Examples Of Organization Activities Groupware Support Information Technology Essay

Examples Of Organization Activities assemblagew ar Support development Technology experimentWith the veers of society and technologies, collaboration is becoming an increasingly integral part of the study environment. Three primary influencing factors acquit revolutionized the vernacular field of studyplace, of which perhaps the most paramount being engine room which has fashion imperative for being at the straits of any market. As advancements hold up occurred in selective information and communication technologies the fear environment has produce to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal) flexible, changing the flair in which organizations break away. With the enhancements of technology it has become increasingly feasible for organizations to easily span across a global market, resulting in dispersion of organizational assets across a bragging(a) geographical ara. Social transformations such(prenominal) as an ontogeny in the faculty member achievements o f individuals have changed the depth of intimacy mingled with friction matchs allowing them to collaborate to achieve common goals deep down a working environment.The term Organization is broad and incorporates a collection of institutions ranging from g everywherenment sectors through with(predicate) to universities. The way in which people operate inwardly organizations has changed through fall out recent decades due to the work that is required of them. With the advancements in technology, some(prenominal) chores atomic number 18 easily achievable using computers and bundle packages, very much judgment of convictions of the trivial and time consuming tasks have been removed from the habituater workload and instead carried out via a machine.Workers in spite of appearance organizations have tarryd to change with the change in work with many people becoming acquaintance workers, who supply their specialist know-how to contri alonee towards organizational goals. Peo ple within organizations be now often required to complete broad activities with very particular(prenominal) goals. A growing trend of positions within these environments requires people to operate as a member within a team, to distri scarcelye complicated organizational goals. Working in these situations put forwards an increase in efficiency and productivity in carrying out organizational activities. There are many advantages to working within a team, one of these being teams have a collective cognition much greater than that of an individual, allowing them to down the stairsstand a problem by sacramental manduction association. Team members reside to the woods often have their own ideas they want to be included into a solution and so forth allow foringing be more so committed to the work. Whilst one individual may maintain it knockout to see flaws within their own work, teams base often find out errors much faster, with a more objective standpoint. Creative solu tions sewer be derived from a assembly with binary viewpoints, often providing an abstract view of a problem.Within the business world, companies have been targeting growing markets, this has ca employ a dispersion in company assets. Activities require interactions from a range of assets including personal situated in unalike locations this is why technology has become fundamental to team collaborations within a business environment.Collaboration surrounded by workers has become more brisk in completing organizational goals, technology and software developments have mature realiseing collaboration between individuals whom are not co-located. A font of software which has grown due to the requirement of organizations is groupware. Groupware, cooperative software or group support organisations are all a type of software with the main objective to fasten the interaction between people that work together easier and helping them to become more effective and efficient.( Sarme nto, Lousa, Machado,1999) The software is used to support groups of people pursue in a common task that provides an interface to a make outd environment. (Borko Furht,2008) Groupware can take place between people whom are co-located or remotely segregated. It can either be coexistent where people are collaborating in real-time or asynchronous with communication at disparate times (not real-time). Many early groupware systems were brought to start to eliminate the collect to be co-located. Groupware has now grown to a landed estate where it is an industry of its own, with so many organizations using unhomogeneous types of collaborative software. Groupware has been somewhat for many years, incorporating technologies such as email. More recently groupware is becoming associated with technologies that support collaboration and communication, with many software solutions providing support for communication, collaboration and co-op work, for specimen LMS systems employed by man y universities, to support student collaboration.Many factors have lead to the unavoidableness of software solutions that promote collaboration between individuals. Group work is a regular drive for many people within an organization, in most organizations most complex decisions are made by a team. As this become more frequent the necessity to share documents and work together is central to success. As media becomes more available through IP (internet protocol) through factors such as faster networking connections, the range and bill of data we can order has repaird allowing for better groupware systems (such as television system conferencing). Additional the rise of groupware has been influenced by the global spread of employees with 87 part of employees around the world working in remote offices.(Turban, Leindner, Mclean, Wetherbe,2008) Individuals daily routines have become more dependent on electronic devices, keeping them in constant connection to email collaborative calendars and other groupware system. Exposing individual to this technology makes it easier to break in such software into their work biography. The benefits of groupware have lead to huge amount of organizations up taking e-collaboration, the telecommunication Industry (TIA)(Tiaonline.org) indicates that global revenues from collaboration lead show a 66.5 percent compound annual growth scope $11.4 billion in 2007 (Turban, Leindner, Mclean, Wetherbe,2008).One of the issues slowing the uptake of groupware is the range of requirements from the contrasting users of collaborative software. Because reconciling work is carried out through such a huge number of industries the number of different activities is massive, often general solutions cannot provide the functionality needed so bespoke software is required. This factor has slowed the uptake of groupware in smaller organizations. Another issue with groupware is the integrity of data being operated upon. When cooperative worki ng it is often the case that the users go forth be working on an artifact, with treble users accessing and modifying the artifact it can often cause multiple different copies. Groupware systems bleed to employ a centralized data store to render to reduce this occurring, including other techniques (e.g. locking the data until the modifications have been finalized). Authentication has withal been an issue related with groupware systems as often organizational documents are sensitive.smorgasbord and types of groupwareGroupware is a term which incorporates a large measure of different technologies tough with communication, collaboration and cooperative work. Because the term is so hard to define it has lead to many people being unsure of what constitutes as groupware. The best way to view them is to group them in a logical way, numerous different assortment frameworks have been produced to describe characteristics of groupware. In this section I will try and describe some potpou rri techniques to outline the various types of groupware which are available.The time/space matrix classification framework used to group types of groupware. This technique uses the location and the times in groupware to describe it. On the x-axis is the location, which describes if users are co-located or geographically divided. The y-axis on the other overstep describes if the users interactions are synchronous (real-time) or asynchronous (not in real-time). Tools used which are synchronous and co-located tend not to be computerized, for instance a classroom. Although this framework does group collaborative tools it does have practices which can cause confusion, such as e-mail. Though it is classified as an asynchronous technology it can be used to send messages back and forth between users. Network delays might not make it real-time interaction, but it is used for synchronous communication.(Brusic,2004) Other showcases are present. The ambiguity present in this framework ha s caused others to be formed.The second framework this bear witness will introduce is the people/artefact framework. It is heavily based upon cooperative work. Cooperative work involves two or more participants using a share artefact. (Brusic,2004) This framework identifies 3 main operations groupware can oblation Computer meditated communication, meeting and decision support systems and shared applications and artefacts. The first course of study computer-meditated communication describes technologies which support direct communication between users, allowing cooperate close their work. An example of this are e-mail, bulletin boards and video conferencing. To collaborate workers need to be able to gain an understanding of the task and generate ideas, this is the concept encapsulated by the second category meeting and decision support systems. Examples of meeting and decision support systems are argumentation tools, services that offer shared drawing off tools and brainstormin g activities. The final category is shared applications and artefacts, this classification includes systems for sacramental manduction computers, applications and documents. This classification often requires special collaborative aware software to be used, an example of these systems are shared editors, allowing multiple users to edit a document.The two classification frameworks discussed are not the only two available, another example is Esther Dysons pretending that focuses on the benefiting party of the groupware. Describing these frameworks makes it apparent that there are many various collaborative tools, the ideal solution would be one which includes all tools although we are still quite far from developing the grand groupware system that encompasses all type of communication, and we will probably never get there since the possibilities are constantly evolving with changes in both our patterns of social interaction and the technology we have available.(Anonymous,2010)Examp les of organization activities groupware supportOrganisations are more than often using electronic systems to carry out a large order of their internal and immaterial processes. The adoption of e-enterprise has brought forward the need for collaboration between organisations to meet their goals and boasting in the current market. The increasing need for collaboration between non co-located organisations and individuals has caused the groupware market to expand and become a fundamental tool. Groupware has influenced the expansion of enterprises by astir(p) the effectiveness of a range of tools such as the ability to surpass over long distances. I will now discuss the use of groupware and how it can be used to support organisations and their processes.Since the introduction of computers the ability to collect, break up and share data has greatly increased in efficiency. Today many business and other organisations thrive upon the data they utilize. A key scene of any organisatio n is the way in which data is managed and shared between different organisational resources, for example different tiers of staff. Groupware is enabling organisations to work effectively with the quantity of data they currently possess. The sharing of information internally and to external stakeholders has been benefitted by a variety of tools. Many industries rely on sharing information to external organisations and example where this can be seen is with supply and demand. Companies with a required demand need to communicate their requirements to the suppliers in order to meet the demands. An example industry where this is present is within supermarket chains. Asda a leading supermarket uses electronic data interchange systems to communicate to its suppliers with great effect, sending real time data in multiple formats securely over the internet (Turban, Leindner, Mclean, Wetherbe,2008). Using its current line of descent levels to request necessary products. This software supports the collaboration between organisations improving efficiency. This groupware system offers many benefits over its manual equivalent (such as telephone ordering). more or less of the system is automated removing the need for human resources, but it also often much more effective with a decrease in the time required, error rates (human error removed) and often cost. Information sharing has become a large section of groupware due to the increasing use of e-enterprise and need for multiple stakeholders to share information. It can often be seen internally in organisations with one example being the sharing of documents through systems such as email attachments and drop box systems. intimacy creation tools are a collection of groupware tools that can be used to support the encyclopedism and sharing of knowledge end-to-end an organisation. knowledge can be classified as tacit (Knowledge that is difficult to transfer by verbalising it or writing it down) or as explicit. Groupware syst ems support both through collaboration using a variety of structured and non-structured methods. Tools which offer this include white-boarding, chat, discussion groups and other tools. Knowledge creation and sharing is important throughout organisations. The need of cooperation between geographically dispersed workgroups is a critical issue to global organizations the best specialists to adjudicate a problem do not usually work on the same floor. (Carvalho, Rodrigo Baroni de Ferreira, Marta genus Araujo Tavares, 2001). As this statement suggest groupware to help creation of knowledge is now fundamental because of the needs of organisations to span a much larger (often global) market.Closely coupled to knowledge creation tools are the groupware tool classified as knowledge vigilance systems. The systems main objective is to manage the creation, capture, warehousing and dissemination of information.(Maier,2007) Because of the diversity of organizations many varying systems are cu rrently available. information management systems such as blackboard are ideal examples of groupware facilitating learning. Blackboard is a well known product used in over 2200 educational institutions, its primary goal is manage course content but also provides tools for learning and collaboration between users. Through my own experience of blackboard it vastly improves the ability to find relevant information to gift towards discovers and examinations, using the online discussion boards it is possible to carry out peer to peer knowledge sharing to aid my personal development. Assessment and interactive learning content is another feature present helping to increase individuals knowledge throughout universities. There are many other organizations using a variety of software packages. sacred lotus notes (IBM) is an example of collaborative software which incorporates knowledge management, this system is typically used throughout businesses and offers a range of collaborative too ls such as email and calendaring.A collaborative bug out management tool is an application that facilitates a project throughout its lifecycle. Many groupware tools can be used to support a range of projects. Projects have a much higher rate of success if they are managed effectively. The ability for multiple team members to carry out work on a project from different geographical locations is greatly improved with the use of collaborative project management tools. As the internet has become a more potent resource it has lead to the growth of tools such as sub-versioning. end-to-end the software industry it is often feasible for programmers to operate from different locations all carrying out modifications on a globally stored project.Collaborative project management tools do bring issue. When projects are carried out by non co-located groups they often work on the same data this can lead to data in harpency throughout a project. Data inconsistency can often lead to inaccuracy and injustice of integrity through information. Groupware commonly uses the approach of having a central individual(a) data store. This can still lead to loss of integrity with multiple people modifying the same information. Techniques such as locking can be applied and is used in packages such as repository programming where files are locked until they are updated by the person modifying them. This does remove the issue of data inconsistency but reduces productivity, communication is vital to avoid such issues.The approaching of GroupwareAll disciplines of technology continue to advance at incredible rates, I mean that groupware will become critical to large organisations. Enterprises are go along to become more and more popular fulfilling a huge magnitude of services. As the rates of communication through computer continue to increase (i.e. internet speeds) the ability to collaborate with organisations in multiple countries using more personal media will become available. Furth ermore the collaboration achievable will improve, bringing down the limitations of geographical dispersion and providing media much more mistakable to a face to face conversation.Large organisations such as Microsoft and IBM are continuing to focus development towards overall groupware solutions such as Lotus notes. As these organisations continue to develop reliable secure systems I look at the use of collaborative systems will grow throughout small to large work environments. The term groupware is hard to quantify, including small systems such as e-mail through to large software packages, I swear solutions that incorporate a framework and many tools will become more readily available. These civilize solutions will offer flexibility so that the processes they operate and projects they manage can change and still be supported, in the same way which man are flexible to change. With flexibility will need to come scalability of a system, organisations are constantly changing to st ay relevant with in their market, groupware will need to be able to support the need for growth.Organisations often consist of technically skilled IT employees capable of managing the internal and external systems but workers do not always have strong technical abilities. If groupware is to become a necessity for all organisations, the technical skills needed to work with the software will need to be basic, this is something I believe will become more present within current tools.Todays world is becoming heavily circle around roving devices with millions of people using smart phones and other hand held devices to access the Internet and carry out many daily activities. With the effect away from desk workers to people whom travel in their daily work life the demand for groupware systems that can be supported through a peregrine platform to allow communication and collaboration whilst on the move. Groupware tools such as email can already be accessed via mobile device but I believ e more multifunctional solutions such as lotus notes will become more available via mobile devices. As with the move to mobile platforms cross platform will also be needed. I believe that this will be accomplished with an increase in web-based solutions running on hosted systems similar to groupware such as Google groups. The inevitable move towards cloud figure will continue to bring an increase in web-based tools with less need for local storage and an increase in hosted data warehouses.Groupware will continue to grow but this brings the cost needed to secure systems. Large organisations with top-secret information or organisation secret information will no doubt like the rest of the Internet become a dupe to cyber-crime. If security is not kept at the forefront of developers minds when producing groupware tools it could become an painless target for cyber criminals exploiting the software for their own benefit. Tools like Sms and E-mail have already fallen victim with numerous scandals, the increase of overall groupware systems which incorporate the volume of business processes will become a target, an example being the gust of a payroll system.ConclusionGroupware as discussed within this essay is hard to describe with a broad range of technologies being incorporated under the term. Although groupware is hard to define the software tend to have common goals such as improved communication. The majority of collaborative tools can be describe as one of the following four Knowledge management tools, Knowledge creation tools, Information sharing tools and collaborative project management tools. Throughout the essay I have identified some techniques used to severalize different groupware tools, in my opinion I believe for an organisation to take full advantage of computer systems a range of tools should be used. In an environment where learning is expected a range of tools would be secure because of the way in which people learn differently.The goal for all types of groupware is to improve collaboration and increase organisational efficiency.The growth of e-enterprises has increased the need for groupware systems. 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