E‐collaboration: new productivity tool for the twenty‐first century and beyond

Purpose – The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to be able to understand the technical capabilities of e‐collaboration systems from their inception to the present time and their possible future capabilities. The study examines the capabilities of 11 such systems. The article's second purpose is to be able to understand the reasons for the popularity and widespread utilization of e‐collaboration technologies by a large number of organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted literature review and also examined the technical manuals and technical features of 11 leading collaboration platforms. These collaboration tools were also used hands‐on. Selected users of these systems were also interviewed in order to find out their opinions regarding the usability and functionality of these systems. Findings – After careful review of the literature and analyzing the technical capabilities of 11 e‐collaboration systems the finding of this study was the understanding of and the reasons for the popularity and widespread utilization of e‐collaboration technologies by a wide variety of organizations. Another finding of this study was a clear understanding of different generations of e‐collaboration technologies and the expected capabilities and features of the future generations of these systems. Originality/value – This paper has significant value for practitioners and organizations that are either using e‐collaboration technologies in their day‐to‐day operations or attempting to employ these tools in order to improve productively and competitiveness and achieving organizational efficiency and effectiveness.