Simpler collaboration with Groove Virtual Office

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 05/15/2006 12:29 PM  |  Life

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, The Jakarta Post

I often work on projects that require teamwork. Sometimes I have to write case studies for my clients, which usually requires a lot of drafts. Currently, for example, I am working on the annual report of an insurance company, and files are being sent back and forth between people. Oftentimes, things get really confusing.

As a copywriter, my job is to prepare a draft. Once the first version is completed, I have to send it to a number of top executives in the insurance company, who are supposed to review it, make suggestions and sometimes add important data.

While they work on it, I have to continue editing my first draft. Perhaps I need to move a paragraph somewhere else, perhaps there's an additional piece of information I have to include. For sure, there are hundreds of sentences I have to rephrase. I can't wait until these busy executives find some time to go through my first draft, because the deadline is fast approaching.

When the bosses at the company finally begin sending back the files with their feedback in them, you can imagine how chaotic it is. Some of these files are not renamed, so I have no way of identifying whether they are the ones I've sent out or the ones that are coming back at me. Well, I can check the Properties of each individual file, but that will waste a lot of time.

I always put a sequence number at the end of the file name to indicate the version that I'm sending out, but others may have developed their own numbering methods. So, for example, I usually give my files a name like ""Telco AR 2005 (03)"", whereas someone else may simply name his file ""AR 2005 9-05"" to indicate the date of the revision rather than the version number. Now, what if that guy makes more than one revision in a single day?

Even my version-number method does not necessarily work as expected. Some people may not receive versions (01) up to (05), and they have no idea what the (06) means. Wouldn't it be nice if all the revisions made by the top people at the insurance company could be integrated into one single synchronized version? Then I wouldn't have to open so many files, track down all the changes they've made and spend so much time manually merging them into a new version.

Online collaboration is nothing new. Years ago I wrote about using an instant messaging tool to work together on a single file. However, the more people we have on the team, the more complicated things become.

You may recall Nortel's Multimedia Communication Server 5200, which I mentioned in my article two weeks ago. The MCS 5200 is an infrastructure that a service provider can build to provide communication and collaboration services to enterprises as well as end users. The services include virtual meetings complete with video conferencing, call management and tons of other powerful features that allow people in disparate locations to work together as effectively as if they were all physically in one meeting room.

The services that can be provided with the IP-centric MCS 5200, however, can only be delivered smoothly through a high-speed connection. That's why it's an ideal solution for businesses and high-end users. But what if we need a simpler solution that can be delivered with just an always-on broadband connection? I think Groove Virtual Office could be a great alternative.

I was told about this downloadable software by a good friend of mine some time ago. I have not had the chance to try out all the features, but it looks like Groove Virtual Office can give us the functionality to meet our more modest needs.

You can download the 60-day trial version of Groove Virtual Office from www.groove.net and install it on your PC or notebook. If only all the users in my project had this software, all the changes they made to my shared documents would appear on everybody's computer. This would help eliminate the problem of version numbers once and for all.

This is how the application works, in a nutshell: once the software is installed on my computer, I create a special folder for Groove, where I put all the files that I want to share with the team. I can then create a virtual group with whom I want to share the files. I can add my contacts using their e-mail addresses or the public directory that Groove Networks provides.

Then, I have to create a Workspace such as the one you can see in the accompanying screenshot. I can then invite my contacts to my Workspace. At the bottom there's a toolbar we can click to access different functions. The Workspace provides fifteen integrated functions. We can jot down notes on the Notepad, chat using the Discussion tool, share files and pictures, initiate a meeting, let other group members review our documents -- which would be perfect for my situation -- manage projects, set up the group calendar and do a lot of other things.

The most laudable thing about the software is definitely its user interface. Having only used instant messaging tools once in a while, I can easily guess what each of the tools in Groove Virtual Office's Workspace enables me to do. By the way, Groove Networks has been acquired by Microsoft and the products complement Microsoft's collaboration solutions.

The prices of the complete versions range from US$69 to $229 per user. It's not cheap, certainly. In my case, it may not be easy to persuade the other team members to buy the software, even though the least expensive version will do.

What are the pluses and minuses? There are only a few that I can think of. The intuitive interface is certainly a major strength. Another is the 192-bit encryption to ensure security ""on disk and over the network"". The downside is perhaps the lack of integrated anti-virus checking. We never know what diseases the other members have on their computers. Nonetheless, if you need to collaborate a lot in your daily activities, you should go to the Web site and download the trial version.

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