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The term groupware is widely used but not clearly defined. Owing to ongoing rapid developments, a consistent definition of the term has proved elusive. However, there is a good reason to view groupware as a technology that addresses the vast areas of collaboration, human‐computer interaction, and human‐human interaction through digital media to bring substantial improvement and transformation to organizations. This paper analyzes the definitions, implementation, and management of groupware. The focus is on the strategic considerations rather than technical solutions. Factors that contribute to the future development of groupware are also discussed.

Much of the evaluative research on groupware in organizations so far has been preoccupied with the role of groupware as a new interaction medium to replace or extend face‐to‐face communication in groups. It has focused on gains and losses from a group interaction point of view, typically disregarding the impact of other functions such as group access, and contribution to information concerning the organization. Attempts to bridge this gap with an action research into the effects of the introduction of an asynchronous groupware system to support business process improvement groups in a service company based in Brazil. The research suggests that improvements in business redesign efficiency and effectiveness can be attained not only from asynchronous groupware support to group communication, but also from public sharing of historical information about previous business process improvement efforts, and by providing a repository of information about business processes which could be candidates for improvement. Concludes with the proposal of an explanatory model, describing the relationship between the introduction of technology, its integration with a business process improvement meta‐process, and its effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of that meta‐process.

Discusses the use of information technology to facilitate communication and collaboration. In this action research project a groupware product called Lotus Notes^TM was implemented to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst the senior management team. Although there was a real need for change, and the project received strong support from senior management on the basis that it would enable radical changes in coordination within the workgroup, these radical changes did not occur. The authors analyse the reasons for failure, and suggest that the project failed because of institutional forces which inhibited dramatic changes in work habits.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the influence of different e‐business technologies on capital productivity (CP). Productivity measurement is a useful tool to gauge business performance. However, currently there is little empirical evidence to support the impact of e‐business technologies on productivity.

In this paper, an empirical investigation of 132 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK telecommunication sector was carried out, using a hierarchical regression. In doing so, three different types of technologies that may be associated with e‐business (i.e. internet‐based applications, groupware applications, and collective systems) were considered.

The main findings are that any improvement in CP is significantly influenced by groupware applications and collective systems. Therefore, the UK SMEs and other large companies might be over‐investing in the development of web sites to support their internet presence, while under‐investing in promoting awareness and the use of these services to customers (i.e. groupware applications and collective systems).

Measuring the payoff is more difficult in e‐business environments because applications cut across boundaries thereby affecting multiple parties. Hence, alternative metrics to measure payoff from multiple perspectives could be necessary. Productivity measurements were conducted in the SME UK telecommunications sector, and hence findings are valid within this specific context.

The results of this paper provide interesting insights on the performance drivers of companies using e‐business technologies. The findings can guide managers in focusing their energies on e‐business technologies and represent an approach to determine which e‐business technologies are more likely to lead to a boost in productivity.

Looks at how, at a time when efficiency is at an all time premium and operational complexity is expanding exponentially, many companies are coming to recognise that the key to success is no longer simply to encourage exceptional individual performance but instead to assure effective co‐ordination both within an organization and among organizations. Discusses software designs that are beginning to build systems that facilitate and support group collaboration.

How can action research be made more rigorous? We discuss in this paper action research, positivism and some major criticisms of action research by positivists. We then examine issues relating the conduct of IS research in organisations through multiple iterations in the action research cycle proposed by Susman and Evered. We argue that the progress through iterations allows the researcher to gradually broaden the research scope and in consequence add generality to the research findings. A brief illustrative case is provided with a study on groupware introduction in a large civil engineering company. In the light of this illustrative case we contend that effective application of the iterative approach to action research has the potential to bring research rigour up closer to standards acceptable by positivists and yet preserve the elements that characterise action research as such.

This research aims at finding out how the efforts of Korean enterprises to convert data and information into knowledge are related to the use of information technology. It also aims to come up with plans to efficiently introduce external knowledge by applying information technology.This research was conducted focusing on the cases of enterprises that are carrying out knowledge management by applying information technology and the result shows that Korean enterprises place high value on the application of information technology in introducing knowledge management. However, the use of information technology is not common to all enterprises in four kinds of knowledge conversion. For an organization to efficiently acquire and apply valuable knowledge, the boundary of an enterprise should be extended, and for this, the enterprise should be changed into an extended knowledge enterprise, which is founded on the trust and compensation of all the interested parties. In an extended knowledge enterprise, its first consideration is to acquire knowledge that can efficiently manage and control the interests of customers, suppliers, public institutions, and competitors that exist in the surroundings and to acquire the core knowledge that can make those people and institutions participate. In addition, the organization should possess knowledge base and information communication technology that can smoothly convert data and information into knowledge, by efficiently connecting them.

Today′s increasing use of electronic documents raises the question: will it be necessary to change the core concepts of author and work within the tradition of Anglo‐American cataloguing when dealing with electronic documents? Describes the current definition of author and work as given in the traditional Anglo‐American cataloguing and presents two systems working with electronic documents, electronic office systems and groupware.

Executives in large organizations know that they must develop better techniques to manage their greatest asset: knowledge. Organizations currently create and maintain knowledge in isolated systems targeted at specific workgroups. For users outside the workgroup, that knowledge is virtually invisible. Vendors of all manner of tools, from intranet development tools to document management systems to search engines, are calling their products Knowledge Management systems, without regard to what that means. Without new technologies to create revolutionary change in the way knowledge workers create, communicate and manage information, a Knowledge Management system has little chance of improving enterprise knowledge sharing. This paper explores the concepts and technologies associated with an effective Knowledge Management system.

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to be able to understand the technical capabilities of e‐collaboration systems from their inception to the present time and their possible future capabilities. The study examines the capabilities of 11 such systems. The article's second purpose is to be able to understand the reasons for the popularity and widespread utilization of e‐collaboration technologies by a large number of organizations.

The authors conducted literature review and also examined the technical manuals and technical features of 11 leading collaboration platforms. These collaboration tools were also used hands‐on. Selected users of these systems were also interviewed in order to find out their opinions regarding the usability and functionality of these systems.

After careful review of the literature and analyzing the technical capabilities of 11 e‐collaboration systems the finding of this study was the understanding of and the reasons for the popularity and widespread utilization of e‐collaboration technologies by a wide variety of organizations. Another finding of this study was a clear understanding of different generations of e‐collaboration technologies and the expected capabilities and features of the future generations of these systems.

This paper has significant value for practitioners and organizations that are either using e‐collaboration technologies in their day‐to‐day operations or attempting to employ these tools in order to improve productively and competitiveness and achieving organizational efficiency and effectiveness.