Beat the blizzard – local company uses new Internet tool to keep working on snow days.
CONCORD, Mass., Jan. 27, 2005--: Unlike many companies forced to shut down as employees stay at home to escape the freezing weather, one local Massachusetts company, Colubris Networks, Inc., has continued working thanks to an ‘online collaboration portal’ – a new way of communicating over the internet that lets organisations access files, knowledge and resources from any location using a secure, password protected website.
Jonathan Zarkower, Director of Product Management at Colubris Networks, Inc., set up an online collaboration portal 11 months ago to increase the productivity of more than 85 employees.
“Our company has had great success using the online collaboration portal to centrally host documents and streamline employee access to them,” Mr Zarkower said.
“On a snow day the benefits are even greater as our employees can continue to access their information quickly and easily without having to travel to the office or even set up a VPN,” Mr Zarkower said
Kim Dowds, Chief Executive Officer, ProjectLounge.com, Inc., a company that has been hosting online collaboration portals powered by IBM Lotus collaboration software for four years, said that using an online collaboration portal can help organizations overcome the isolating power of a large snow blizzard.
“Many of our clients use an online collaboration portal on a daily basis to more easily share files and information with team members or clients who may not be in the same location,” Ms Dowds said.
“On a day like today, where it is difficult to make it into the office, many organisations could benefit from using an online collaboration portal to work seamlessly with colleagues from home using a standard internet connection,” Ms Dowds said.
Ms Dowds said that unlike other software providers, ProjectLounge.com has developed a website that streamlines the steps required to create a secure online collaboration portal.
“Anyone can setup an online collaboration portal using our website: you do not have to be an IT whiz, all you need is a web browser,” Ms Dowds said.
“It’s ideal for small to medium sized organisations giving them the flexibility of creating an online collaboration portal immediately without the assitance of IT professionals, and without incurring significant upfront costs, such as hardware, software or training,” she added.
Ms Dowds said that while an online collaboration portal is similar to a wiki the main difference is its increased security.
“Unlike a wiki, information in the online collaboration portal can only be accessed by invited members making sure that content is added or edited only with the approval of authorised members,” Ms Dowds said.
online collaboration portals are also easy to use and flexible. Team members can use the workplace offline and automatically synchronize their changes when they reconnect to the Internet.
“We have been very impressed with the user friendly interface which has made it easy for our volunteers to add and edit content using basic web navigation skills,” Mr Zarkower said.
Web-conferencing tools such as screen sharing, instant messaging and polling can also be used to discuss work or build consensus in real time.
“As Internet technologies, such as online collaboration portals, make working from home easier and more accessible, we may not need a snow day to see a change in peak hour traffic on a work day,” Ms Dowds said.
More information on ProjectLounge, including screenshots of an online collaboration portal and client case studies, can be found at www.projectlounge.com.
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Katherine Santer
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About ProjectLounge.com, Inc.
Founded in November 2001 and headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts, ProjectLounge.com, Inc. provides project teams, large or small, with the ability to work together more efficiently using the latest in collaboration software from IBM Lotus without incurring the set up time or costs associated with purchasing servers and managing collaboration in-house.
An online collaboration portal based on IBM’s Lotus Team WorkPlace (QuickPlace) and Lotus SameTime software and hosted on ProjectLounge’s secure servers can be created instantly via the ProjectLounge website at www.projectlounge.com.
With 24/7 security and technical support provided by ProjectLounge, project teams do not need to rely on their own IT departments for support or setup help, and can more easily collaborate with team members distributed across organizations or office locations. ProjectLounge offers pay as you go pricing (from $10 per user per month) so that teams have the flexibility to upscale or downscale according to their project requirements without incurring fixed costs. More information can be found at www.projectlounge.com.
"ProjectLounge has increased our responsiveness to clients because my tutors can easily log in, select a student, and click on the parent or teacher's e-mail address."
Owner and Tutor
ProjectLounge is an Advanced Business Partner of IBM/Lotus, and uses Lotus Team WorkPlace (QuickPlace) software to bring you web collaboration.