Line of Business
Cash in on Microsoft SharePoint's social tools
Microsoft is integrating more social networking features into its SharePoint 2010 to keep up with nimbler companies that sell social software to enterprises.3/9/2010 6:00:00 AM By: Shane O'Neill
If anyone still thinks "Enterprise 2.0" is just a catchphrase, think again.
Wikis, microblogging, discussion forums, social bookmarking, online groups and communities, and other tools that have come to comprise "social networking software" are marching into enterprises at a rapid clip.
Just ask any beleaguered CIO.
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Workers, particularly younger ones, are demanding that the social tools they use via Facebook and Twitter spill over into the workplace. In addition, the cultural clashes that once prevented senior management from adopting social tools are waning.
Ironically, no one knows this more than Microsoft (MSFT), and with the upcoming release of SharePoint 2010, the company is integrating more social networking features to keep up with nimbler companies that sell social software to enterprises.
Nearly all of the main Enterprise 2.0 vendors - SocialText, Jive, Newsgator, Atlassian - have built their social apps to be compatible with SharePoint. The fledgling vendors strategy - and hope, it would appear - is that entrenched customers will integrate their tools into the big mother ship SharePoint.
Yet at the same time these vendors compete with Sharepoint, and that competition will only increase when the more social-friendly SharePoint 2010 ships.
Page Navigation 1) More workers are clamouring for social tools in the workplace. - Page 12) Some companies already integrating social tools into SharePoint. - Page 2
3) Social software vendors still need to adjust to SharePoint. - Page 3
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