How does it work? Say Voisen is trying to sell a package of financial products to a local manufacturer. All the information -- names, addresses, past conversations, letters, memos, and contracts -- would be filed away and cross-referenced under various headings. More important, in another area, anyone who wanted to could click on a file and bring up a visual display of links between salespeople, the prospect's employees, its other clients, its past projects, and documents, to name a few possibilities. If the display showed that the prospect had worked with one of Voisen's long-term clients, a salesperson might call that customer and ask him to put in a good word for the company. Or if North County Financial had made a proposal to the client a few years earlier, Voisen could pull up the document and read it over.
The payoff: the ability to keep track of his top-40 clients and top-40 prospects more efficiently than before. Since 1987, when he first started tracking clients and prospects with groupware, Voisen has seen average growth each year of 7%.
Now, if only a groupware program could read a client's mind. . . .
* * *
Anne Field (annearf@aol.com) is a freelance writer based in Pelham, N.Y. She specializes in stories on small business and consumer affairs.
FINDING GROUPWARE
Here are some of the more popular groupware products, listed according to category. (Remember that most programs perform more than one function. Lotus Notes, for example, does just about everything.)
Knowledge Sharing
Lotus Notes, Lotus Development Corp., Cambridge, MA (800-828-7086, http://www.lotus.com). Cost: Notes Mail Client, $55; Notes Desktop, $69; single-processor server, $495; multiprocessor server, $2,295; each client, $27.
Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA (800-426-9400, http://www.microsoft.com/exchange). Cost: Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise Edition, $1,970; Microsoft Exchange Server, $699; each client, $54.
Group Calendaring and Scheduling
CaLANdar, Microsystems Software Inc., Framingham, MA (800-489-2001, http://www.microsys.com). Cost: $595 for 10 users (includes server cost); Web Scheduler, $995 per CaLANdar network.
OnTime Enterprise, FTP Software Inc., Andover, MA (800-559-5955, http://www.ontime.com). Cost: $994 for 10 users (includes server cost).
OnTime for Networks, FTP Software Inc., Andover, MA (800-559-5955, http://www.ontime.com). Cost: $828 for 10 users (includes server cost).
Real-Time Meetings
Enhanced CU-SeeMe, White Pine Software Inc., Nashua, NH (800-241-PINE, http://www.cuseeme.com). Cost: $69Ñ$99; software server, $395.
GroupSystems, Ventana Corp., Tucson, AZ (800-368-6338, http://www.ventana.com). Cost: $895 per user (volume discounts available).
RoundTable, ForeFront Group Inc., Houston, TX (800-867-1101, http://www.ffg.com). Cost: $500 for five-user server; up to $5,000 for unlimited number of users.
Bulletin Boards
FirstClass, SoftArc Inc., Markham, Ontario, Canada (800-SOFTARC, http://www.softarc.com). Cost: $495 for five users (includes server cost).
TeamTalk, Trax Softworks Inc., Culver City, CA (800-367-8729, http://www.traxsoft.com/traxsoft). Cost: $59 per user.
WebBoard, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA (800-998-9938, http://webboard.ora.com). Cost: $149.
Group Document Handling
Face to Face, Crosswise Corp., Santa Cruz, CA (408-459-9060, http://www.crosswise.com). Cost: $59 per user.
Work Flow
ActionWorkflow Enterprise Series (includes Process Builder-Analyst Edition, Builder-Developer Edition, Process Manager, and Software Developer Kit), Action Technologies Inc., Alameda, CA (800-WORKFLOW, http://www.actiontech.com). Cost: Process Builder-Analyst Edition, $495 per user; Builder-Developer Edition, $3,995 per user; Process Manager, $4,995 for 10 users (includes server cost); Software Developer Kit, $4,495 per developer.
FormFlow, Symantec Corp., Cupertino, CA (800-441-7234, http://www.symantec.com). Cost: $399 for starter kit [one designer component and three fillers (users)].
JetForm Filler Pro, JetForm Corp., Ottawa, Canada (800-538-3676, http://www.jetform.com). Cost: $149 per user.
RESOURCES
Publications
Groupware: Technology and Applications, by David Coleman (Prentice Hall, 1995). A comprehensive look at the technology and the market.
Groupware: Collaborative Strategies for Corporate LANs and Intranets, by David Coleman (Prentice Hall, 1996). Coleman's second volume focuses on intranets and is aimed at the groupware-literate reader.
Virtual Workgroups (BCR Enterprises Inc., 800-227-1234, http://www.bcr.com). A bimonthly magazine about electronic collaboration. Subscriptions are free to qualified subscribers.
The World Wide Web
Collaborative Strategies (http://www.collaborate.com). Industry trends, product information, methods, plus lots of links to other sites.
Comp.Groupware (comp.groupware through your search engine or http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/ comp-groupware-faq/top.html). The URL address is mind-boggling, but typing it in is worth the effort. A soup-to-nuts site, with information on books, consultants, vendors, and conferences. One of the best.
