Group Research Paper- Online Platforms Essay

According to Thompson virtual team is any task-focused group that meets without all members necessarily being physically present or working at the same time (Thompson, 2011 p.). According to the article, The Knowledge Advantage of Virtual Teams Processes Supporting Knowledge Synergy, it has been previously argued that virtual teams emerged as a new organizational form of ‘working together apart’. However, their novelty has been attributed to the use of technologically advanced communications rather than to their organizational properties (Ratcheva, 2008). Therefore, we can see the importance of having a good platform the Ford Company Virtual Team Communication. As a team, we review five online platforms of our choice that we believed could be used for Ford Company virtual team to communicate with their worldwide divisions. The team came together and created a grading platform based on the following six criteria: Technology Features Offered, Design and Customization, Security and Access for (Global/Region Capabilities), Viewing and Moving Content, Accessibility and User Friendly. Each criterion was out of five points for a total of 30 possible points. I believe that Ford Company should use the platform because the team considers all possible features when creating the grading platform. We review and discuss what features would be needed in order for a global team to function virtually without any difficulty. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of each of the online platforms that could be used by the virtual team and the team rating of each platform and the reasons for the ratings. Microsoft Outlook According to the official sites of Microsoft, Outlook is a personal information managers and the software is available as a part of the Microsoft Office. The software is used as an email application. It includes a calendar, task manager, contact manager, note taking, a journal, and web browsing (Microsoft Corporation.com/ Outlook). The article, Information overload, explains that Outlook does have powerful features, such as sharing of workgroup calendars, and as it is the standard, you will find add-on programs like NEO a brilliant application that organizes Outlook mailboxes the way they should have been by Microsoft, and makes searching so much easier. However, the article explains that Outlook can also be hazardous for your data because the PST files into which Outlook bundles email, appointments and contacts will corrupt once they grow beyond 2GB. The article explain that it can be repair, but you will lose at least some and if you are unlucky, all of your data. Therefore, Outloo k has it advantages and disadvantages. The Team rate outlook as the least favorite and it received an 18 out of 30 because Microsoft Outlook is great for email, calendar events, and sending documents. There is no chat feature or face-to-face option and it may be hazardous for your data. Since, Ford Motor Company need this platform for it virtual team to communicate with their worldwide divisions the team will need to used some time of chat, face-to-face options therefore Outlook is not the right choice for the company. Facebook According to the official website of Facebook, the company mission is to make the world more open and connected. In addition, the site explain that people use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them (Facebook Newsroom Key-Fats, 2013). Facebook Platform enables developers to build social apps that enable people to connect with their friends, whether it is through playing a game, watching a movie, sharing their favorite restaurant, or listening to a song (Facebook Newsroom Platform, 2013). Based on the Team grading platform Facebook received an overall 19 out of 30. The Team found that Facebook is great for communication and maybe sharing documents but the site is not built for professional communication since there seems to always be hackers breaking into the system. Therefore, the team feels that for business communication Facebook cannot be trusted. According to the article, Contextual gaps: privacy issues on Facebook, Facebook present significant privacy issues for their users, the article analyze two of Facebooks’s features, Applications and News Feed Offline, it was found that contextual gaps are at the root of many of the sites’ privacy issues. In addition, the article explains that the application, which nearly invisibly shares not just a users’, but also a user’s friends’ information with third parties, clearly violates standard norms of information flow. Furthermore, the article concluded by saying that many of the privacy issues on Facebook are primarily design issues, which could be ameliorated by a n interface that made the flows of information more transparent to users (Hull, Lipford & Latulipe, 2011). Additionally, this article tiles, Facebook & Your Privacy. (cover story) explains that â€Å"Facebook collects and shares data in ways that the consumer is often unaware, such as third-party applications, links from other web resources, and facial recognition software for shared photographs. Threats posed by Facebook use include threats and harassment by other users, hacking, and monitoring of personal data by employers, college admissions, or insurers† ( 2012). Therefore, the team concluded that Facebook was not a viable option for Ford Motor Company team communication platform. LinkedIn According to the official’s sites of LinkedIn, LinkedIn is the social network for work professionals created by Reid Hoffman in 2002 and currently the network has about 161 million professionals worldwide. In addition, when individuals joined LinkedIn, they get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help them be great at what you do (LinkedIn about us, 2013). Based on the Team grading platform LinkedIn received an overall 22 out of 30. The reason for this is because LinkedIn is mostly for Job seekers and to connect with other professionals. According to this article, LinkedIn Corporation, The firm operates an online professional network designed to help members find jobs, connect with other professionals, and locate business opportunities (LinkedIn Corporation). Therefore, it does not have all the necessary tools needed for Ford Motor Company team communication. Microsoft SharePoint According to the article, Enhancing Project Management with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint is a technology platform that can be configured and customized to play a number of roles in an organization. The advantages of this platform are numerous because the software provides an environment for project management since a project manager can use the software to manage his team collaboration, control project documents, structure project workflow, manage risks, track project’s progress, or share information with the stakeholders (2010). In addition, as a company grows so does the amount documents the company has, therefore, it become difficult to keep track of the increase documents and their locations. SharePoint defeat this by allowing users to store and share files in a central site. The team rating of Microsoft SharePoint was 25 out of 30 it was the second favorite because of all the features it has. However, it true the software allows users to share documents but there is no interactive feature. Furthermore, the article The Disadvantages of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 as a Document Management System, explains, that â€Å"One of the key features most DMS/CMS systems offer are document level options like redaction and document mark-ups. SharePoint does not provide this functionality as it relies on its Microsoft Office suite for document manipulation† (Steward, 2008). Therefore, we can conclude that some of the key features needed for virtual communication is missing from this platform. Google According to the article, Datamonitor: Google Inc., Google has a wide portfolio of offerings, The company currently offers include search, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise products. It maintains a vast index of websites and other online content, and makes it available through Google.com, the company’s search engine, to anyone with an internet connection. In addition, the company’s application tools allow users to create, share, and communicate user-generated information. Some of Google’s applications products include Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Groups, Google Reader, Orkut, Blogger, Google Sites, and YouTube (2011). Furthermore, the article title, Google Voice, talks about a new software release in 2011 call Google Voice. This device is a hybrid phone/internet service. The article explains that what makes Google Voice worthwhile are all of the extra features namely voice mail, free SMS, free calls to anywhere in the U.S., cheap international calls, custom greetings, conference calling, call history, voice transcription to text, email and SMS notifications, the ability to hear who is calling before you pick up, the ability to block unwanted calls, the ability to record phone calls and store them online, the ability to forward, embed, or download voice mails, and the fact that all of these features are managed through an intuitive, centralized interface styled after Gmail that can be accessed from any computer, any telephone, or any mobile browser (Johnson, 2010). Therefore, the team gave Google 27 out of 30 because Google has a lot of features, the email platform has chat capabilities, share documents, photos, and videos, and requests via calendar. In addition, Google + feature allow video chat, and they all are available on mobile, PC, or tablet. That is the reasons that Google received the highest rating out of the five platforms, because it offers every features a virtual team possibly need. Conclusion Having a good platform for the Ford Company virtual team is very important in order the virtual team to succeed. Therefore, Group 1 has come up with a grading criterion that take under consideration all the features needed for a virtual team to success when it comes to a communication platforms. The group did a throughout evaluation of what is needed when communicating virtually and comes up with five platforms. Then each platforms went through a completely evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages. After a complete evaluation Google platform were found to be the best because of all the features it offer to it customer when it come to virtual communication.