Collanos Blog

“Morgen komm ich später rein - für mehr Freiheit in der Festanstellung” (translated to English: “Tomorrow I will start later - for more freedom in permanent employment”)

As an average person, we spend between 70.000 und 80.000 hours of our lives sitting at the desk. Even though we are part of a knowledge society, we are using structures from industrial society. Sitting out core working hours and excessive overtime seem to stand for „real“ commitment. The economic damage caused by boredom and inefficiency at work is huge.

On August 14, the book “Morgen komm ich später rein - für mehr Freiheit in der Festanstellung” will be published by Campus. The author, Markus Albers, sees the answer to this problem in a playful, flexible, and mobile attitude towards work – let´s call it Easy Economy. Albers: “Go to the cinema during the day, play with your children, integrate hobbies and friends in your daily routine which so far has been dominated by your working life. Make your permanent employment a free-permanent employment. I think, we will witness the end of the office of today. ”

Collanos is also mentioned in the book. The author writes about an interview with me:

“Peter Helfenstein explains the advantages of working without being fixed to a precise point, which means mobility and globalization, increase in efficiency, potential savings, access to highly qualified workers worldwide, and accessibility to customers all over the world thanks to new communication channels. According to Helfenstein, technology is not the reason for this development, but a tool to meet enterprise requirements that have existed long before: We must be in a position to contact anybody, at any time, from anywhere, and collaborate with our customers and contact persons on a flexible, economic and delay-free basis. In view of globalization and rapidly growing competition, 9-to-5 will be an out-dated concept, a competitive disadvantage. Helfenstein sees the New Economy as technology hype, a period when technological prospects offered more than customers wanted. “But today, enterprises, staff members and consumers have realized the advantages of globalization, mobility and flexibility, and now we need technologies that meet these requirements.”

In the new working world outlined above, a slightly different type of employee is required: ”Extroverted personalities actively establishing contact with the outside world and feeling inspired by doing so, are the ones to best fit into this model. Therefore, I am not surprised that this development is advancing faster in the USA.”

Inevitably, flexibility, mobility, and home office mean to widely do without informal communication, get-togethers during coffee break, smokers´corner, or common lunchtime. Helfenstein: “This might weaken identification with team and company and should be balanced by targeted measures, for example fixed dates for team afternoons, occasional work together with all employees at one location, or video conferences which like an intercom system permanently link all employees together worldwide.” Partly, you may be able to compensate physical separation by more frequent virtual meetings, but „ once in a while, you should talk to each other face-to-face. “Our American co-workers come to see us in Switzerland at regular intervals for one or two weeks, and the Swiss travel from USA to India to meet their collegues: the positive effect is noticeable for about three months, afterwards misunderstandings in communication become more frequent again. ”

The Campus-Verlag comments ‘Morgen komm ich später rein’ as follows: “This book harbours a promise which reads: You don´t have to go on working as before. And this book wants to convey a vision. The vision that thanks to modern technology and changing social values, our work will be characterized by more freedom and self-determination than that of our parents´generation. But this does not mean that we have to cut back on performance and career. On the contrary, you would feel more productive, relaxed and competent when communicating with superiors and other staff members. It suggests that we would finally be able to combine our job and your leisure time in a way that we would never have thought of some years ago. And even that, en passant, we might become happier individuals.”

Dr. Wilhelm Bauer at Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation says: “Is this real work – sitting with your notebook in a café or in your garden? The ‘Easy Economy’ as outlined by Markus Albers promises a world of work that is marked by more independence for permanent employees as well as creativity and motivation. The development depicted in the book is sustainable and irreversible. In retrospect, we will eventually refer to it as the revolution of work.”

Markus Albers is political scientist and journalist. He lives in Berlin as a free-lance author reporting for magazines such as Vanity Fair and Monocle. Before this, he did journalistic work for stern, SPIEGEL, SZ-Magazin and Welt am Sonntag. He held the position of directing journalist with the German edition of Vanity Fair. The biography of his career shows a repeated change between free and employed occupations, so the subject of his book also reflects a subject of his life.

http://www.freianstellung.de
http://www.markusalbers.com

“Morgen komm ich später rein - für mehr Freiheit in der Festanstellung”

Zwischen 70.000 und 80.000 Stunden im Leben verbringt der Durchschnittsmensch am Schreibtisch. Doch mitten in der Wissensgesellschaft arbeiten wir mit Strukturen aus der Industriegesellschaft: Abgesessene Kernarbeitszeit und exzessive Überstunden gelten als Beweis für “echtes” Engagement. Der volkswirtschaftliche Verlust durch Langeweile und Ineffizienz im Job ist enorm.

Die Lösung dieses Dilemmas liegt für Markus Albers, Autor des Buches “Morgen komm ich später rein - für mehr Freiheit in der Festanstellung”, das am 14. August um Campus-Verlag erscheint, in einer verspielten, flexiblen und mobilen Arbeitsauffassung - nennen wir sie Easy Economy. Albers: “Gehen Sie tagsüber ins Kino, spielen Sie mit ihren Kindern, integrieren Sie Hobbys und Freunde in Ihren Tagesablauf, der bislang nur vom Berufsleben geprägt war. So wird aus der Festanstellung eine Freianstellung. Wir werden es erleben - das Ende des Büros, wie wir es kennen.”

Auch Collanos kommt in “Morgen komm ich später rein” vor. Über ein Interview zwischen ihm und mir schreibt der Autor:

“Peter Helfenstein erklärt u.a. die Vorteile der ortlosen Arbeitsweise, nämlich Mobilität und Globalisierung, Effizienzsteigerung, Sparpotenziale, der Zugang zu qualifizierten Arbeitskräften weltweit und die zusätzliche Nähe zu Kunden überall auf der Welt dank neuer Kommunikationskanäle. Technologie sieht Helfenstein dabei nicht als Ursache, sondern als Werkzeug, Unternehmensbedürfnisse zu befriedigen, die vorher bereits existierten: ‘Wir müssen in der Lage sein, mit jedem, jederzeit, von überall arbeiten sowie flexibel, günstig und zeitverzugslos mit unseren Kunden und Ansprechpartnern kollaborieren zu können. Durch die Globalisierung und den immer stärkeren Wettbewerb wird 9-to-5 eine Illusion, ein Wettbewerbsnachteil.’ Die New Economy sei zwar ein Technologie-Hype gewesen, so Helfenstein. In dieser Zeit hätten die technologischen Möglichkeiten mehr geboten als die Kunden wollten: “Aber heute haben Unternehmen, Mitarbeiter und Konsumenten die Vorteile der Globalisierung, der Mobilität und Flexibilität erkannt. Nun braucht es die Technologien, dies zu nutzen.”

Dazu bedürfe es zum Teil auch eines anderen Mitarbeitertypus:”Extrovertierte Persönlichkeiten, die den Kontakt nach aussen aktiv suchen, dadurch motiviert werden, können besser mit solchen Modellen umgehen. Für mich ist es deshalb nicht verwunderlich, wenn in den USA die Adoption schneller vor sich geht.”

Durch Flexibilität, Mobilität und Homeoffice falle natürlich die informelle Kommunikation, das Zusammentreffen in der Kaffeepause, der Raucherecke, oder beim Mittagessen nahezu weg, so Helfenstein: “Dies kann die Identifikation mit Team und Firma reduzieren und muss entsprechend durch gezielte Massnahmen kompensiert werden, wie Teamnachmittage, Arbeit an einem Standort mit allen, oder Videotechnologie, die wie eine Gegensprechanlage alle Mitarbeiter weltweit permanent verbindet.” Physische Trennung könne zwar durch stärkeres virtuelles Zusammenkommen kompensiert werden. “Man muss sich allerdings zwischendurch doch mal sehen”, so Helfenstein. “Die Amerikaner besuchen uns regelmässig für eine bis zwei Wochen in der Schweiz, die Schweizer die Mitarbeiter von den USA bis Indien: Es hält etwa drei Monate, danach werden die Missverständnisse bei der Kommunikation wieder grösser.”

Der Campus-Verlag schreibt über ‘Morgen komm ich später rein’: “Dieses Buch birgt ein Versprechen. Es lautet: Sie müssen nicht so weiterarbeiten wie bisher. Und dieses Buch möchte eine Vision vermitteln. Dass wir dank moderner Technik und eines Wandels gesellschaftlicher Werte freier und selbstbestimmter arbeiten werden als die Generation unserer Eltern. Dass wir dabei keine Abstriche im Job machen müssen, was Leistung und Karriere angeht. Sondern im Gegenteil Kollegen und Vorgesetzten produktiver, gelassener und souveräner begegnen. Dass wir endlich Beruf und Freizeit auf eine Weise vereinen können, die noch vor wenigen Jahren undenkbar schien. Und dass wir so vielleicht - ganz automatisch - zu glücklicheren Menschen werden.”

Und Dr. Wilhelm Bauer vom Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation, sagt dazu: “Mit dem Notebook im Café oder im Garten sitzen - kann das Arbeit sein? Mit der ‘Easy Economy’ skizziert Markus Albers eine Arbeitswelt, die durch grosse Freiheiten für Festangestellte sowie durch Kreativität und Motivation gekennzeichnet ist. Die im Buch skizzierten Entwicklungen sind nachhaltig und unumkehrbar. In der Retrospektive werden wir von einer Revolution der Arbeit sprechen.

Markus Albers ist Politologe und Journalist. Er lebt als freier Autor in Berlin und berichtet für Zeitschriften wie Vanity Fair und Monocle aus aller Welt. Zuvor schrieb er für stern und SPIEGEL, das SZ-Magazin sowie die Welt am Sonntag. Zuletzt arbeitete er als geschäftsführender Redakteur der deutschen Vanity Fair. Seine eigene Arbeitsbiografie wechselte stets zwischen festen und freien Beschäftigungen, das Thema seines Buches ist damit auch ein Lebensthema.

http://www.freianstellung.de
http://www.markusalbers.com

In earlier blogs like Disruptive Innovation at Work and Gartner Prediction Supports the Collanos Business Model I wrote about our progressive go-to-market strategy entering new markets for collaboration, and our starting point to ride the most recent consumerization wave across enterprise boundaries.

Two inspiring new blog articles and their discussion threads seem to confirm our approach:

• Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, in his blog The Black Wire and the White Wire connects a second ethernet cable to his business laptop kicking off an IT “civil war”.

On my desk at work I have two ethernet cables. One is black and one is white. The black one is connected to our corporate network. I use that one when I want to print things. I could also use it for Internet access and stuff, but I don’t because the corporate network blocks a number of ports, including those used for Skype and Second Life. It’s also pretty slow.

The white cable, meanwhile, is a standard consumer-grade DSL connection to the Internet, with nothing blocked at all. Our local IT staff installed it by popular demand, possibly without checking with headquarters (we love our local IT staff!). It’s fast. I use it all the time.

Consumerization of enterprise IT at work…

• Jason Hiner, Executive Editor at TechRepublic, in “The six consumer technologies that are destroying traditional IT ” explicitely sees p2p Collanos Workplace being adopted even by corporate IT supported by some pressure coming from consumerization.

That doesn’t mean IT should necessarily abandon P2P software altogether. It can often prove extremely useful and efficient. For example, Collanos software can be used for sharing and collaborating on documents between various users in a team or workgroup.

Disrupting the collaboration market outside the enterprise platform and being brought in through enterprise doors via consumerization seems like a promising new business strategy – not only for Collanos.

Often I attend local Bay Area events where the latest and greatest Web 2.0 companies showcase their latest wares. One example is the ever-growing monthly SF New Tech Meetup, which is portrayed as follows on their web site:

Monthly Meetup to discuss and show-and-tell new technology: Web 2.0 to Nanotech, Digital content to video games. Cool new tech. Geeks, inventors, new companies with cool products and ANYONE curious about new tech is welcome.

Notice that the word “cool” is mentioned twice in this single paragraph. To be honest, many of the companies presenting at these events certainly fall under the ‘cool’ category. After all, we ourselves, Collanos Software, presented there earlier this year. However, is ‘cool’ the accurate criteria to be qualified to present at these specific events? Does ‘cool’ necessarily imply that this is also a promising company/application/service?

Wikipedia’s interpretation of ‘cool’ is:

…an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance, style and Zeitgeist. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning…and is often used as an expression of admiration or approval.

I can sense the admiration of attendees at such events but this still does not guarantee that a presenting cool company is on the road to success.

Last week I was corresponding with Scott, a writer and an active Collanos member who brought up a great point:

Let’s face it-this is an industry that tends to develop cool ideas because they’re technologically possible and then has to convince customers that they need these products.

So many of these ‘cool’ applications have not only been coded by brilliant engineers but also conceived by them. I guess the ‘code it and they will come’ attitude doesn’t always fly.

Scott follows up on his point and how it relates to Collanos:

Teaming is different. This is real-world stuff that helps people pull what they already do into one place, and provides added benefits, like tracking and project management.

Collanos Workplace, our flagship peer-to-peer solution provides immediate and significant value to dispersed teams at minimal (or more accurately, zero) costs. Our typical Collanos user, is someone who needs to collaborate on a team project with members across multiple organizations, does not have the time and resources to set up an enterprise-level IT environment and needs something dead-easy to use so that all team members embrace the application rapidly.

Such users rank ‘Coollanos’ high up on the ‘coolometer’, and there are millions of such potential users across the globe who may not be sitting in the audience of these web 2.0 events but are gradually getting exposed to the great coverage we are getting in the blogosphere (see latest: AWH Weblog, Stu Downes ): and the press (eWeek.com). Cool?!

Nothing like starting the today with a new great review of our product. Actually, there were two great blog postings by two different users who work for the same company AWH Weblog.

Brent and Jesse submitted their objective (truly unbiased) review of Collanos Workplace, including some cons, which we are always welcoming so that we can further improve our products. What’s more, Jesse even provided a step-by-step installation guide for those of you first installing our peer-to-peer based team workspaces solution. Brent brings up some very valid points:

“Personally I was excited to test this product because I feel workplace communication and collaboration is weak in most companies…finding a product to help the process without adding extra work has been a challenge, until now…”

Collaboration adoption is extremely weak at non-enterprise companies (even enterprise adoption can be argued)…simply since we always default to same old out-of-context email. Organizing your content around team workspaces/projects is the fundamental value Collanos provides. Once you ‘think out of the inbox’, it’s hard to fall back to email when working on future team-based projects.

Brent also highlights a key Collanos differentiator, separating us from the many hosted team collaboration solutions currently out there, comparing the client vs. browser experience:

“…honestly I found the interoperability via a client much better than most online collaboration tools I have used…As well I found the overall interface well thought out and enjoyable to use.”

The reason being that with a rich client you get a rich experience, something you are so familiar with from other client applications such as Windows Explorer/Finder, folder navigation, Instant Messengers, etc. granting you immediate comprehension of the Collanos application with zero training required.

The work-offline advantages of Collanos are a no-brainer for those of us even with 10% network downtime throughout the day. The user interface and experience are just as important to get full team adoption, embracing the least tech-savvy member of the team. Otherwise, it’s back to email…

Areas for improvement, such as better permission management and hosted workspaces are already in the works (as is VoIP integration, calendaring and more) but we always like to hear from our users what is their most burning requirements (See related board on our user forum).

We applause Brent and Jesse’s thorough analysis and review of Collanos Workplace and encourage others to follow suit and share with the entire Collanos community how to make the best of Collanos and let us know where we can improve.

Check out the great free resources the organizer of the Enterprise 2.0 conference has just made available online. You will find great keynote videos, photos, podcasts, speaker slides, and more.

Gartner (NYSE: IT), the largest technology analyst company in the world, predicts Collanos’ type business model will become “the most significant trend affecting information technology during the next ten years.”

The Collanos’ type consumerization business model focuses on providing consumers with a collaboration platform that will allow internet home users, university faculty, small businesses, and inter-enterprise users to benefit from the collaboration tools that only enterprises have been able to provide at an expensive price to their employees.

By differentiating ourselves from other Collaboration vendors who require the use of a server, utilize a resource expensive development model, depend on longer release lifecycles, and have their own agenda that forces the need for further infrastructure investments, we gain a strategic advantage that allows us to deliver to the consumers the collaboration tools they need at prices they can afford.

David Mitchell Smith, Gartner Vice President and Gartner Fellow, predicts that our approach “will affect every enterprise.” Collanos’ approach is much like Wi-Fi’s, smart mobile phone’s, pc’s, voice over IP call’s and conference call’s, instant message’s, and the internet’s approach. Each of these was quickly adopted by consumers who benefited from the use of these technologies in their homes, families, clubs, and organizations. Consumers then took these technologies to work and caused the viral spread that later led to enterprise adoption.

Already in our beta offering, we see Collanos Workplace being not only demanded by ad-hoc teams, but by teams in the enterprise. Enterprise users refuse to constrain themselves to their current email and server based collaboration tools. Collanos, starting with its peer-to-peer Collanos Workplace, will soon provide consumers with a complete set of collaboration tools and like that create greater demand for Collanos in the enterprise.

Collanos prides itself in helping internet teamworkers and leading the evolution of the consumerization of collaboration technologies. We do not believe collaboration tools should only be available for the wealthy enterprise but should be available to everyone both outside and inside of the enterprise.

Peter Rip, Managing Director at Leapfrog Ventures, wrote a great article about “The Coming Wave of Enterprise Web 2.0“. He and other industry thought leaders are seeing this as a major trend, the convergence of consumer and enterprise apps. He states that Collaboration can be an End or a Means, but I like the part best where Peter emphasizes why collaboration will only be enduring if it is the “Means”. Here is an excerpt from his post, containing his conclusions:

“This is why I think Enterprise Web 2.0 is different from Consumer Web 2.0. Enterprise’s have goals and structure. People around the Enterprise collaborate, but the collaboration is (supposed to be) undemocratic, i.e., ordered and non-chaotic. Ironically, this is not a new category. We used to call it Workflow and it was on the Known Quicksand Sector list at every VC firm, along with Middleware, Knowledge Management, and Enterprise Search. It was a Known Quicksand because no two implementations looked the same. Users couldn’t change the workflow to suit their needs. Users couldn’t automate the dozens of little tasks of collaboration that they do every week.

Despite being Known Quicksand, nearly every VC firm has placed a bet on workflow at one time or another. Why? Because the big Enterprise Apps automate you and me and we’re done. Automating the white space between us is the last untapped source of Big Win in the Enterprise.

This is more than just Workflow. It is Information Flow. And it’s not just an inside-the-firewall problem. In fact, it’s bigger outside than inside. All the wondrous improvements in personal mobility, communications, and 7×24 information access have exacerbated the problem. Customers, field service, sales people, consultants, outsourcers, telecommuters, suppliers, etc., all suffer the rising expectations of responsiveness that comes with personal automation and the sinking realization associated with the quagmire of complexity when trying involve others.

Mobile, Web 2.0, SaaS are going to converge into a set of new, lightweight Enterprise Web 2.0 applications. Collaboration is the Big Driver within Web 2.0 and nowhere is collaboration more valuable than when time is money – the time to assimilate information from the enterprise edge and the time to organize and respond. Prepare to see a wave of Enterprise Web 2.0 collaboration applications in the next 24 months. And, like every wave, it will be 5% innovation and 95% imitation.”

It is great to read this, because this is exactly Collanos’ vision and we have been working on these concepts since 2003. Collanos Workplace connects people around the enterprise, structures cross-organizational team work in secure spaces and essentially automates the “white space between you and me”.

Collanos basically team-enables your computer! Collanos addresses the growing pains of teams being overloaded with information scattered across various communication channels, most notably congested email inboxes. Collanos allows ad hoc, cross-organizational teams to easily access, update and share team knowledge on their computers and within the context of their activities. Teams can reach their goals faster, more securely and more effectively. Team members access shared workspaces locally on their computers, communicate with their colleagues using secure channels, and Collanos’ peer-to-peer technology keeps members’ workspaces in sync. On this foundation, Collanos provides dispersed teams intuitive and transparent solutions that enable superior teamwork. The base version of the product is offered free of charge.