Effective collaboration within a team or business is essential for success. But it is very hard to do.  Sometimes it seems that the growth of the Internet has expanded the amount of information available so much that it’s impossible to see the meaning through the clutter.

Now the microblogging world of 140 character updates has led to some collaboration tools that can really help a business get its act together. Collaboration tools built on microblogging, file sharing and publishing, and social networking are evolving rapidly into always on, always ready productivity boosters for teams, businesses and supply chain partners. These are not all glittering high cost custom installations either – you can get free versions of some software or you can just sign up for Twitter for a really basic version.

Twitter has served as a testing bed for how this strange but powerful form of communication can work.  Twitter, its users and application developers have pushed the Twitter basic model to improve its collaboration value.  In Twitter you can set up a private account or list to define a group.  A conversation can be created by defining and promoting a #hashtag.  Or you could use a 3^rd party application like GroupTweet or Twibes to find or define a group.

But these basic tools leave out essential capabilities needed to make collaboration more effective.  Dedicated collaboration tools have progressed to a much more sophisticated level.  Most of the better ones include many features that help groups communicate and collaborate:

• A method to define a group that is private or limited to members only.  The power of privacy controls varies across products, but all of them recognize the importance of security.
• Status updates using the 140-character standard are basic. Products vary somewhat in how internal groups can be defined.
• Most include internal publishing tools like blogs, wikis, discussion boards, and spreadsheets.
• File sharing is common.
• Some services are web based; some can be hosted on the client’s server.
• Services publish to common mobile platforms for on-the-go collaboration.
• Set up feeds on information streams.  Services vary on the extent of customization permitted.

Here are a few of the more promising microblogging collaboration platforms for business (leaving out SalesForce Chatter and Google Wave for now – they are unfinished products).  These platforms have a free version that offers somewhat fewer services but more importantly, less security and administrative control.  Most are priced on a per-seat basis, with $3/user a common price.

Yammer.  One of the most established collaboration platforms, Yammer was the Techcrunch50 winner in 2008.  This service was instantly popular – and it has spawned a lot of competitors.  Anyone can sign up and invite co-workers to share the social platform, but control over the group and its members requires a subscription.  Yammer has an especially strong security system for paying customers. It is integrated with Twitter, publishes to mobile, and is integrated with Outlook email.

Cubetree.  A web service only, Cubetree is distinguished by its emphasis on integrating the services in its platform and also integrating common social media services like Twitter, Facebook, Salesforce and Google Calendar. Cubetree the elements of the system through email when it’s important for a user to get a specific message.  For example, a status update aimed at a specific @person will also trigger an email to that person.  Cubetree is supported by venture funding.

Socialtext.  Aimed at enterprise businesses, Socialtext offers both a web service and an ‘appliance’-based service.  This service includes all the basic features of a microblog-based collaboration tool, but adds available solutions packages for certain types of business organizations, including HR, sales, field services, partner management, and professional services.  Socialtext has both web based and hosted applications at a slightly higher price point that other platforms.

Jive.  Jive is the David among Goliaths.  It is a small company based in Portland, OR that has grown its service internally.  Jive offers a basic version of its web service for $3/user, but encourages contacting them for custom pricing for larger companies and for the higher security packages.  Interestingly, Jive recently acquired Filtrbox, a social media listening platform.  The value here would be to have the Filtrbox application identify the posts and updates about a company and then distribute them through Jive to the right people for a response.  That’s a complete circle.

Would your business benefit from better collaboration?  It’s hard to imagine anyone saying ‘no’ to that.  These tools might help – and we’d love to hear your thoughts about them.