The benefits of collaboration technologies are widely recognized by corporations, but many executives are concerned about their impact on the business culture, according to a survey released this week by Avanade, a technology services provider. Individual employees may be solving fewer problems on their own and passing responsibilities along to others by way of collaboration tools. 

The survey, conducted by Kelton Research, polled 538 C-level executives, IT decision-makers and business unit leaders worldwide, asking questions about collaboration and communications strategies and tools. One-fourth of the respondents said that they dread collaboration because it wastes time and energy.

This finding underlines the importance of knowing what problems you intend to solve before deploying collaboration technologies, Avanade wrote in its survey report: "Before companies consider collaboration as a solution to meeting business objectives, they need to understand its use within the context of the business, because collaboration involves people and technology."

As cost pressures begin to abate, there is a growing emphasis on innovation and new technologies, the survey found. Three-fourths of the respondents said they plan to use more communications and collaboration technologies over the next year. A reduction in individual problem-solving enabled by collaboration tools could be beneficial if it reflects improved decision making and workload sharing.

For more:
- see the Avanade survey announcement

Related Articles:
Central Desktop unveils 2.0 upgrade
CIOs tout collaboration tools