Real-Time Collaboration Integration in the Portal

By Thomas Odenwald, SAP Labs, Palo Alto – September 12, 2002

An article in the Financial Times of July 12, 2002 stated: "Bill Gates had complained this year that his documents, e-mail, and instant messaging buddy list did not work together and were not related to his calendar."

We could certainly help Mr. Gates with our new solution for the SAP Collaboration Room (Enterprise Portal Edition). Not only do we enable single point of access for document management within teams and projects, provide synchronization with the users groupware solutions, and offer unified calendar functionality, we also enable real-time collaboration integration through our own integrated solution, as well as through integration of third-party service providers.

 

What is Real-Time Collaboration?

The classical real-time collaboration scenarios are:

  • Desktop sharing
  • Application sharing
    Share applications, documents, or desktop to enable online meetings, remote support, and so on.
  • Co-browsing
    Share browser (see application sharing)
  • Buddy list and awareness
    A user's ability to maintain a list of people that are the ones he/she usually interacts with and to be able to see which of them is currently online, offline, busy, and so on.
  • Whiteboard collaboration
    The electronic equivalent of a blackboard and chalk, but between remote users. Whiteboard systems allow network participants to simultaneously view one or more users writing on an on-screen blackboard or running an application.
  • Instant messaging (IM)
    The ability to exchange immediate messages with connected buddies
  • Chat service
    An enhancement to IM where multiple users can exchange information while still being able to see previous messages

Additional features have emerged recently like

  • Voice over IP (two-way audio transmission)
  • Video and audio conferencing capabilities
  • Annotation tools

Recent terrorist threats and the economic situation are encouraging many companies to take a closer look at these features to avoid unnecessary travel, decrease overall expenses and face-to-face time, lower cost of ownership, and increase productivity. Increasing bandwidth and cheaper hardware makes these tools more attractive by the day.

Gartner Group even predicts that instant messaging will overtake classical e-mail in the near future (cf. magazine 15/01).

The tremendous value of Web-based real-time interactivity is not in doubt, especially where responses are needed immediately, consensus time needs to be reduced, and the decision makers are distributed around the globe.

There are lots of options that enable both individuals and teams in different locations to communicate in real time. However, because many of these options are not integrated into the familiar tools used in the daily work environment, they are not part of a cost-effective solution. The SAP Collaboration Room solution offers these real-time services through the portal and enhances the value of the information stored and accessed by sharing it in a contextual, ongoing team environment. Teams and individuals are provided with a tool set to enable them to collaborate more easily and efficiently.

Examples:

  • Share iViews or applications from any portal page instantly

Share iViews

  • Create instant message instantly from the portal by always knowing who is logged on to the portal and who is currently unavailable

Create instant message

  • Start public and private chats within the portal

Start chats

  • Schedule online team meeting, start meeting with mouse-click, and see the meeting results instantly in meeting history

Schedule online team meeting

 

Start meeting

 

Meeting History

In this scenario valuable meeting information can be captured seamlessly by attaching any file or link to the automatically generated meeting record. Any audio and video recordings included can also be started with a mouse-click. In a sense, these options allow you to build up your own e-learning center.

Examples:

  1. Integration of Yahoo! broadcasting feature
  2. Integration of WebEx Player

And this last example might just solve Bill's problems:

  • All project related documents are always available in form of iViews
  • All e-mails, calendars, and tasks are available in form of iViews
  • Instant messaging buddy list is available
  • Project/team-related and personal calendar is unified and available

 

Value Proposition?

Success depends on collaborative teamwork – and real-time services meet the challenges of a distributed workforce. With teams no longer based in a single location, collaboration cannot happen exclusively in face-to-face meetings or in coffee corners.

Companies are already saving millions of dollars by using real-time services. The result is a reduced information exchange time, with

  • single point of access to relevant information
  • closer collaboration
  • easier knowledge sharing
  • reduced travel and reduced travel costs

 

Summary

Real-time services on the portal can be used as an extension to the SAP Collaboration Room solution or as a stand-alone solution. Real-time collaboration enables collaboration between individuals and teams, and manages the content they create. Rather than replacing existing tools, it integrates and unifies existing solutions in the portal environment.

Information stored in different places is available through one point of access. Users know exactly where they should be storing, sharing, and collaborating on documents and can meet and exchange information in a real-time environment.

 

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