Collaboration Background and DefinitionAdvances in information and communications technologies have enabled businesses tobecome truly global in scope. Distributed development, production, sales, logistics, andmanagement functions are typical of global organizations operating within the fast-movingand lucrative environment of the 21st century. Yet the opportunities in this complexenvironment that feed success can also compromise an individual employees ability toeffectively work with people in other offices, cities, and regions. Individuals are caughtwithin a web of professional responsibilities to the organization, as well as personaldemands on their time. As the pace of commerce increases, personal and organizational success will be driven by the ability to manage this complexity and turn it into an organizational and a personal competitive advantage.These growing challenges have led to the development of collaboration solutions that can stimulate and enhance joint work. Collaboration solutions are tools, culture, and processes that allow people to work together. Collaboration can be beneficial when the technology is applied within the context of an enterprise culture that encourages sharing and open interactions between people. As individuals strive to strike a balance between their work and their personal lives, collaboration solutions can help busy people find time for both. If people can be effective at work, and still have time to enjoy their lives outside of work, then collaboration solutions can be a key ingredient of increased performance.Frost & Sullivan, together with Verizon Business and Microsoft, undertook a research program to understand how global enterprises use collaboration in their business. Our findings are presented in this white paper, including enterprises needs for, uses of, and perceived impacts of collaboration on their business performance. In our work on the collaboration market, we define the concept of collaboration as an interaction between technology and culture. There is an abundance of technology available today for collaboration. Instant messaging, Web conferencing, audio conferencing, presence, e-mail and even video conferencing can easily be launched from routinely used business applications or from a central unified portal allowing for collaborative sessions to be easily opened during the workday. However, a company's culture and processes that encourage people to share work in a productive manner for specific tasks are central to effective collaboration. This interaction between technology and culture is at the center of our research.In this paper, we first introduce our study. Next, we discuss impacts of collaboration on business performance. These impacts are based on a Collaboration Index, which measure show collaborative businesses are, and illuminates the relationship between collaboration and business performance. Following that, we will explore the enterprise needs for joint work and how our respondents see collaboration meeting them. Finally, the paper outlines conclusions and implications about collaboration and how it can improve business performance.