Open Letter to Collaboration Tool Providers

One of my my interest areas is the growing importance of collaboration for enterprises.  One of my perspectives is that it is important to balance the 4 Ps of effective collaboration -- Purpose (objective, success measures, strategy); People (leadership, team members, advisors, and contributors); Process; and Place (meetings and tools used to communicate).

There is much fuss about the tools -- often with the (misplaced) belief that the choice of the right tool will make everything else fall into place.  I dismiss this as part of the myth of the perfect briefcase -- that every new bag I see in the window will reduce the load I must carry and make my life easier.

Based on my and my colleague's research and dialog with our readers, we have written an Open Letter to Collaboration Tool Providers.

There is a wonderful abundance of collaboration tools, and more every week.  At the same time, many users are frustrated that they are getting more tools rather than selected tools that meet their needs.

The six requests in this open letter are:

1. Tell us clearly what your product does that makes it better than all the others
2. Keep focusing on making the tools easier to use
3. Give us free trials so we can test your product
4. Build us the full suite we need, rather than point solutions
5. Accommodate our many simultaneous projects
6. Respect our data and privacy

What do you think?  What tools, if any, work for you?