Adding Structure to Enterprise Collaboration Systems: Identification of Use Cases and Collaboration Scenarios

In recent years we have seen the emergence of a new type of collaboration software, the so-called “Enterprise Social Software”. The “social features” of this software type have stimulated a renewed interest in Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS). In this paper we present findings from a longitudinal research project on the introduction and use of ECS in companies. We argue that ERP Systems and ECS are inherently different and that the process-paradigm that is common to ERP cannot be applied identically to ECS. To address this issue, we developed and tested the IRESS framework which supports companies in their requirements analysis for ECS projects. From the literature and 14 case studies we identified typical use cases and collaboration scenarios that can serve as blueprints for ECS introduction projects. The longitudinal objective of our research is to assist companies with their ECS initiatives and to provide them with a catalogue of existing use cases and collaboration scenarios from various industry settings.