E-Collaboration Tools as a Support to Businesses Internationalization – A Case Study Analysis

Within a context of economic, financial and social crises, Portuguese companies feel the need to internationalize their businesses, in order to ensure their survival, in a climate of severe contraction of the domestic demand. However, the process of internationalization is not free of multiple difficulties. In order to minimize these difficulties and to support the internationalization processes, organizations can implement and use e-collaboration tools. This research paper uses the case study methodology to analyze and understand the use and impact of the e-Collaboration tool, Lync, from Microsoft, to support the internationalization process of the ProCME group. Even though the company has found some difficulties associated to Lync implementation, this tool has shown to be a valuable asset in supporting the internationalization of ProCME. Indeed, the study results show evidence that the Lync is very well accepted by users and perceived as a technological tool very easy to use. In terms of organizational impacts, it is shown evidence that the Lync contributes significantly to increase work productivity of ProCME international teams made up of employees from different countries, by saving time in carrying out administrative tasks and facilitating the access to relevant data for decision making. Additionally, we conclude that the use of Lync contributes to significantly decrease communications costs and travel expenses.