What is a Groupware?
Groupware is collaboration software, that
is software that helps workgroups and teams work together to accomplish
group assignments.
Groupware is a fast-growing category
of general purpose application software that combines a variety of
software features and functions to facilitate collaboration. For
example, groupware products like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchanges, and
Netscape Communicator support collaboration through electronic mail,
discussion groups and databases, scheduling, task management, data,
audio and video conferencing.
Groupware products are
changing in several ways to meet the demand for better tools for
collaboration. Groupware in now designed to use internet and corporate
internet and extranets to make collaboration possible in a global scale
by virtual teams located anywhere in the world.
For
example, team members might use the Internet for global E-mail, project
discussion forums, and joint Web page development. Or they might use
corporate intranets to publish project news and progress reports, and
work jointly on documents stored on Web servers.
Collaborative
capabilities are also being added to other software to give them
groupware features. For examples, in the Microsoft Office software
suite, Microsoft Word keep track of who made revisions to each
document, Excel tracks all changes made to a spreadsheet, and Outlooks
lets you keep track of tasks you delegate to other team members.
What is a Groupware?
