Insights into Workgroups: Exploring the Event Log of Enterprise Collaboration Systems

This empirical study investigates how multiple workgroups use Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) to support research, teaching, and administrative tasks at an academic research centre. ECS event logs are used to provide detailed insights into the collaborative work of these workgroups. We harmonised event logs from two HCL Connections instances and one ISW Huddo Boards instance using the unified C-log format . Additionally, we coded each record in the event log using the high-level Collaborative Work Codes (HL-CWC): Communication, Content, Cooperation, and Coordination. An MS Power BI dashboard is developed for data visualisation and exploration of the HL-CWC on system-, workspace-, and account-level. Nine workspaces are selected that represent the main activities of the workgroups within the ECS. In total, 13,280 events from four full calendar years (’21-’24) are considered in the analysis. Findings reveal that ECS usage is dominated by content creation/management and that coordination activities vary significantly between workspaces. Our temporal analysis uncovers shifts in collaborative work patterns driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the return to office-based work. By applying the CWC to the event log data, this research provides insights into collaborative activity within ECS, offering a foundation for understanding collaborative work in the digital workplace.