ThinkTank Frequently Asked Questions

ThinkTank v2.0

 

Why ThinkTank?

Innovation, group productivity and collaboration across the value chain are very hot subjects these days.  But how do we achieve these objectives in the face of limited time, limited travel, insufficient trust or ingrained behaviors that get in the way of desired outcomes?

 

The answer is ThinkTank by GroupSystems.  Only ThinkTank encompasses:

 

ThinkTank by GroupSystems helps groups innovate better together. Whether your challenge is to get through important processes such as brainstorming, strategic planning, focus groups, requirements gathering, or idea management, ThinkTank empowers you and  your teams to achieve the remarkable in less than half the usual time and cost.  ThinkTank and GroupSystems products are fast becoming the accepted standard for group intelligence at Fortune 1,000 organizations, Government and Intelligence institutions, plus the Military and Education segments. 

 

Is ThinkTank the same thing as Webconferencing?

 

No, but ThinkTank compliments the essential purpose of web-conferencing tools like WebEx, LiveMeeting and Adobe Connect.  Webconferencing is a one-to-many environment for sharing a powerpoint presentation, teaching, or making announcements.  It’s kind of like a broadcast from one person to many others.  ThinkTank on the other hand is a structured teamspace where many participants work “with” many others, thus the idea of many to many collaboration and not just communication.  Webconferencing gets you to a meeting; ThinkTank is what you do when you get there if you wish to work together, innovate together, and decide together.  Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on ThinkTank integration to webconferencing.

 

If I have Sharepoint, why do I need ThinkTank? 

 

Sharepoint by Microsoft, like eRoom by EMC and numerous other content management tools and technologies, are intended as a digital repository and coordination place for a team or group.  Whereas they enable coordination and document/artifact sharing, ThinkTank extends their value and functionality by enabling a team or group to “create fresh content” that is then shared or stored in Sharepoint or eRoom.  ThinkTank and Sharepoint are complimentary, which is why we now offer ThinkTank users a Sharepoint plug-in to have our applications work nicely together.  

 

Do I need to install software on my computer to use ThinkTank?

 

No.  ThinkTank is a web-architected product that runs on a server. As long as your computer has Adobe Flash, and 97% of all computers already do, then nothing needs to be installed on your computer.  When you’re in a session, all of your data is stored on the ThinkTank server, not on your personal computer.   Where the ThinkTank server is located is also up to you.  GroupSystems provides On Demand service so customers can access ThinkTank from their computers anywhere they have internet access.  Alternatively, ThinkTank is available to be installed on your organization’s servers, behind the corporate firewall. 

 

Does ThinkTank support face to face meetings?

 

Absolutely. ThinkTank works equally well over a LAN or the Internet for face to face, virtual or blended meetings.  In some ways ThinkTank is even better for face to face meetings than our prior products because no prior planning is needed to get the room or equipment ready as long as stable WiFi is available for your session. 

 

How does ThinkTank compare to GS II?

 

Virtually all of the capabilities of GSI and GSII have been replicated and enhanced by Version 2.0 of ThinkTank.  We now include the most commonly used Activities of past versions of GroupSystem’s products: an expanded Categorizer, Alternative Analysis and Rank Order Vote. Each of these activities has been improved for ease of use, reliability, performance, and power.  ThinkTank also adds powerful functionality that is not available in GS II such as: Graphing, Survey, Action Planner, an easy to use process for inviting participants to sessions via email, and improved Participant Rights.  In addition, the ThinkTank platform eliminates a participant’s need to have Java.  It is also a much more scalable platform that can easily be integrated with other products.  Furthermore, with the addition of a process template library (much more than just meetings…it’s all about important team projects and processes) ThinkTank now becomes an everyday capability for you and your organization. 

 

If you desire more information, your Account Representative will provide you with a more comprehensive comparison of GSI/WGE, GSII and ThinkTank.  

 

How does ThinkTank compare to Workgroup or MeetingRoom?

 

Like these older products, ThinkTank can be used in face to face sessions over a LAN.  Of course, it has the added benefit of working over the internet or a combination. Version 2.0 of ThinkTank includes most of the commonly used Activities of past versions of GroupSystem’s products: an expanded Categorizer, Alternative Analysis, Survey, and Rank Order Vote. Each of these activities are improved for ease of use, reliability, performance, and power.  ThinkTank adds some powerful functionality that is not available in WorkGroup or MeetingRoom, such as: Action Planner, a process for inviting participants to sessions via email, and powerful, simple Reports in a variety of formats.   ThinkTank is also a much more scalable platform that can easily be integrated with other products. 

 

If you desire more information, your Account Representative will provide you with a more comprehensive comparison of GSI/WGE, GSII and ThinkTank.  

 

How many people can participate simultaneously in a meeting?

 

The ThinkTank platform is highly scalable.  Version 2.0 can handle 50 simultaneous participants with ease and additional participants for large scale events are possible with some planning.  We’ll support you as needed.    With ThinkTank’s easy to use email invitation system, you can start with 20 participants for instance and add others as required.  It’s never been easier to harness group intelligence. 

 

Do I need audio or web conferencing for my virtual meeting?

 

ThinkTank is an outstanding supplement to virtual meetings that today are held via conference call and/or web conference.   At certain points, such as when the group is brainstorming, ThinkTank reduces the need for conversation to about half of normal level, but it does not eliminate the need to talk.  Likewise, web conferencing software is excellent for “setting the stage” for a group by broadcasting a presentation.  Once the presentation is complete, ThinkTank provides unmatched power for collecting the ideas and thoughts from the virtual team.

What applications does ThinkTank integrate with?

 

• Microsoft Outlook, IBM Lotus Notes - ThinkTank allows leaders to send out email invitations using the contact lists from these leading email packages.
• HTML, Word and Excel - ThinkTank allows customers to generate reports in HTML, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
• Microsoft Project - The Action Planner activity, new to v 2.0, allows you to export your project plans to Microsoft Project.
• Microsoft SharePoint -SharePoint Connectors, provided by TKC Communications, allow you to create ThinkTank sessions in SharePoint and link SharePoint meetings directly to ThinkTank sessions.
• IBM SameTime 7.5 - A plug-in to SameTime allows you to create ThinkTank sessions in Sametime and link SameTime instant messaging sessions directly to ThinkTank sessions.

 

How can my organization deploy ThinkTank?

 

On-Demand (Hosted Solution) –  The easiest and cheapest way to get started with ThinkTank is by using our on-demand service hosted and managed by us.  You can get started in minutes…worldwide…or just within your local team.  This option is available as a low-cost annual subscription, or even for daily rentals for events.  Its fast to deploy, does not require any IT involvement from your organization and no configuration.  Our servers are located at Rackspace.com’s secure data center.  It includes these key security considerations:

 

• No physical access
• Latest fire suppression
• Diesel and battery backup power
• 3 Redundant communications providers
• App behind Cisco PIX 506E firewall.  Only ports 80 or 443 allowed.
• 24x7 intrusion detection
• GroupSystems handles all backups
• Full-backups weekly & incremental backups nightly

 

Need more information?  A security statement for our hosting service is available from your GroupSystems Account Representative.

On-Premise (Installed Solution) – ThinkTank is also available for installation on your servers.  The licensing options are either a traditional perpetual license or an annual subscription.  You are in control of your full configuration and hardware. This solution can be used for portable rigs as well as full servers behind client configured firewalls.  You are responsible for all hardware and backups.

 

Does ThinkTank support SSL (secure sockets layer) data encryption?

 

Yes.  On our hosted server, users merely need to login using https in the URL to activate SSL encryption.  Our hosted server has installed the Thawte Premium Server certificate authority. For On-Premise installations of ThinkTank, the system administrator must install a security certificate in order to enable SSL.

 

How much training do I need to master ThinkTank?

 

Most experienced GroupSystems Session Leaders should be able to transition to ThinkTank with just 1-2 hours of training.  For new users, we provide on-site or on-line training courses that vary in length from 4 to 12 hours.  With longer class time there is greater the opportunity for in-class, mentored practice sessions that are tailored to your organization’s needs.   Also, with our process template library you and your teams can be up and running on new applications very quickly.  Your GroupSystems account manager can brief you further. 

 

What is your online help offering? 

 

Press F1 to open the help file.

 

How much data can I store in ThinkTank? 

 

Each workspace on ThinkTank gets 250 Meg of complimentary disk space.  Additional disk space is available for purchase.

 

What is the maximum file size I can upload? 

 

5MB is the current max document size. File sizes on average are approximately 300-500k per file. Since each customer gets 250 Meg of complimentary disk space, you can upload approximately 833 files before you run out of space.

 

Current GS Customers

 

What is the future of GroupSystems II?

 

ThinkTank is planned as the replacement to GS II.  All GS II customers who are current on their maintenance agreements get ThinkTank at no charge.  No further enhancements are planned for GS II.  The GSII hosting service has been discontinued.

 

What is the future of Workgroup and MeetingRoom?

 

Version 2.0 of ThinkTank represents a milestone in that most of the key capabilities of these products is now available in ThinkTank.  We are urging customers to upgrade to this modern platform.  Furthermore, as a 64 or 32bit architecture, Microsoft Vista will not run older, 16-bit products like Workgroup and MeetingRoom.  However, GroupSystems will continue to support these products throughout 2007.  We have not decided conclusively if we will offer future enhancements to these products.. 

 

Can I import existing GSII or Workgroup meetings into ThinkTank?

 

The 2.0 release of ThinkTank does not include the ability to import data from GS II or Workgroup/Meeting Room.  We will consider this for a future release.  Please contact us if this is an important issue for you.  In the meantime, this process will help you manually transition your meetings to ThinkTank: First, generate a Word report from GSII or Workgroup.  Highlight the needed text in Word and copy it to your clipboard. Use ThinkTank’ Copy Special button to paste your text into a ThinkTank session. 

 

Security and Accessibility

 

What security measures are in ThinkTank?

 

ThinkTank supports SSL encryption of the data transmitted between the user and the server.  This is the standard that banks use when providing online access to individual accounts.  In addition, each Session Leader must be named and authenticated with a password.  The Session Leader establishes a unique passkey for each meeting they create and they can control distribution of that passkey. 

 

Does ThinkTank meet Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines?

 

Section 508 Compliance for Participants is included in release 2.0 of ThinkTank.

 

Technology

 

What software and hardware do I need to participate in a ThinkTank session?

 

Client Requirements

 

• Windows 2000, XP with IE 5.5+ or Firefox 1.0+
• Mac OS-X with Firefox 1.0+
• Linux (tested on RedHat Fedora Core 3) with Firefox 1.0+
• Software: Flash 7+
• Hardware Minimum: 0.8 GHz processor, 256MB RAM
• Hardware Suggested: 2.0 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM

 

What are ThinkTank’s Server requirements?

 

Server Requirements

 

• Operating System: Windows 2000 Server, Server 2003
• Database Software: MySQL 5.0+
• Hardware Minimum: 1.6 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM
• Hardware Suggested: 2.4 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM

 

Can ThinkTank support other web application servers or databases?

 

ThinkTank currently comes installed with JBoss as its web application server and MySQL as its database. However, our architecture was designed so that the web server and the database can be replaced with almost any application server or database. Because of other competing development priorities we have not yet tackled those issues. We plan to support additional databases and web servers in Q4 2007. In the meantime, we are open to accelerating this on our priority list if a customer is interested in sponsoring the development and testing effort. In the meantime, should you wish to install ThinkTank, the application server and database that come with the application are largely hidden. Our other customers have not found it a burden to install or support either of them.

 

Will ThinkTank run over a Modem?  What bandwidth is recommended?

 

ThinkTank will run over a low bandwidth connection such as a 56Kbps modem dial-up connection.  However, your experience will be more productive over a higher speed connection such as a T-1 line.

 

How can I make my installed version of ThinkTank available to external customers?

 

ThinkTank acts as a standard web server. You can make ThinkTank available to your customers either internally or externally by opening up ports 80 and 443 in your firewall. However, please check our license agreement to be certain your intended use is allowed.

 

Is ThinkTank Microsoft Logo compliant?

 

To qualify for the Certified for Windows Server logo, an application must be tested by VeriTest, an independent company, for compliance with logo certification specifications. These specifications provide concise guidelines for application developers to use in optimizing applications that run on the Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server platforms. These certification standards apply to both Microsoft and third-party server applications. ThinkTank is built on an architecture of open source products such as JBOSS and MySQL.  As a result GroupSystems relies on the open source development model to insure ThinkTank can successfully run on Windows Servers. GroupSystems has not attempted the Microsoft Logo compliance process.  However, we have many successful installations of our product on Windows Servers, including our own hosting server.