EXTRANET
NEWS * Week of
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1.
GROOVE: IRRESISTIBLE COLLABORATION
2. THE LIST
3. FROM OUR READERS
4. TIDBITS
5. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1. GROOVE: IRRESISTIBLE COLLABORATION
EXTRANET
NEWS editor Joel Orr interviewed Dave Fowler, vp of
marketing for Groove Networks (http://www.groove.net) .
"There are two reasons people are seeking out collaborative tools today: First, everyone is more mobile, and business is more global. Second, there is much more partnering going on, both inside of organizations, and between organizations," said Fowler. "Groove is designed to meet these needs.
Groove is a peer-to-peer collaborative network for sharing documents, messages, drawings, files, presentations, almost anything you want, on-line or off-line, securely, synchronously or asynchronously. It was invented by Ray Ozzie, the father of the product now known as Lotus Notes.
But Groove kills Notes, says Ozzie. Steve Gilmor wrote "Notes is Dead" in InfoWorld last August:
"Ozzie began reassuringly: 'Notes
was and is an incredibly powerful platform for developing forms-based document-sharing
applications, and it has provided tremendous value for those who made
investments in it.' But then out came the dagger: 'But times have changed, and
for a variety of good business reasons ... people are looking to bridge their
Notes investments ... on their way into products such as SharePoint
and Exchange.'
"Ozzie
details the pluses and minuses of Notes and Groove 2.1. Most users are not
permitted to create Notes databases, and can't deploy them across enterprise
boundaries. Groove can 'scrounge' messages in any Notes database, create a
shared space, and connect users across firewalls.
"Ozzie
notes that developers can use 'such powerful products as VisualStudio
.Net to connect Groove shared space data to extant Notes databases as well as
to other products such as SharePoint Portal Server.'
"And the coup de grace: 'Although surely not designed as a "migration tool," through its new (in 2.1; Groove is now at 2.5) integration features, Groove can act as a bridge for many types of interactions that include both Notes and Outlook users -- an important consideration for merged Notes+Exchange companies, or companies considering their migration options.'"
That's the sophisticates' view of the impact of Groove. Let's get back to basics: What does "peer-to-peer" mean? Most collaborative systems work with a server—a computer on which stuff gets stored, usually in a database. Everyone accesses the server from their computer.
In a peer-to-peer network, the files can be on servers, but they are more typically on the individual desktop computers of the participants. The job of peer-to-peer collaborative software is to keep the files in synch with one another, so that it appears as if everyone is accessing the same file.
This is no mean feat in today's computer and networking environs. But if you can pull it off, you have a system in which people can work on-line or off-line, with off-line users resolving differences when they log on.
Groove does just that. So you can work on-line or off-line. But there is much more to it.
For one thing, Groove can provide an audit trail of all project communications. If you require project participants to use Groove, it will become the repository of everything people say and do on a project. That alone is a powerful feature.
Groove respects users' need for heightened security. "That takes three forms," said Fowler. "Encryption; user authentication; and destruction of data when it is no longer needed. Groove handles all three nicely."
The basic working environment in Groove consists of "shared spaces." These spaces bring together all the resources, people, and tools you need for a particular project.
Every user can have many shared spaces, and can invite as many other users to them as he or she cares to.
In each shared space, there are "tools" chosen by the user: These are components with descriptive names, like "files," "discussion," "project manager," "sketchpad," "calendar," "chat," and more. It also supports instant messaging and a kind of internal email. You can add or delete tools from a shared space at any time. You can create and use forms (take that, Notes); overview dashboards; and bulletin boards. You can play chess, as well as import from and export to Microsoft Project. Synch with Outlook Calendar. Integrate with SharePoint. (Microsoft put $51 million into Groove in 10/01.)
"One of the neat things that we found happening," said Fowler, "is spontaneous meetings resulting from notifications. You can set Groove up so that it sends you a pop-up message when something happens, like a new file added to a particular shared space. Everyone in the space who has signed up for it gets the message. Often, they will go there immediately, and find all their colleagues in the space. Powerful reviews and discussions often ensue, just because of everyone 'being there' at the same time."
You can jointly edit a file with one or more other participants. To minimize bandwidth requirements, Groove only sends changes to the other participants. That way, even large files can be edited by groups of people, some of whom may be connected to the Web over slow lines.
PLM vendor PTC has incorporated Groove into its offering; the differencing technology makes simultaneous real-time group editing of even large assemblies work smoothly.
Groove supports voice messages and direct VoIP (voice over IP) communication, for anyone with a sound board, a mike, and speakers or a headset.
I asked Fowler if he thinks Groove replaces extranets. "Replaces or augments, your choice," he responded. "Groove can do much of what most extranets can do. Extranets can be better for just publishing information. Groove is better for collaboration."
The company has been in business for about five years and has around 250 employees. Groove is in use in more than 150 major corporations, and several large government agencies. Fowler (who was speaking to me from his cell phone in a hotel lobby, during a conference) could not give me a current number of users; when I hazarded that it sounded like somewhere between 150,000 and 500,000, he said that sounded reasonable.
You can try Groove for free for 90 days. Then you can buy it for $49, or buy the "pro" version for $149. The price comes down with quantity. And there are server-based products to support large deployments. This makes Groove one of the least expensive collaborative tools on the market.
Our
take: This is the Borg of collaboration tools, only you get to retain your
individuality. And it is an incredible value. The only factor that keeps Groove
from sweeping away competing forms of collaboration and communication right now
is perceived
performance. I don't know why, but Groove can feel slow, compared
to IM. Of course, it isn't an IM competitor. But that's what I, and most users,
want it to be—IM with an audit trail, file-sharing, joint editing, etc., etc.
It's almost that, but not quite. Engineering can really benefit from this
product. Check it out. Write and tell me if you are using Groove in engineering
applications.
2. THE LIST
Total companies: 254 (see who's on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com/).
3. FROM OUR READERS
We asked our readers if they knew of any uses of extranets in transportation applications, other than the Chicago Transit Authority's. Here are some more responses, from Mark Oliver of BuildOnline and Steve Setzer of Constructware:
Mark Oliver writes:
The
BuildOnline… has been selected by the Metronet
Consortium to support its £7.5 billion upgrade of the London
Underground. BuildOnline is to provide its flagship
product, ProjectsOnline, as an online platform to
centrally manage all documents and communications, associated with Metronet’s major capital works contracts.
Metronet is responsible for the upgrade and maintenance of
two-thirds of the London Underground as part of the Government’s Public Private
Partnership (PPP). Over the next 15 years, 70 stations and 660km of track will
be upgraded and maintained by the Metronet
consortium.
Several-hundred-thousand documents, including
drawings, specifications, standards and protocols, will provide the information
vital to this extensive assignment. Managing access to this documentation—currently
dispersed across the London Underground systems—through a single platform is
crucial to the efficient delivery of the upgrade works. Metronet
chose BuildOnline’s collaborative software to handle
the 350 GB of mission-critical information involved in the project. The proven
capabilities of ProjectsOnline in controlling large
volumes of data were key to the decision.
Mark
Oliver, Managing Director,
Steve
Setzer says:
Following are some of the public sector agencies that
are using Constructware.
-
GSA - 6 regions using the system including GSA section 5 out of Chicago
- GSA - Census Bureau development project
- GSA - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) facility
- GSFIC (Georgia State Finance and Investment Commission) two design/build
projects
- Hudson River Park Trust (NYC), public benefit corp. between City and State of
New York
- Amtrak, Oakland CA
- Bay Area Security Enhancement (BASE) Caltrans
(Homeland Security - related upgrades to Bay Area bridges)
- Port of Oakland, Oakland CA
- City of Portland, OR
- City of Baltimore, MD
- Indianapolis Public Schools
- Indiana Dept. of Administration
- Newark Public School Systems
- New Mexico Schools
- Minnesota State Colleges & Universities
- Chicago Public Schools (contract pending)
- Miami/Dade County Public Schools (awarded)
- Connecticut Dept. of Public Works
- Hawaii Dept of Transportation Airports Division
In
addition, many contractors and program managers are managing public projects
for state and local agencies. Example: Boh Brothers,
Pricing
- Discussion
In
terms of pricing for Web-based project management, this of course has many
variables. While we can't speak for others, the fully loaded cost of Constructware is generally about 30- 40% less than
comparable client-server based applications -- because the hardware and
manpower for maintaining the system is included in the basic subscription fee.
In our case that's $695 per year, per user, for unlimited usage. Product support
is included in that flat fee. Don't forget training and implementation - very
important.
A
suggestion for your reader: look at total cost of ownership and ROI in addition
to the initial cost. We have developed a fairly detailed ROI model that works well
for both owners and GCs who are considering the use of an Internet-based PM
system. The costs benefits are eye-opening, which helps explain why these
systems are catching on. Each user's situation varies, but based on our
experience some items stand out. Let's drill down into one.
The
most under-appreciated cost of client-server based systems is the internal
labor cost for maintaining the networks and the software. While your reader
probably can't do a lot about the IT overhead in his state agency, he can at
least free his project teams from the ongoing inefficiency of dealing with it
(apologies to the well-run public agency IT groups out there). Just one type of
example: Compare product support. Think about the current internal "help
desk" scenario for a government agency using client-server-based software
applications. The service level is probably less than ideal and the labor
burden is probably pretty high. As a hosted Internet application, Constructware is ALWAYS on. It's our life blood to make
sure the application is running 24/7 and is available to every user. The labor
burden for maintaining Constructware is our problem -
you pay a flat yearly subscription fee and get an always-on application
suite.
Consider
the product support loop for a user who has a technical problem with their
client-server based application. Support involves a series of back-and-forths between your agency's IT help desk, your project
team, the vendor, analyzing the hardware setup, the version of the app you're
running and any service patches involved, etc. Now consider trying to improve
project 'efficiency' by getting outside collaborators to use the same app --
like the GC, subs, consultants, etc. It's a classic product support hairball.
The result is very much like what you see on many projects today -- different
firms and people keeping their own set of books, so to speak, and putting
minimal information into the 'official' application because it is just too time
consuming. That scenario carries a cost that the state agency ultimately ends
up paying for.
Now
consider an always-on Internet accessed application that requires only a web
browser and Internet access from any computer. This is available not just to
your project team but to the GC, subs, design team, consultants, etc. How about
having courteous and vigilant product support specialists to handle the
inevitable user-based problems (not knowing how to do something within the app)?
This is not marketing hype— it makes economic sense for us to take care of our
clients. Excellent product support is our life blood. It's also part of our
contract with our clients.
I'll
stop for now, but you get the idea. This is just one example of why the
Internet-based approach is a better way to go. The fact that it costs a little
bit less and is a lot less hassle than the old client-server approach is not
the point. It's about the big leaps in productivity and efficiency you get once
you start using it well. The proof is in talking to the project teams who
implement Constructware successfully, and by looking
at their ROI estimates. If your readers are interested in learning more about
the ROI model that validates this claim, send them to our website or have them
call us.
Steve
Setzer, Director, Marketing and Communications, Constructware
steve.setzer@constructware.com
4. TIDBITS
·
Project Extranets – An
Introduction to Collaborative Working Online. This one-day conference will discuss
the continuing development of extranets within the construction industry.
Expert speakers include Stuart Cowperthwaite of Arup, John Malam of Mott
MacDonald and Louise Townsend of Masons. Topics will include understanding
extranets, choosing a specific extranet system for your business, and why
extranets can benefit your business. Registration is £265+VAT before 27th
February 2003 or £325+Vat thereafter.
·
"The Dandelion Principle:
Structuring for Greatness." Preview Joel's upcoming book at http://www.dandelionprinciple.com, and sign up there to receive a
series of "seedlings" from "The Dandelion Principle" via
email.
· COFES2003. Keynotes: Alan Kay and Jeff Harrow. May 15-18, 2003, Scottsdale Plaza Hotel, Scottsdale, AZ. We've revamped the program with much more "how do we actually apply this stuff?" Go to the website to see who has registered to date. http://www.cofes.com
5. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I am only one; but I
am still one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
-- Helen Keller
Entire newsletter copyright © Cyon Research Corporation 2003
To subscribe, please go to http://www.extranetnews.com. To unsubscribe, please reply with "remove" in the subject line. If you are willing, tell me why you want to unsubscribe; but it's not essential.