'Net Features : social software

Worst Kept Secret – Execs Say Social is Critical

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:50:00 GMT

Social business software company Jive Software released results from a study which revealed that social business is “increasingly perceived as a strategic executive imperative in the enterprise” to which you should say – no kidding.

The Jive Social Business Index 2011 however does reveal some more meaningful information. For example:

- 53% believe they must adopt a more social business approach
- 62% cite the potential to achieve "better customer loyalty and service levels"
- 57 percent anticipate "increased revenue or sales" as a result of implementation

Perhaps the most interesting bit of data was that the degree that online communities play in the decision making process. The survey revealed that online communities are an important source of information for making purchase decisions, especially for millennials. Fifty-four percent of millennials said that they are more likely to rely on and make purchase decisions from information shared via personal contacts in online communities versus 33 percent more likely to use information from "official" company sources.

Social Software Maturing: Too Little, Too Late?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:20:00 GMT

Social software vendors are increasingly focusing on scenario-specific solutions and analytics according to new research released today by CMS Watch.

CMS Watch's Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report 2009 evaluated twenty-seven social computing platforms against eleven enterprise use-cases. Vendors reviewed include IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Jive, Telligent, Awareness, Drupal, SocialText, blueKiwi, Wordpress, Atlassian, Lithium, and Ning.

Despite some notable exceptions among wiki vendors, Social Software suppliers in 2009 are easing their pace of feature expansion, placing more emphasis instead on things like performance and analytics. According to the report, "Despite some notable exceptions among wiki vendors, Social Software suppliers in 2009 are easing their pace of feature expansion in favor of better solutioneering and productization, with more emphasis on things like performance and analytics," noted CMS Watch founder, Tony Byrne. "In other words, they're growing up."

CMS Watch also found Social Software vendors settling into traditional categories, including best-of-breed vs suite vs platform; SaaS vs installed; and open source vs commercial. "Customers have many good choices," adds Byrne. Other findings from CMS Watch include:

System and administrative services - things like back-up, archiving, and multi-instance management services - still remain weak across the board in this marketplace
"Cloud" computing is beginning to impact the Social Software market and blur line between on-premise and SaaS, as more vendors employ services from Amazon and others
SharePoint 2010 could still become a disrupter if Redmond dramatically improves the platform's social networking services, but it is too late for SharePoint to dominate across Social Software use-cases in an increasingly crowded marketplace

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White Label Mobile Social Media: Next2Friends

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Back in October, mobile-social media platform Next2Friends announced that its live mobile video broadcasting application and suite of social software for online communities would be provided as a white label managed service offering.

The suite of applications and features provide Web community marketers an opportunity to build a robust micro-community in a space dominated by massive networks. Users of a white label system like Next2Friends can get more out of their mobile/social lives by chatting, video messaging, blogging, sending email, setting up profiles, networking - you name the social media feature - and marketers have an opportunity to monetize on the interaction (for revenue or greater brand exposure).

Clearly Next2Friends cannot stand by itself (there are many competitors in the space), but by white-labeling these offerings, Next2Friends has a business model to help it compete with the likes of MySpace, Facebook and the hundreds of other providers. I was unable to locate any pricing information or terms of use on the Next2Friends corporate website.

Social Software Lacks System/Admin Services

Administrator — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:02:00 GMT

CMS Watch today released research which revealed that social software technologies can improve collaboration and networking within and beyond the enterprise, but a general dearth of system and administrative services brings greater long-term risks as customers look to extend from workgroup installations to enterprise-wide deployments.

"Once you get beyond the experimental or pilot stage, certain services like configuration management, information lifecycle management, clustering/failover, back-up/restoration, multi-instance management, and internationalization become critical to long-term application viability" notes CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne. "Yet those are the very areas where most Social Software tools fall down, even ones from established vendors."

The report also found:

- Social Software technology categories range from Platform offerings (from the likes of IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, and Google), to Standalone Suites (from Jive, Traction, Awareness, and others), to numerous viable pure-playBlog and Wiki tools, as well as Public Networks (like Facebook) and White-label Community Services (like Ning, Pluck, and Lithium).

- Enterprise customers show increasing interest in extending internal social tools outside the firewall (and vice-versa), but vendors are struggling to support both environments -- which have substantially different functional, performance, and security profiles -- off the same toolset.

- Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM all actively promote their Social Software products, but each arrived comparatively late on the landscape, and each still relies on heavierweight portal services for key functionality.

The report may be pre-ordered here for delivery Wednesday 18 June. Readers can also download a sample excerpt today.