I heard from the CIO of a major UK organisation this week in preparation for a forthcoming collaboration event. Asked what sort of questions he had about collaboration, the CIO wanted to know:

How far is collaboration being exploited beyond some pilot implementations?

Who is taking the lead and in what areas?

What big collaboration successes are there? By whom? And how were the benefits realised?

Are companies really pushing this? Or are they just staying in touch to see how it fares?

In current market conditions, is there an RoI for a big investment?
 
I think the actual situation is that many companies and organisations are trying to understand collaboration and then do a "reality check" so  that they can decide their next steps. Smart companies have already done their short-term thinking and taken whatever steps were necessary to ensure survival. Now their CEOs and senior management - in concert with their CIOs - are thinking medium-term and how they can take advantage of an upturn, when it comes, and get ahead of the competition.

Perhaps this is where collaboration will gain significant momentum, where the mindset has truly switched from survival - and for some companies that is already the case - to using whatever tools are necessary to gain competitive advantage.