"Your information is one of your most strategic assets. You can count on EMC to keep innovating ways to store, protect, optimize, and leverage information, all with the aim of contributing to your ongoing success." (Joe Tucci, Chairman, President and CEO of EMC) EMC insignia is a company that provides IT solutions, support and training to a worldwide audience. Amongst the commercial side of EMC, they also provide valuable advice on many topics that can be discussed and used to enhance small and medium business (SMB) growth. The document in focus concerns EMC's top 10 tips for online collaboration for SMB's. These 10 tips may help SMB's in selecting what kind of collaboration software is best suited to the company. The document is in PDF format and located at http://www.retrospect.com/assets/Top10_WebCollab_en.pdf . A brief interpretation of the PDF is below, for the full article refer to the link immediately above. EMC's Top 10 Tips in Brief 1. Workspaces should be simple and easy to setup and manage. Workplace setup should be a quick process with limited IT involvement. 2. Avoid collaboration software that creates multiple points within workspaces. Locating a document should not be confusing or misleading. 3. Select the software that provides tools to deliver and work on assignments in real time. "Managers must be able to assign owners, create tasks, set milestones, establish deadlines, and track the progress of tasks" [1]. 4. Avoid collaboration software that requires workspaces to have custom coding or IT development. Instead, allow for software that provides an easy design.

5. Go for collaboration software that gives managers constant visibility across several projects. 6. Choose software that provides a secure way to manage external teams- including partners or suppliers. 7. Ensure the collaboration software has web-based workspaces so that geographic location and time zones do not become an issue. 8. The software must be secure and protection settings easily managed. 9. Keep in mind what level of internal workspace security is required - should permissions be at folder level or file level? Make sure the collaboration software suits the internal security levels of the business. 10. Collaborative software should be cost effective, consider company growth and tolerate a mixture of operating systems, various browser types and email clients. The strength of EMC's tips is that they can be applied to many web-based collaboration products on the market and are clearly suited towards SMB's. However, this implies that the list may not be extensive enough to relate to large firms. Overall, EMC's tips offer a starting point for what to look for when selecting collaboration software for businesses. References/Notes [1] EMC. Top Ten Tips for Web-based Collaboration in SMBs, http://www.retrospect.com/assets/Top10_WebCollab_en.pdf [accessed April 6, 2010].

"Work better together on Acrobat.com" [1]. "Adobe has introduced Acrobat.com Workspaces, an extension to its online collaboration service that provides shared workspaces to enable teams to easily share project documents and other files when working on projects" [2]. Adobe is a major player in the field of producing solid software and it seems they too are joining the world of online collaboration by developing Acrobat.com Workspaces and more. Launched in 2009, Acrobat.com lets users "store and share documents, convert files to PDF, share their screen using Adobe ConnectNow, and create documents using online applications such as the Buzzword word processor and Acrobat.com Tables for spreadsheets"[2]. At the moment the paid prescription is available to North American customers only and some other regional Beta versions are available. Although this availability is a weakness, particularly at this stage for Australian clients, Adobe does offer a free alternative for everyone until the Workspaces are available widely. The alternative is a limited, but useful service; "Get an online workspace, five PDF conversions total, three person web conferencing, online office applications and forum-based support" [3]. One of the biggest strength's to the workspaces is the usability of the product and its fresh outlook. The product offers great potential for clients as regardless of what application you use to create a document; Acrobat.com Workspaces includes a PDF conversion which can make the final document industry standard.

Acrobat.com Workspaces are mobile and can be collaborative from anywhere, "whether it is reading a proposal one last time on the train, or sharing a presentation with a new team member or taking a picture of receipts and faxing them to accounting" [4]. Having mobility on a collaborative workspace these days is an important plus to the potential of Adobe's application. With Acrobat.com Workspaces users can work together in real time on various Office documents like Word, Spreadsheet and presentations. No downloads are necessary as it is all found online and the latest document is what users will be viewing and editing. In real time, users can respond and make changes together. A possible weakness to the software is the inability to lock someone out of a document, although Adobe suggests that 'no lock outs' are a positive [5], in some cases a document in a workspace may not need to be seen by all eyes. In this scenario it would be better to have multiple Workspaces, but whether that is a viable option for a business or not will need to be analysed.

References/Notes [1] Adobe - tagline, https://acrobat.com/#l [accessed April 5]. [2] Robinson, D., (2010). Adobe adds shared workspaces to Acrobat.com, http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2260392/adobe-adds-shared-workspaces, V3.co.uk. [3] Acrobat.com Workspaces, https://acrobat.com/#il=1&page=signup_only&su=1 [accessed April 5]. [4] Acrobat.com Mobile Workspaces, https://acrobat.com/features_mobile_access.html [accessed April 5]. [5] Adobe.com Workspace features, https://acrobat.com/features_online_office_applications.html [accessed April 5].

Share. Collaborate. Communicate. [1] Glasscubes is all about file sharing, intranets, contact management and document management. [1] It is an application that is ideal for maintaining customers, employee relations and dealing with issues in a real time collaborative feed. The 'cubes' part refers to workspaces where access is assigned to various individuals or departments within and external to the company. Glasscubes is a UK company with the highest audience base, as per Alexa.com, from South Korea, India, United Kingdom and United States [2]. The application allows for real-time editing of office, pdf and image files online so that users know they will be editing the latest update. Users can share calendars, if they require, and in March 2010 Glasscubes announced its calendar synchronization for active employees. "Glasscubes... announced that its online-based collaboration software now allows users to synchronise calendars directly with Google Calendars, or to view (read only) events in other calendaring applications that support the iCal format"[3]. Adding to this announcement Glasscubes has also been accepted into the "Google Apps Marketplace" [4].

Not only a recently reworked calendar tool but Glasscubes also includes a free conference call service. This makes Glasscubes a viable product for many recommended businesses: teams, agencies, small businesses, legal professionals, educational institutions, charities, enterprises and project managers [5]. It is a solution that is "clearly going to be better-employed by small and medium-sized businesses whose departments and teams could use a little direction" [6]. There is much more that can be discovered about Glasscubes and what it can do! They offer clients a variety of packages to cater for various budgets. "When it comes to the actual pricing of this application, you can go for any of the following five plans: 'Basic', 'Limited', 'Standard', 'Professional' and 'Premium'" [6]. Considerable differences to the packages include file uploading sizes, workspace storage capacity and the number of users and contacts [7]. Watch the Glasscubes.com information video at Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/6868967 .

References/Notes [1] Tagline from http://www.glasscubes.com/ . [2] Alexa.com Traffic Stats, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/glasscubes.com#trafficstats [accessed April 4, 2010] [3] TMCnet.com, (2010). Glasscubes Synchronises with Google Calendars Enables users to create and share calendars across different programmes, ttp://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/03/17/4677447.htm [accessed April 5, 2010]. [4] Glasscubes Blog, (2010). Glasscubes added to Google Apps Marketplace, http://www.glasscubes.com/glasscubes-added-to-google-apps-marketplace/ Published March 18, 2010, [accessed April 5, 2010]. [5] Glasscubes, http://www.glasscubes.com/who/ . [6]Killer Startups, (2010). A tool for collaborating online, http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/glasscubes-com-a-tool-for-collaborating-online#ixzz0kAqbNZhu [accessed April 5, 2010]. [7] Glasscube's packages and prices, http://www.glasscubes.com/pricing-and-packages/ .

"Interactive website tools for distance learning, online tutoring, collaboration and fun. Add whiteboard, chat, games, message boards, VOIP and web conferencing to your website by simply copying a few lines of HTML code. Over 100,000 created!"[1] Groupboard.com is an online collaborative whiteboard used for educational, business conferencing and entertainment purposes. Groupboard.com offers free software for businesses or individuals to add to their websites. Basically, the whiteboard acts as a real time drawing board. The software is offered in three distinct formats: groupboard (simple), groupboard designer (advanced) and groupworld.net. Groupboard (simple java whiteboard): This applet allows for simple text messaging and voice conferencing. Groupboard suggests that this format can be used for "tutoring, distance learning, training, or simply for fun!"[2] The whiteboard can handle picture uploads that can be drawn over, which may be particularly helpful in teaching for both education and businesses. Groupboard Designer (advanced): This is an advanced version, as this whiteboard can be used to add extras to the drawing capability, such as mathematical signs for teaching or the symbols used when an architect is compiling a blueprint. Groupworld.net: This format advances the whiteboard again by adding voice/video conferencing and desktop sharing capabilities to strongly enhance the collaborative environment.

Groupworld's products have the potential to provide a good tool cheaply. It can advance learning capabilities and may prove a useful resource for companies, in particular fields of design. The free board allows for a maximum of five users at one time, while for a fee there are further packages that allow for up to 50 users at any time [3]. To see a demo: http://www.groupboard.com/demo/ Originally released in 1998[4] may mean it is not the best software available today. However, the product has continued to be developed with today including connect-ability via the iphone or ipod touch.

References: [1][2] http://www.groupboard.com/products/ [accessed 02/04/10] [3] http://www.groupboard.com/products/gblicence.shtml [accessed 02/04/10] [4] Groupboard.com Stats, http://www.markosweb.com/www/groupboard.com/ [accessed 02/04/10]