This era belongs to the social networks. We are indeed the social generation. Whatsapp and facebook are an integral part of our life today. The corporate world is no different. Although Facebook is equipped with variety of features to facilitate corporate networking, there is no denying that it is loaded with far too much from everything to everything. Thus, come in to the picture the Corporate Social Networks, websites catering exclusively to the formal structures.
In this article, we explore and analyze some of the more prominent players in this field.
Yammer
https://www.yammer.com/
Yammer is one of the most eminent names in the corporate social network world. It provides the user organizations with highly sophisticated and professional services by creating virtual office environment with departments, profiles, directories, org charts and much more.
The already lucrative feature list was given further icing with Microsoft acquiring Yammer in 2012. It resulted in incorporation of online versions of Microsoft’s revered office applications with Yammer’s social interface. With all these attributes to boast of, it is no surprise that Yammer is trusted by more than 80% of the fortune 500 companies.
The Winners
- Variety of packages to suit to needs of the users
- Mobile application providing on the go access
- Praise Tab- It allows achievements and praises to be pinned to the profiles of individuals
Drawbacks
- Except for the basic free of cost package, all the other packages are priced at a level that would unsettle the margins of any small or medium scale enterprise, making it a product for the elite.
Huddle
https://www.huddle.com/
Huddle is a Cloud based Collaboration Platform. It is less of a social network and more of a virtual work platform. It is complete on all fronts for organizational functioning. It provides highly organized tabs and an efficient activity trail for supervision. The Task Tab is one of the highlights of the platform which allows creation, allotment and supervision of tasks in an organization.
The use of Huddle by the United Kingdom government itself is a testimony to its efficiency.
The Winners
- You can get a customized look and feel of the application according to your preference.
- High level of organization and efficiency
Drawbacks
- Cumbersome
- Strictly formal and structural, not meant for mundane and casual working
- High pricing
Bitrix24
http://www.bitrix24.com/
Bitrix24 is a social collaboration suite providing services under two versions- cloud and self hosted- according to the client’s preference. Apart from the usual workplace applications, it also provides the clients with video chat and web calling (via VoxImplant) services.
The highlight of this website which sets it apart from the rest is its CRM(Customer Relationship Management) application. It equips the user organization with a highly resourceful and sophisticated interaction interface. It even allows preparation of Invoices.
The Winners
- CRM application is one of its kind.
- Integrated Human resource information system
- Subscription on freemium basis, though the pricing of cloud version is highly reasonable
