Dresdner Kleinwort offices

Two European companies, Finnish handset-maker Nokia and investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort, two years ago began to experiment internally with wikis - collaborative tools that let users build and continually edit web pages, allowing the sharing of ideas or monitoring project status.

Today, both companies' employees are more efficient, cutting email traffic dramatically, reports Business Week. And information that would normally take weeks for employees to compile, like traffic data on dozens of websites, can now be looked up in seconds.

Alex Thill, head of e-commerce at Dresdner Kleinwort, says using the wiki along with blogs and instant messaging has cut down his email use at least 75 percent, and his colleagues have reported similar results.

Geographically dispersed colleagues contribute changes and ideas directly on the Dresdner Kleinwort wiki rather than via a raft of emails, often loaded with Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

"It means we're all on the same platform," Thill says, "so it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you're connected and you're contributing."