Global, responsive, teambased, networked -- these are the watchwords of the organizations of the nineties. (Orlikowski, 1995)
Organisations are responding to global competition with an emphasis on teamwork and an increased awareness of "quality" issues. Teamwork enables organisations to respond quickly to a changing environment and the emphasis on "quality" has meant a focus on the customer. This relatively new focus has enabled a reengineering of business processes. Groupware which is software specifically aimed at groups of people working together, rather than individuals is able to assist in these two areas. It facilitates communication between team members regardless of their geographic location and workflow tools are useful in the reengineering of business processes.
An important point needs to be made however that the successful introduction of groupware is mainly a management issue and not a technical one. For example groupware will not create a highly productive team, it will only enhance communication if that communication is already taking place. As Davenport (1993) points out, process innovation can only be achieved if there are "both technical and human enablers." In other words, whilst groupware might have the capacity to change organisations, this will only happen if there is a management will to do so.
This study consisted of a literature review and then the analysis of a sample of opportunistic articles in which there were examples of successful implementations of groupware to answer the question: Do successful implications of groupware technology have any key factors in common?
These commonalities were found to centre around three key areas.
Firstly the effect of groupware when introduced into an organisation led to increased productivity. However, the measurement of productivity is problematical in that traditional measures of productivity do not take into account a saving of time, increased quality or competitive advantage. The main effect in this study was found to be a saving of time and enhanced communications. Many organisations introduced groupware as a solution to a particular problem. However a number of authors believe that if groupware is used to transform or reengineer business processes it will lead to the greatest increases in productivity (Kantor, 1993; Engelbart and Lehtman, 1988; Henry, Blum and Salloway, 1992).
Secondly there was some evidence that groupware did affect teamwork which is heralded as the "operational tool of the 1990's" (Denton, 1991). The establishment of open communication between previously isolated functionally based groups is seen as one of the most important factors in the success of multifunctional, problemsolving groups (Wellins, 1992; Opper and FerskoWeiss,1992; Ostroff and Smith, 1992).
Thirdly organisations successfully using groupware were found to be in the service industry, had open communication and were team-oriented. When the customer becomes the focus of the business process, it alters the communication networks and flattens the traditional organisational structure. There was some evidence for this "open communication and team orientation". Also a high percentage of organisations which introduced groupware into the organisations did so to enhance organisational memory. O'HaraDevereaux and Johansen (1994: 98) suggests that this is because the downsizing of organisations led to a loss of middle management who were the "organisational memory". What is meant by that is that these managers knew how to get things done as well as how things were supposed to get done.
End of abstract.