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Best Collaborative Software

collaborative software

Companies, groups and individuals that are involved in any given project need a way of communicating and getting reports from one another. There is where group applications come into the picture. It can be very hard and impossible for staff or group of people to share or work without having all these tools in place.

Collaborative software is an application that is designed to help people engage in common tasks so that they can be able to achieve better and in the near future. It can be very hard and even impossible without having all these tools in place for your staff to share and work or collaborate together.

There are so many applications for collaborative software across all types of industries. Many web based companies even utilize the API’s of some of these softwares as the foundations of there companies. Skip The Games is an adult app that connects users and adult service providers along with providing verified escort reviews. This is a web based company in the adult space that has been able to capitalize on the scalability that groupware allows.

Zimbra

Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS)is a software suite that includes an email software, calendar, chat, web client among many other tools. It is a groupware application software that is designed with a lot of popularity with its features providing an open source way. There is the open source way which handles almost all of your needs. It is also known as community edition. Network edition has other features which you might fancy and they include features that Zimbra collection suite features.

Kolab

Kolab Groupware is a free open source program that affords its users with notes, shared email, calendaring, tagging as well as tasks. It is very secure, reliable, scalable, flexible and full-featured. It is the glue between the various pieces of software that you could choose to Do-It-Yourself, adds to the collaboration capabilities, native integration and mobile phone synchronization in desktop operating systems platforms such as Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. At the heart of Kolab is a chance and affordability to communicate with ease and readability. As an organization, Kolab allows individuals to handle email fast and efficiently at any scale.

Kolab is built on open-source software which is the fastest and most secure products, it is also built on internal storage, directory service, mail delivery system and its very powerful email contact management system.

SOGo

SOGo is a fully supported groupware server that focuses on scalability and open standards. What SOGo does is give one the ability to share address books, calendars and e-mail using an open source, cross platform environment. It provides a rich AJAX-based Web interface that supports multiple native clients through the use of standard protocols such as CalDAV. This groupware application offers multiple ways to access calendaring and messaging data. In such a case the users can use a web browser such Microsoft outlook, Apple iCal, Mozilla Thunderbird or a mobile device that can access the same information.

Some of the features that you will find include; native Microsoft ActiveSync support for mobile devices such as Android, Apple iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. Sharing your email, calendars and address books with other users, reminders, delegation, Export/Import and password policy.

Horde

Horde Groupware is a free enterprise-ready browsed collaboration suite. The application allows users to manage, share contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and files as well as bookmarks with standard compliant projects from Horde project. Some of the features that you will find in node include simple and dynamic mobile interface, unlimited resources per user, online help system, global tagging system, public and shared resources and abstract database support. Other features entail simple and advanced search forms, alarms with email notification and integration into external clients like Apple, Mozilla, Calendar and Microsoft outlook.

Zoho

Zoho continues to be a leader in the field of project management. The app is a compelling tool for small and boot-strapped businesses because it is very easy to use and doesn’t cost that much. In addition, it has a free service which means you can do much more than test drive it while considering whether you want an upgrade or not. It’s all about usefulness and is very rich in communication features, it is generally easy to use, responsive with a great value.

Asana

Product enthusiasts love Asana for the good reasons. The online collaboration tool specializes in workflow management but also handles a lot of tasks. It is one of the best collaborations and productivity applications since it is very flexible, fast with a modern design. Bottom line is that it is a to-notch collaboration tool that helps team managers manage all kinds of tasks.…

Challenges and Disadvantages of Groupware

Groupware is clubbing of software for multiple purposes like various communications, productivity, and connections. Companies need groupware to make management effective. Designing perfect Groupware is the hardest challenge for software engineers. Some problems are not resolved and being experimented with startups and companies. Here are a few of the major challenges.

Challenges to overcome as a company

Having groupware is about connecting all employees in one platform. Most user-friendly platforms can still be new making people avoid usage of groupware unless trained. The awareness about groupware is still low and companies do not take a risk in opting for rare platforms. It is a proven fact that groupware, when utilized among a large number of people is the best way to bring together every person in the company from different departments. Though facial expressions and body language are missing through technology, this way helps them to have a minimum knowledge about fellow workers. This increases the sense of community among workers to put their best efforts. Sometimes, software designers cannot completely fulfill a company’s specifications. It might be difficult while using groupware. Using an experienced software increases the costs to combine more than 2 software. Earlier it was impossible to send a group message to everyone. Now, with more advanced technology groupware has more specialized designs than ever.

Challenges to overcome as a programmer

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Programming different software into one is complex. Designing the software depends on the company or organization’s requirements. Sometimes more than two software needs to be combined. Experienced software engineers tie them together and increase simplicity for a user-friendly experience. The security system plays a crucial role in companies as cybercrime can damage the company. Having a strong security system needs knowledge on different skills. To be a groupware designer is about creating the organization, making it run smoothly and the staff being able to work in a better environment. Groupware plays a crucial role in the success of a company with a large number of employees. The groupware designed should be easy to use for new workers to adapt to the system. Programmers should stay connected with the company to make sure everything goes well. Only the creator of the groupware knows what is within the system and should always stay as a technical advisor for the same company. Two years back, overcoming these challenges would have been impossible. Now many programming languages are improvised, making it easy for programmers to design more complex systems.

Other disadvantages:

Collaborative communication is lost in many projects. When an idea comes up, the team leader might change the outline himself. This reduces the involvement of every other member. In face-to-face communications, every member usually speaks up before decisions are taken. There still need to be improvements in understanding the technology aspects of running a company or project. The leadership skills become weak, making the whole project go in the wrong direction. In spite of advance improvements in software, this is one challenge that needs to be overcome by employees and their adaptation with technology. Small lenient mistakes can lead to financial loss for the company.…

WHAT IS GROUPWARE?

Introduction to groupware

Groupware is software that allows groups working on the internet. The groupware is also known as collaborative software. Groupware software provides interfaces through which people who have the same goal can work together and accomplish their tasks. The groupware software offers a sort of electrical meeting. In the earlier time, the groupware software was known as the Intentional Group Processes Plus Software to Support Them.

This system of collaborative computing was initiated by Douglas Engelbart in the year 1951. The first product of the groupware software was delivered in the year 1990. Big companies like Boeing, IBM had started using the electrical meetings for their internal projects. The groupware software had been majorly used by the Lotus company.

Classification of Groupware

The classification of the Groupware software is done based on the following listed functions:

  • In collaborative computing, communication is based on computers. This direct communication of the people increased the number of participants.
  • This collaborative computing makes easier to extract and emphasize those views which are communal among all people.
  • The collaborative computing allows sharing the applications openly.

Characteristics of Groupware

The groupware software can be of two natures, first is synchronous and the other is asynchronous. What are synchronous groupware applications? Synchronous groupware is a system that offers collaborative computing in real-time. Here, real-time means the clients or people are physically separated to discuss the project. They do their communication with computers, but in real-time. The requirement of the synchronous groupware applications is the same; coordination of the real-time people. Along with this, people require shared audio channels through which communication can be done easily.

What is the asynchronous groupware system? An asynchronous groupware system also offers collaborative computing but in the asynchronous groupware system, it is not mandatory for all the people who are working together to contribute or interact at the same time. They can do their work at different times too. The examples of the asynchronous groupware system are listed below:

  • Electronic mails
  • Workflow
  • Hypertexts systems like web
  • File sharing systems in which multiple users can edit the same document. For example, Google sheets, etc.
  • Document annotation
  • Writing systems (Collaborative)

The use of the groupware systems on a large scale contributed to the development of the web. With the help of the groupware system, facilities like instant messaging, group calendars, web conferencing, document sharing, etc. was developed.

Implementation & Design Issues of Groupware Systems

There are some implementation as well as the design issues of the groupware system. They are listed below:

  • In the groupware system, prolonged existence is needed in some sections. For example, voice communication, as well as chat communication, vanishes after the end of the section. The designer has to consider this information in case they are needed somewhere for the implementation etc. Moreover, the online file cabinets, as well as the virtual rooms, exists for a longer time.
  • The problem which always has remained in the groupware system is the authentication of the user. It can be easily identified who is engaged and who is not engaged in the session when the user login is enforced or when the end to end connections are established. Moreover, unmoderated as well as audio communication has risks of the lurkers. Lurkers are those people who get the information of all the work which has been done as he/she is present during the communication, but they do not announce that they are engaged in the session.
  • The bandwidth is the other major issue in the groupware systems. The bandwidth issues restrict the users to use all the tools of the groupware system. This issue is majorly faced in mobile phones.
  • Concurrency issues are generated in the groupware systems when multiple outputs and input streams are brought into the applications.
  • Over-communication, a lot of noise and the information are overloaded in the real-time communication of the groupware system.

Level of Collaboration

Based on the level of the collaboration of the groupware system, the system is divided into three categories. They are listed below:

  • Communication– This is called the interchange of the information which is unstructured. For example, An IM chat, phone call, etc.
  • Conferencing– Conferencing is referred to as the interactive and collaborating work for a communal goal. For example, voting, brainstorming, etc.
  • Co-ordination– Co-ordination refers to an interdependent network as well as complex. This work is done for a communal goal. The best example of this would be a sports team. On a sports team, every player has to give his/her contribution at the right time. Along with this, they need to handle the game in the toughest situations too. Every player is contributing to the win of the team. The mistake of even a player can lead to defeat. This is an example of interdependent working.