Towards a Maturity Model for E-Collaboration - A Design Science Research Approach

Introducing electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) is not a matter of introducing new software, but it is a matter of introducing new, and if applied correctly, more efficient working processes and methods (i.e., e-collaboration capability). As a first step before introducing a collaboration technology, managers should comprehensively examine their organization's underlying capability. Accordingly, this study draws on literature of maturity models and success factors in the areas of e-collaboration and knowledge management as well as results of case studies of SharePoint introduction projects in order to propose a maturity model for e-collaboration as holistic approach which seeks to detect whether an organization exhibits the capabilities for efficient e-collaboration (i.e., analyze as-is situation) or what should be altered or implemented in order to achieve this (i.e., derive measures). Hence, this paper presents the first iteration of an e-collaboration maturity model instantiated as Excel assessment by using the design science research methodology and it results with the proposition of a situational alignment.