GROUPWARE: APPLICATION CHALLENGES
Mary Priester
Trident University International
Groupware can be regarded as a group of systems that have been developed for the workplace that enables collaboration, communication, cooperation, and problem solving among the workers of a given group. These systems have been available to workplaces for a long time and have been used for a great deal of time. They have ranged from the telephone to email system to current multi-user supported online-based applications. In spite of the advantages and increased collaboration that these systems provide, there are issues that have become evident from the adoption of these systems within various work environments. In the recent past, there has been an increase in the number of groupware applications that are available to companies. This largest being a consequence of the improvements made in technology. But with the evolution of technology and the various concerns that it has been able to mitigate, there still exist issues of implementation.
One of the first challenges that concern groupware lies in the design of the system. This is not directly linked to the implementation of the system but plays a critical role in understanding the issues around the implementation of these systems within an organization. One of the issues in regards to design is the inability to accurately evaluate certain parameters that impact the use of Groupware. There are various social, economic, and political among other dynamics that Groupware designers are unable to test for. This impacts the functionality and adoptability of the various systems in an office setting. These issues may include improper installation, limited support resources on the side of the users and lack of motivation among users to use the system leading to failure of the application.
One other concern lies in the adoption of the system. It is to be realized that for the system to work all workers within a group need to...