Document management systems such as the Documentum EDMS line from Documentum Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., and Saros Document Manager from Saros Corp. of Bellevue, Wash., provide index and search-engine capabilities to prevent companies from being overwhelmed by the proliferation of messages that groupware engenders. Rounding out the groupware portfolio is videoconferencing from companies such as PictureTel Corp. of Danvers, Mass., again available in two styles. Group video can link meeting rooms in multiple locations and participants can see who is in each room, who is talking and who has entered or left the meeting, providing, in effect, a virtual meeting space. The more elaborate desktop video systems require a camera trained on each participant and broad bandwidth to carry the video images. Forrester's take on videoconferencing is that it would take so much effort to lift the entire infrastructure to get the required bandwidth for full-band video that few companies see the benefit,'' Brown says.
People can have a very meaningful conversation without being able to see each other.
Where visibility is required, Brown favors low-bandwidth videoconferencing. Rather than seeing my face in real time, it is sufficient to see a picture of my face and know, in turn, at whom I'm looking. Some of the products are kind of choppy. But for most groupware components, existing facilities should prove sufficient, says Held. The infrastructure needed for groupware is not much different from what you need for anything else.