Virtual collaborators

Technology shares have not been the safest bet over the last 15 months. Nasdaq, the US technology stock market, has crashed to new lows, and many listed internet companies have joined the "90% club", having lost more than 90% of their value since the markets were at their peak little over a year ago. Nevertheless, one of the companies we follow, BuildOnline, has just managed to secure a further £10m from their venture capitalist backers. What do they know that we don't?

Virtual enterprise
One answer is that web-based project collaboration systems are proving to be a huge success in their early pilots. Project teams now regularly use shared document "hubs" to keep everybody in touch and to speed up the process from design to construction. With hindsight, why should we be surprised? The internet may have facilitated the emergence of the "virtual enterprise", but construction has survived on virtual project teams for centuries, with people from remote locations meeting for single projects. Web-based systems allow design and management collaboration between people who scarcely ever meet.

The success of project collaboration systems has led to the emergence of a new breed of pessimists. "It's too early to get involved," they say, "because there isn't a dominant system as yet. What happens if we buy Betamax and the winner is VHS?"

Of course, the decision is not as easy as choosing between two. In addition to the twenty or so major suppliers of project collaboration systems, there are hundreds of minor players; and dozens of in-house IT departments have created bespoke systems. The result is a morass of conflicting interfaces and standards - a recipe for disaster, the pessimists say. I disagree. The best way to understand why is through a comparison.

The motor industry supports a large number of manufacturers despite many years of consolidation and rationalisation. Any car park illustrates that there are automobile products for every pocket and need. Nevertheless, all automobile companies and their products coexist with a minimum of standards. You and I adapt quickly to different panel layouts and engine power when we buy a new model or hire a car. Because we understand what a car does, we can easily work out how to drive any new model safely.

Even team meetings are going online, as companies like Webex and Centra introduce synchronous systems

Project collaboration systems are similarly easy to operate once you understand their functions. Typically they tell the user about project documents that have been registered on the system since the user's last visit. They then allow those documents to be downloaded or viewed online. Advanced systems allow comments to be added on design drawings. They may also organise workflow within the project team, ensuring that members see documents in a logical order. Even team meetings are going online, as companies like Webex and Centra introduce synchronous systems that allow team members to converse in real time.

Project collaboration system standards cannot be compared to the choice, for example, between AutoCAD and Microstation. When a project starts, participants must agree which project collaboration system to use. No matter who chooses, some participants will have to use a different tool to that on their previous project. Almost all companies therefore have to get used to using multiple tools.

System standards
The core purpose of a project collaboration system is to allow document sharing, so some basics must be in place. If I share a Microsoft Word document, this is of no use to you if you use WordPerfect. We might both need to use the Adobe Acrobat format to ensure compatibility. Similar cross-package barriers exist in CAD. Issues that have taken years to resolve within organisations suddenly need to be agreed almost overnight.