Enterprise Collaboration

Enterprise Collaboration
The internet phenomenon has permanently changed the computing mentality of business people.

Today’s user expects any computing experience to include on demand internet access and tools for collaborating with other people.

Most of us have to interact with others to get things done. Information technology is changing the way we work together.

Information technology especially internet technologies, provide tools to help us as collaborator – to communicate ideas, share resources and coordinate our cooperative work efforts as members of the many formal and informal process teams and word groups that make up of many today’s organizations.

The goal of enterprise collaboration systems is to enable us to work together more easily and effectively by helping us to:

• Communicate: sharing information with each other
• Coordinate: Coordinating our individual work efforts and use of resources with each other.
• Collaborative: Working together cooperatively on joint projects and requirements.

Enterprise Collaboration

Enterprise Information Portals

Enterprise Information Portals
Enterprise information portals are growing trend in the design and deployment of intranets in business. An enterprise information portal (EIP) is a web based interface and integration of intranets and other technologies that give all intranet users and selected extranet users access to a variety of internal and external business applications and services.

For example, internal applications might include access to e-mail, project websites, and discussion groups; human resources Web self-services, customer, inventory, and other corporate database; decision support systems, and knowledge management systems.

External applications might include industry financial and other Internet news services; links to industry discussion groups; and links to customer and supplier Internet and extranet websites. Enterprise information portals are typically tailored or personalized to the needs of individual business users or group pf users.

The business benefits of enterprise information portals include providing more specific and selective information to business users, providing easy access to key corporate intranet website resources, delivering industry and business news, and providing better access to company data for selected customers, suppliers, or business partners.

Enterprise information portals can also help avoid excessive surfing by employees across company and Intranet websites by making it easier for them to receive or find the information and services they need, thus improving the productivity of a company’s workforce.

However, in order to present something as simple as a Web page with links to useful internal an external information sources, applications and services, an enterprise information portal must integrate many information technologies. So full fledged corporate portals are proving to be a challenge to build.
Enterprise Information Portals

E-Business Application

E-Business Application
Enterprise communications and collaboration application support communication, coordination, and collaboration among the members of business teams and workgroups.

For example, employees and external consultants on a project team may use the Internet, intranets, and extranets to support electronic mail, videoconferencing, electronic discussion groups, and project websites to communicate and collaborate on business projects.

Electronic commerce applications support the buying and selling of products, services, and information over the Internet and extranets. For example, many business uses E-commerce websites for business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales and support, use extranets so large customers can excess the company’s inventory databases, and use a corporate intranet so employees can easily look up customer records on intranet servers.

Internal business applications of an E-business enterprise support a company‘s internal business processes and operations.

For example, employees may use an intranet enterprise information portal to excess benefits information on a human resource department server.

Or a company may link an intranet to the internet so managers can make inquiries, generate reports, and access corporate databases from anywhere in the world.
E-Business Application