From VNUNet.com:
"Gartner is predicting that online collaboration will be worth some $1.1bn (£625m) by 2008.
In
the short term, the analyst says growing demand for collaboration
technologies will drive the worldwide market to $681.7m (£387m) in
2005, a 16 per cent increase over 2004."
Many people assume that "collaboration" refers to web-conferencing only. Instead, collaboration is a catch-all word that describes all forms of group communication, conferencing and efficiency. Some analysts combine email (MS Exchange) into the definition of Collaboration.
This market segment is still very young. The definition of what
Collaboration means is still confusing and, frankly, its up for grabs. Tom Eid from Gartner even states:
"While still in an early phase of adoption, the market is converging and transitioning..."
The collaboration market is far larger than any of us want to admit. MSFT acquired Groove Networks for an estimated $120 million. WebEx acquired Intranets.com for $45 million last week. MSFT launched a $100 million ad campaign to explain how MS Office helps with collaboration (you know, the dinosaur commercials). Those three transactions, alone, account for almost half of the estimated $681 million market for collaboration in 2005. (I know. The math doesn't quite work that way, but you know what I mean).
Market leaders would not be investing hundreds of millions of dollars to grab a piece of a small pie. The collaboration market is big, and its growing every day. MSFT understands this and is betting a good part of the 'Longhorn Farm' to ensure that they become the center of the "collaboration" world.
Part of the marekt growth can be attributed to the ever expanding definition of Collaboration, but most of the growth is attributed to the need to work smarter, not harder (to use over-used colloquialism). Software advancement has become so advanced that we've become inefficient. Email is overwhelming. We are interrupted more often because of Instant Messaging, Voips, RSS feeds and telephones (most of these interruptive communications are coming from business colleagues that we are trying to collaborate with). We need better tools to manage this information flow; whether the information be email, documents or messages. To add to the mix, working efficiently by yourself isn't good enough these days. Much of our productivity and efficiency is determined by how well we interact with others. The most frequently used tools are those that enable us to communicate and collaborate with others. These tools, though, have become interruptive, instead of collaborative.
So, as the market definition of collaboration continues to expand and increase to include email, conferencing, voiping, podcasting, messaging and document sharing.......suddenly, the market becomes massive. Over the next few years, collaboration software will redefine our entire computer experience. The way we work is already changing. MSFT knows this. All of the 'wiki people' out there know this. And, we over at Central Desktop know this too.
