Collaboration objects include web-based meetings, instant messaging, knowledge management wikis, documents (ECM), and shared calendars.
Often perceived as faceless and monolithic, the data center was a corporate division housing fields of mainframe computers humming softly in locked rooms with raised floors.
Workers regarded this insulated, air-conditioned computer room as an unresponsive ivory tower ruled by corporate information gatekeepers.
[citation needed] The democratization of computing resources and the empowerment of knowledge workers was an exciting development, and little notice was initially paid to the havoc it was causing in the workplace.
The early help desks of the 1980s incorporated simple workflow models: problems were reported, dispatched, routed to a technician, resolved, and then closed.
The latest generation of decision makers has embraced the social communication and collaboration media that grew from popular developments such as interest groups and Wikipedia.
Supported by role-based access control (RBAC), ad hoc teams can collaborate on special projects within traditional departmental structures.
[citation needed] The phases of implementing collaborative workflows include: Team members communicate online with each other via social software, with the help of document management and shared calendaring facilities.
In a technologically complex world, this means employing both collaborative tools and a procedural framework to deliver greater value at a competitive price.
Used properly, it has the potential to improve service, productivity, and efficiency by reducing information silos and lessening the conventional business friction points of time, space, and organizational structure.