A critical factor in implementing digital workspaces into an organisation is that it must have defined purposes and management principals otherwise, -these rooms can end up as a virtual tea room with little productive output," said META Group program director, electronic business strategies, John Brand.
-Organisations that simply allow for the organic growth of team spaces will wind up with an increasingly unmanageable platform that needs to be supported by IT," he said.
Virtual team rooms or electronic workspaces have come into their own over the past two years in the Asia Pacific region, and will continue to gain momentum, with 70 percent of organisations playing host to some kind of digital workspace by 2004, according to Brand.
The attraction of the 'virtual workspace' for organisations is the ability to share applications through open discussion and document management across many geographical boundaries, with both internal and external users.
-Today we see the market as quite immature, but the drivers for applying the technology can be strong," Brand said.
E-rooms are a valuable proposition for organisations, which regularly participate in projects and deals. One group that is reaping the benefits of virtual team spaces is the high-tech manufacturing industry. Brand said a team space can reduce the amount of time involved in execution by as much as 40 percent.
One digital workspace application, which a number of major Australian organisations have taken up, is US-based eRoom Technology.
-Today's working environment works closer with partners, customers and suppliers, digital workplaces can ensure consistency, update, identify and resolves issues collaboratively," eRoom Technology director of services and operations Chris Barclay said.
-Information worked on in a [digital workspace] can be tied in closely with corporate portals to allow people to see into an E-room and get higher visibility," Barclay said.
Barclay said that companies are thinking of their partners as critical to the success of the business, so the openness of a digital workspace allows a higher degree of visibility and allows partners to access information to ensure greater performance, while decreasing costs at the same time.
Organisations in Australia, which are already using eRoom's technology are, EDS, KPMG, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Qantas and Ford Australia.
Car manufacturer Ford Australia has outsourced much of its product development to overseas organisations, which Barclay said without necessitating travel, the digital workspace ensures that information needed to set up projects is accessible to all parties involved.
And it's a secure environment, according to Barclay.
Organisations are using it for mergers and acquisitions, which is very sensitive information, so security is a major focus," he said.
Barclay explained that the application's server sits outside the organisation's internal firewall, which restricts access to the inside of the business.
According to Barclay, the digital workspace server sits in between the outer and inner firewalls, and for users accessing eRoom at the lower end passwords are used, at the higher end the technology uses digital certificates and secure id.
-Secure id makes it pretty hard for a hacker to get in to," Barclay said.
Secure id is a wallet size card with a code attached to it, which changes every five seconds, according to Barclay.
The functions of a digital workspace are discussion groups, document management, chat, notifications services, shared annotation services or whiteboards, the ability to create invitations for people to participate and the ability to integrate into existing IT infrastructure.
