Features - Tools - Teams and Tools

Networked Tools - Features Available

These features are ranked in order of what we believe are the most broadly useful to organizations doing knowledge work. Not all features are needed by all organizations or all teams. The further down you go, or the further down the bullet list within a cell, the more narrowly that capability will be useful across an organization. So if you're examining this list for one specific team, our rankings may not entirely reflect the most useful features for their work.

Features & Capabilities – high level overview

Capability	Description
Browser Accessible	All user capabilities as well as many configuration capabilities are accessible via login from a web browser (IE, Firefox, etc.). One of the basic requirements as we see it is that tools should be configurable by business users without need for IT to provide programming. More ...
Access Control	Capability to assign permissions (rights) to individual and groups of user-accounts to control their access to workspaces, files, etc. More ...
Workspaces	Capability to create multifunctional web pages to support projects, individuals, ad-hoc teams, departments, partners, clients, stakeholders, etc. More ...
File Repository	Capability to add repositories to the workspaces for storing and organizing digital files. More...
Group Calendar	Capability to add calendars to the workspaces for organizing information associated with meetings, milestones, events, etc. More...
General Communications	Capability to post text and images in a structured way on the workspaces’ webpages e.g., blogs and announcements. More...
Wiki	Capability to create webpage based documents in the workspace through which users can jointly write, edit and add links. More...
Discussion board	Capability to add a discussion tool which allows users to post topics messages related to the topic and replies to the messages. More ...
Search	Capability to search full-text and meta-information of files in repositories, as well as contents of wikis, calendars, discussion boards, etc. More ...
Workflow	Workflow features are designed to provide users with an optimizable way to organize the steps in a specific, complex, multi-stage, often multi-person work process, with safeguards built in to ensure that all elements of each step and verification are done, and in the right order. add row for detailed description in the table below. More...
Virtual Meeting Tools	Instant messaging enables any team member remote from the physical location of a meeting to be 'in touch' on a moment-to-moment basis. More... Shared display significantly increases the productive participation of people meeting by telephone. More... Meeting Recordings enable people who did not attend a meeting to experience most of the value of the meeting through an audio recording with synchronized delivery of presentation materials and notes. More...
Configurable Database	Create and configure individual databases in workgroups that can be customized to meet groups' needs for task tracking, contact information, issues management, etc. More ...
Links	Capability to create a hyperlink to any file, page, or content and post those hyperlinks on the pages of any workspace. More...
Non-functional Features	Ease of use, scalability, maturity of the product, extensibility, interoperability, etc. are all intangible yet important aspects that should be considered. More...

Features and Capabilities – detailed overview

Feature

Value – Benefit

Basic Functional Requirements

All user pages accessible via a web browser.
Most application-configuration controls accessible via a web browser.
User-controlled recovery from unintentional deletion of data and applications
Usage tracking and reporting
Auto-password reminder for users, and ability for them to change their password.
Passwords stored encrypted in system, inaccessible to administrators.
Passwords are transmitted encrypted.
Data and files are transmitted encrypted.
Files are stored encrypted.

Everyone has a web browser on every computer they use whether in their office, at customer’s offices, at home or in a hotel. If application-specific 'client' software is required, it limits use of the tools. If these tools are going to become the definitive source of team materials, they have to broadly accessible.

Access Control

Permissions (rights) are assignable to individual and groups of user accounts.

Permissions that can be controlled include, at minimum: user's ability to read, create, write (contribute), modify, & delete info, files, etc.

Permissions (rights) can be aggregated into 'roles.' 'Access level' is often is used in place of 'role.'

'Groups' can be created and assigned a role. Users can be added to groups (versus being individually assigned permissions separately.)

Being able to control each user's access to the various work areas, or to specific file repositories, will be critical to the tool becoming the definitive source of team materials.

Generally want to minimize the material that is 'locked down.' A good policy is to have most areas and information accessable by team members.

The largest control is the 'write' permission; only people actually working on the materials in an area have write permissions. Only the most proprietary information (budgets, salaries) is stored in areas to which few users have read access.

Work Spaces or Group Spaces

Point-and-click capability to (i.e., non-technical user can) create a web page to support projects, ad-hoc teams, departments, etc.
Pages display applications, e.g., file repositories, calendars, announcements, blog content, wikis, databases, etc.
Access to pages can be controlled based on roles and/or group permissions.
Pages can be created in hierarchical or peer relationship to one-another.

File Repository

Point and click creation of multiple Repositories or folders.

A single Repository can store any digital file (e.g., image, video, HTML, or other application-specific data) and links (internal system links or external web URLs).

Access is controlled (at document, folder or repository level) based on roles and/or group permissions.

Easily obtain a link to an individual file or folder.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when an individual file is changed or for any change in the designated repository.

Revision control of files: files are save-blocked ("lock-out") when checked out to another user. Version history is maintained.

Upload multiple files in a single operation.

Metadata (required or optional) for files can be customized including ability to reference/link to other files in the system.

Metadata value sets can be sourced from other applications in the system (user accounts list, fields in databases).

For publishing external to system or internal system referencing.

Tagging feature which allows users to create categories or keywords which can be used to tie information together across the wiki.

Versioning ("What are the changes?"),

Tracking ("Who made that change?") and

Roll-back ("That change was wrong; undo it.") provides accountability for changes, correctability for errors and mischief, and easy linking and tagging to help tie all the information together.

Group Calendar

Point and click to create individual calendar instances dedicated to projects, departments, etc.

Access (to read, write, or change entries) is based on roles and/or group permissions.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when a calendar changes.

Calendars can be consolidated to show union of multiple calendars.

Project, or organization-wide meetings, milestones, etc.

Create a "Roll up" calendar instance.

General Communication

Capability to post (using simple point-and-click controls) text and/or images in a structured way on webpages. Includes blog, features sometimes called Announcement Function, etc.

Individual postings can have an associated commenting feature to support discussion around or feedback on the posting.

Access (to read, write, or change entries) is based on roles and/or group permissions.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when postings or comments are added or updated.

Wiki (or)

Structured page designs for: glossaries, creating links between and commenting on relationships among documents; group document authoring, etc.

HTML editor, possibly selectable.

File attachments can enabled or disabled and indexed for search.

Access (to read, create new, or change existing entries) is based on roles and/or group permissions.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when pages are added or changed.

Discussion board

If a wiki is not available, the ability to add discussions, polls or surveys will be important.

A single discussion can be linear or threaded.

Polls/surveys can have single or multiple questions.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when posts are made to a discussion.

More and more wikis are including a tagging feature which allows users to create categories or keywords which can be used to tie information together across the wiki.

Versioning ("What are the changes?"),

Tracking ("Who made that change?") and

Roll-back ("That change was wrong; undo it.") which provide accountability for changes, correctability for errors and mischief, and easy linking and tagging to help tie all the information together.

Search

Full text of files.

Meta-data on files.

Search results are filtered by user account access rights; material not accessible to that account are not included in the search results or, if listed, are not accessible.

Metadata on folders, sub-repositories.

Full text of all content: announcements, blogs, wikis, databases.

Advanced Search – repository and/or metadata- specific focused searches, Boolean operators, save search, etc.

Workflow

Virtual Meeting Tools

Synchronous text communications (aka Instant Messaging, IM and chat)

IM exchange of text messages between two people in real time.

Presence and status indicator (at my desk, working on deadline don’t bother me, …)

Chat: exchange of text messages between three or more people in real time.

Private group access i.e., only people within a designated group can see others’ availability and message to them.

Shared display (aka web meetings)

Ability for two or dozens of people "log into" a common account and see the computer screen of one of the participants.

Ability to support transfer of presenter i.e., the person’s whose computer screen is being seen by all participants.

Ability to support both Macintosh- and Windows-based participants for other features listed here.

Ability to share control: other participants can be allowed to control the presenter’s computer (to highlight information in a document or perform a series of actions demonstrating how to use an application).

Meeting Recording

Record audio of a meeting.

Synchronize document images used in the meeting to the audio-time track.

Sync video of meeting participants to the audio-time track.

Type notes during the meeting; synchronize notes to audio-time track.

Post-meeting editing to add/modify notes, cut out segments, etc.

Publish an integrated view of the document images, notes and video on a webpage.

Shared display tool services can sometimes provide this or it can be a separate software product used by one or several meeting participants.

These synchronous tools ( realtime connections between people) will typically not be part of an integrated platform system. But they generate significant value to organizations because they:

Enable people who would not normally be available for a meeting (because working remotely, cost of travel, etc.) to attend.
Reduce travel & time costs of meetings.
Increase the availability of meeting content which is normally unavailable to anyone not physically present for the session.
Increase the ability of people who are remote, to request and create a productive 'meeting' session with team mate(s).

Instant messaging enables any team member remote from any other team member to be ‘in touch’ on a moment by moment basis for quick questions, check ins or brief dialogue that would not occur by phone due to the overhead inherent in making and receiving phone calls. IMs are less intrusive and can be less disruptive than phone calls. Also,

IMs can supplement phone calls in that Links to web pages can be passed via IM.
In a meeting situation where many participants are in a room and several are remote, the remote people are on IM as well as phone contact. They can make requests or ask questions without disrupting the meeting ("Please move the microphone closer to speaker, or "What did he say was the due date?")

Shared display significantly increases the productive participation of people meeting by telephone. The data on this is pretty conclusive. (point to some?)

Meeting Recordings enable people who did not attend a meeting can experience most of the value of the meeting through an audio recording with synchronized delivery of materials and with notes made by the recorder throughout the meeting. Also, if the meeting were, for instance a design review, people viewing the recording can add comments, or questions which when consolidated across all participants creates an integrated contextual record of the feedback generated by reviewers of the design.

Configurable Database

Point-and-click to create and configure individual database instances with custom fields / record structure. Fields can be set to hold various data types e.g., free text, number, etc. and can be "required" or not.

Templates can be created for the organization’s standard forms for action-item / task-tracking, contacts, link lists, etc.

Displayed & printed reports configurable to be available based on roles and permissions assigned to users' accounts in the system.

Individual users can set a request to be emailed when records are added or changed in the database.

Calculations and logic operations configurable across records.

Calculations configurable across fields in same or other databases.

Value in Field X Database 1 can be sourced from Field Y in Database N.

Displayed & printed Reports configurable to include fields across multiple databases.

It's unlikely that the flexibility inherent in the features described here would be in a database integrated with the system platform. However, the features to the left are, like with all other capabilities, listed in rank order of importance.

So, assess your specific needs based using these then check against available feature sets.

Links