The time for questions like this is not time your company can afford. This teamware
technology will track documents and their drafts, allowing you to always know what you are
looking at and which draft it is. Then you will know exactly what to do with it.
You can refer to the flow chart created by Version History
and Digital Thread. You can also rely on the Document Signature to open with the document
to tell you exactly what you are looking at. Next question please.
Where?
It is important in collaboration to share information and
to refer to others’ findings. When that happens, especially in the electronic
document world we work in, you may be asking later “Where did that document go?”
You may also receive information and ask “Where did this come from?” These
questions are not uncommon among businesses. Business is fast-paced, and we cannot
remember everything without a little bit of help from a good teamware.
Help is available with the proper teamware, groupware that
tracks documents and lets you know exactly where documents are and where they come to you
from.
When?
The toughest part of tracking documents and drafts is
knowing the chronology of the changes. Drafts are flying back and forth, via e-mail, so
quickly that without the proper teamware, changes could be made out of order.
Confusion need not reign in electronic collaboration.
Version History’s flowchart, tracked by Digital Thread, and available with Document
Signature every time you open a draft, puts everything into proper editorial perspective.
How?
Saving the toughest question for last, imagine that you
have various versions of the latest drafts recently emailed to you from your faithful
committee. You will see them there, you will look at them, and you will probably want to
weep. “How am I supposed to put this all together?” is the cry heard down the
hall.
Since teamware is now available which tracks everything,
including the who’s, what’s, where’s, and when’s, you can now rely on
that same teamware to know how to merge the changes together. It will put information
together and suggest changes that might take one person hours to come up with.
Search through the teamware or groupware software suites
available for Digital Thread, Version History, and Document Signature. It is refreshing to
have answers during a potentially confusing and chaotic collaborative process. |
