Using Facebook as a platform for your company’s Intranet
Instead of restricting access to Facebook, Serena Software is embracing it. How? And Why? From Bill Ives blog posting:
Serena is really replacing its existing intranet with Facebook as a front end linked to a low-cost content management system behind the firewall. Here are the reasons why and what they have seen so far. …the firm is just over 800 employees but is still globally based (operations in 18 countries) with 35% of their employees working virtually.
They are going through a major transition as they move from more traditional enterprise applications to web 2.0 mashups. The leadership wanted all employees to be better connected so they could be on the same level of understanding, excitement, and commitment to this transition.
They also thought that using a web 2.0 tool, like Facebook, represented the best way to take the whole company into this new space.
Like many companies their existing intranet was a poor platform for document finding, much less sharing….. I have also seen many unsuccessful intranets that cost large sums so I could certainly understand what René was talking about. One of major flaws of existing intranets, even when they work to find stuff, is the lack of social context. It is difficult to find anything about people. Serena wanted to promote a greater connection between people.
(The emphasis is mine.)
For more on this forward thinking approach, please see Bill Ives’s blog entry here: Portals and KM: Serena has Adopted Facebook as their Intranet