Planning

involves designing the system architecture, putting the system intheright environment, setting aside enough resources, and planning for growth. You might also consider hiring an experienced professional as a consultant.

Do: Put a lot of
time and effort into designing the system architecture. Make sure
that management knows that groupware is more than an application.
It is a complex system that requires proper planning and resources.

Don’t: Don’t force
a groupware system into an environment that will not allow the system
to do its job. If you want users to really use the system, then give
it hearty, dedicated resources instead of pulling an old server out
of the closet, or making do with a server that is already taxed. If
you want users to share data, not just two-line messages, then make
sure the network infrastructure has enough bandwidth to support the
communication your organization wishes to benefit from.

Do: Start out with
dedicated servers that have plenty of disk space and plenty of memory
(specifics are recommended for individual systems from their manufacturers).
Some groupware systems separate administrative processes from messaging
processes to some extent. In the spirit of dedicating resources, it’s
a good idea to isolate the core administrative processes on a separate
server, away from the day-to-day message traffic. For example, Novell
GroupWise uses a “Domain”, which is a database that houses administrative
information about the rest of the system. Putting this database and
its MTA (Message Transfer Agent) on a dedicated server will reduce
the chances of corruption and will give you gates, or shut off valves
if you will, when you need to isolate a problem during troubleshooting.

Do: Plan for growth.
Your users will use this system more than you expect. They will quickly
learn that they can’t live without every feature and function, so
plan for it. Purchase more disk space than you think you need. Buy
a more sizable server than you think you need. Also, build in fail-safes.
Novell GroupWise allows to you to configure multiple agents to service
a single post office. Configure an extra agent to be activated in
times of emergency or unusually high traffic, and have the resources
to support it.

Do: Consider hiring
a consultant during the planning phase to help with the design of
the system. Do yourself (and your company) a favor and contract an
experienced professional to review your current environment, make
recommendations for changes, produce an architectural overview of
an ideal system (with guidelines to get your system there), and to
suggest an implementation schedule. Realistically, most IS departments
have the ability to perform the install and the roll-out to the end-users.
If you are wondering where to spend your money, put it into the design
rather than hired hands to push buttons during the implementation.
I can’t stress this enough: a poorly designed system will have bottlenecks,
will not run efficiently and will not give you the return on your
investment that a properly designed groupware system can deliver.

I can’t stress this enough:
a poorly designed system will have bottlenecks, will not run efficiently
and will not give you the return on your investment that a properly
designed groupware system can deliver.

Many of us have come to rely on and live by e-mail. What else would we do if we didn’t have to check tens or hundreds of messages daily? The applications responsible for our e-mail addictions are lumped into a category called groupware, only groupware is much more than e-mail. It is also personal calendaring, group scheduling, task management, document management, workflow, imaging, electronic forms, electronic faxing, electronic discussions and much more.

Groupware systems connect us to the Internet. Groupware systems connect us to our work groups and the rest of the company, and provide fast and easy forms of communication. Groupware systems eliminate paperwork and save time by taking information from our purchasing and accounting software and automatically routing it to the authorizing managers, then sending it to the fulfillment destination. Groupware systems act as libraries by indexing huge amounts of information and making it available with a quick search for content, author, subject, date, etc. The uses and applications of groupware products and features are endless.

The three big players in the groupware arena are Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise. Each has different ways of delivering the above listed features and forms of communication. However, each also has their strengths and weaknesses. This article isn’t a sales pitch for one product or another. It is a list of “Dos and Don’ts” when implementing a groupware system. I have broken it up into four major sections: Planning, Testing, Implementation, and Administration and Support. I have to admit that the majority of my experience has been with Novell GroupWise, so I may focus on issues related to that product. All of the concepts discussed, however, are relevant to any groupware application.

In this series of articles, I have tried to express the importance of upfront planning and continued support of the groupware system implementation. I’ve heard some organizations respond with comments like, “If it’s that complex we shouldn’t be using it.” Comments like these typically come from individuals that only see the groupware client application. It is nearly impossible for them to realize the complexity of the backend needed to drive the system. Yes, groupware systems are complex. Groupware systems require some level of complexity to provide the many robust, and some would say essential, communication features for end-users. The complexity is generally only seen by the IS staff who are educated and intelligent enough to make such a great application provide so much benefit to your organization. So, to sum it up:

Planning
Get a reputable and knowledgeable consultant to help plan and design your groupware system. Take your time to properly setup and configure the system.

Testing
Train a beta test group of users to use the system. Test the system in small workgroups.
Implementation
Slowly roll it out into production group by group.

Administration and Support
Make sure you can give enough focused attention to your groupware system. Maintain the system on a regular basis.

You’ll come to rely on the groupware system and wonder how you ever got anything done without it in the first place.