Team Building with eXcelon
By Sanjay Patel
Collaboration is fast becoming a requirement for the new economy. With businesses embracing the value of outsourcing, it's no longer unusual to find development teams composed mostly of contractors in different cities. Similarly, more and more employees are telecommuting to work. According to a recent IDC report, 24 million people will work remotely over the next two years. Employees and clients will join forces on business projects as they telecommute to and from virtual offices. Vendors and suppliers will buy and sell goods without ever meeting in person. Such an environment demands that team members communicate in clear and efficient ways that are tailored to the project at hand.
News and media organizations are good examples of collaborative settings in which clarity and efficiency are top priorities. Typically, such organizations have reporters, editors, writers, and photographers working from different parts of the world. The process by which information becomes an article or story is as important as the deadline that binds the process. When a number of different people must handle and modify the same information at different stages, the risk of error is high. To control the process and minimize risk, many companies look to content management systems.
Content management is generally performed by one or more software applications. The better systems are available through a Web-based interface so team members can access and modify the content from any location. There may be one Web page for writers to input articles, and another for content editors to mark up text, and yet another for copy editors to fine tune sentences.
