James Robertson is continuing his thoughts about collaboration with this paper, Collaboration is about people:
It make no sense to roll out collaboration tools to the whole organisation. Collaboration takes place between people, and can't be forced or created through the use of technology.
While it is possible to create new opportunities for collaboration using online tools, this is slow and hard, and not the best approach when implementing collaboration tools for the first time.
Instead, collaboration tools work best when they support existing collaboration taking place between individuals or groups within the organisation.
Pretty straightforward, but not so obvious, apparently. If the people problems are broken, a new tool isn't going to makes things any better. But if they aren't broken, a tool MIGHT give you the opportunity to do some new things or improve the work.
So what do you do if you want to bring a new tool into a situation where the collaboration isn't so hot? How about creating opportunities for collaboration? Leave the tools laying around, give people license, and see what happens. Encourage people to network with one another. Have fun. Play.