Joseph Sweeney
Dr. Joseph Sweeney is an IBRS advisor specialising in the areas of workforce transformation and end user computing, including: workplace strategies, enterprise solutions, collaboration, policy, organisational cultural change, and software deployment and licensing. He is the author of IBRS’s Digital Workspaces methodology. Dr Sweeney has a particular focus on Microsoft products, and often assists organisations in rationalising their Microsoft licensing spend and helping to identify budget for end user computing innovation. He is an accomplished technology strategist and pioneer of Asia’s internet industry. He was a cofounder and Vice President, of Asia Online, where he headed up product development and assisted the start-up grow into one of Asia’s leading Internet and on-line services. He is also deeply engaged in the education sector. He was awarded the University of Newcastle Medal in 2007 for his studies in Education, and his doctorate, granted in 2015, was based on research into Australia’s educational ICT policies for student device deployments.
This month saw the beta launch of Microsoft’s Office Live, a Web 2.0 collaboration tool by Microsoft. The free service is yet another attempt by the Redmond Giant to halt the incessant march of Google. By going into a space that is normally associated with Google, Microsoft hopes to once again leverage its monopoly status with its desktop productivity tools to keep an upstart competitor off guard.
- Applications
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28 March 2008
Conclusion: Collaboration is not something you can buy. It is not a product. It is not even a solution. It is an approach to doing business. As such, collaboration initiatives must be viewed more as a transformative business project with IT support. Large-scale, monolithic collaborative initiatives run exclusively by IT will prove difficult to justify over time and likely turn out to be white-elephants. Instead, collaboration should be driven first and foremost by a change in company culture fully backed by management, with IT supplying a supportive network and software service architecture.
- Applications
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29 February 2008
Conclusion: While wikis are certainly an important new approach to information management, they should not be considered as a replacement for enterprise content management systems (CMS). Instead, wikis should be considered an adjunct to content management, providing added flexibility and collaboration where needed. Understanding the differences between CMS and wikis is vital.
- Applications
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28 December 2007
Conclusion: There are two ways to implement SharePoint: as an enabler of departmental point solutions, or as a set infrastructure components for collaborative knowledge management. Organisations looking to implement SharePoint for collaborative knowledge management must possess skills well beyond those needed for departmental solution implementations. It is highly improbable that any one person – or even a single development team - will possess all the skills required to implement SharePoint for collaborative knowledge management. Organisations should consider the establishment of a cross-departmental group dedicated to SharePoint deployment, integration, maintenance and training throughout the organisation.
- Vendors
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28 November 2007
Conclusion: e-Learning technology has evolved substantially over the past two decades, but it is only in the past three years that inroads have been made into matching educational pedagogy (the study of educational practices and the processes of learning) with e-learning.
Advances in collaborative solutions coupled with a better understanding of how people learn, have given organisations the opportunity to improve employee education. E-learning initiatives that leverage educational pedagogy and collaboration can result in greater efficiency, increased customer satisfaction and more targeted learning activities based on business performance indicators.
- Applications
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28 October 2007
Conclusion: While the hype surrounding collaboration technologies and Web 2.0 services reaches fever pitch within the media, vendors and business managers alike, it will serve organisations well to stop and think carefully about what the buzzword collaboration really means for organisational processes, structures and efficiencies. When collaboration services are misaligned with business objectives, they will hinder, not aid, productivity. Having a model to categorise different forms – or modes – of collaboration is an important first-step in accurately matching technologies to different collaborative applications.
- Applications
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28 September 2007
Conclusion: Business units and end users are calling for, if not demanding, IT managers to deploy Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is this years ‘must have’ product1 - however few understand what SharePoint is, what it does well and what alternatives exist. SharePoint initiatives will backfire without significant effort to ensure that an organisation is properly educated, specific applications and business needs are identified, and realistic expectations are set.
- Vendors
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28 August 2007
As technology plays and increasingly important role in marketing, especially with the rise of online marketing and its influence on real-world marketing programs, a myriad of jargon has evolved from both the technical and marketing camps of the business. Unfortunately, not all of this jargon is readily understood by both camps and misunderstandings are common. This document provides definitions of essential marketing terms for technologists and fundamental technology terms for marketers.
- Governance & Planning
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28 July 2007
Conclusion: An ideal time to re-evaluate web analytic solutions (WAS) is when reconsidering web content management (WCM) solutions. However, the purchase of a WAS must be viewed as a separate investment with its own unique requirements.
- Applications
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28 June 2007
Conclusion: Microsoft’s launch of Silverlight is premature. Yet even in its infancy and lack of integration with Microsoft’s product sets, Silverlight is an impressive technology.
Development teams with .Net skills that are looking to port existing rich client applications to thin clients, or deploy mobile front-ends to existing applications, should begin experimenting with Silverlight with an eye to deployment in mid 2008, once Microsoft has delivered standard UI components for Silverlight.
- Applications
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28 May 2007