Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

The promise of a revolution in communications seems to be always just around the corner. In recent years the hype for collaborative tools has far outweighed any large scale practical implementations. But a number of simultaneous advances in technology have convinced some market watchers that the collaboration tools are set to enter the mainstream.

In part, the search for collaboration tools is driven through realising that email has limited use when it comes to facilitating team working in disparate locations, says Sarah Kittmer, senior analyst at market watcher Ovum. "They turn to other collaboration software, either standalone communications technologies, such as instant messaging, or collaboration software suites," she says.

These collaborative tools include web-based conferencing, which combines audio and video calls made over an IP network; whiteboard collaboration; and groupware or application sharing.

But while the technology may be impressive, the key to adoption is being able to demonstrate business value, says Stuart Berwick, head of electronic sales at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW). He has recently introduced a messaging and collaborative toolset from Parlano, which enables DrKW traders in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York to share investment information.

The benefits are clear: "It creates a single thread of market sentiment and news flow within the firm," says Berwick. This adds to the quality of information being shared about investments and saves both the time and expense associated with face-to-face meetings.

In a similar vein, web conferencing has been used at insurance group Aviva to cut travel costs, with software from web conferencing tool company WebEx credited with saving the company £75,000. The package is used for online training sessions and, through a weekly webcast, links thousands of sales agents around the world. Tammy Crockford, a project manager at Aviva, says that these cost savings are just the tip of the iceberg. Her team is working on an internal marketing campaign to promote more widespread use of the tool.

Savings on travel also played an important part in justifying the investment in video conferencing at Lex Vehicle Leasing. However, the rental company had made a commitment to reduce the level of carbon dioxide it was releasing into the atmosphere as well. It estimates that its use of video conferencing in the first quarter of 2005 saved it £85,000 through fuel savings and productivity gains, while reducing company-wide carbon dioxide emissions by 50,000 tonnes. "We found it amazing: the amount of savings in terms of time, money and even the stress levels of people on the road," reports Helen Counsell, quality environment manager at Lex.

Such enthusiasm for collaboration tools would fall flat if not for the advances in networking technology in recent years. As corporate networks and broadband connections have improved, the carrying of video and voice traffic has become much more viable. "Technology would have been an inhibitor a couple of years ago but today's high-quality video and voice functions mean web meetings are more natural," says Tony Heyworth, director of marketing for EMEA at video conferencing vendor Polycom.

However, new methods of communicating also come with their own risks, especially in today's heavily regulated corporate world, says Ovum's Kittmer. "Unmanaged email has given organisations a compliance headache. Other collaboration tools threaten to add to these headaches in a similar way," she adds.

	Web conferencing and team collaboration market new licence revenue, 2004-2009 Source: Gartner