Reorganizing Business for Collaboration

by Brian J. Dooley

Several factors are driving the evolution toward increased collaboration in business, including rising usage of groupware and other collaborative tools, a need to improve efficiency and support real-time operation in supply chains, and customer requirements for greater product diversity. Internally, collaboration between workgroups and departments is seen as a way of fostering the creation of ideas and of responding to the need for a more flexible, modular organization. Externally, companies are collaborating vertically, horizontally, and with customers as business constellations emerge and as companies outsource processes.