Enterprises must better integrate social media

Switching between different UC systems and social network platforms is time-consuming, while social media integration can promote the acceptance of tools by social media users.

Enterprise social media can improve employee communication and simplify collaboration. However, it is another thing to ensure the seamless integration of social media into employee workflows.

Employees use e-mails, instant messaging tools, Weibo, and other social network websites for daily work. However, switching between different UC systems and social network platforms is time-consuming, it also affects the application of social media. Suppliers now have noticed the product requirements for integrating social media activities directly into employee workflows.

Social media integration: guiding "Information Taps"

According to Henry Dewing, Chief Analyst of Forrester Research, UC vendors should pay attention to the following, add sessions on Weibo or enterprise social network tools to the production tools and UC platforms they use. "There are so many social media tools, such as Weibo and Renren. People don't want to switch back and forth," he said ."

IGLOO, a provider of social business software, recently released a new enterprise microblog application that can be directly integrated into the enterprise's UC platform or enterprise intranet. Andrew Dixon, vice president of IGLOO sales operations, said: "Just like using Weibo, people can publish Weibo updates in real time. This Weibo application allows employees to publish Weibo posts related to real-time workflow sessions ."

Dixon pointed out that ordinary Weibo services cannot identify the information target source, while IGLOO enterprise Weibo applications are more customizable. An employee can publish questions or comments to a specified colleague or group through an application to eliminate the "Information Water Dragon" problem. He said: "by allowing employees to select information publishing locations, sessions can be passed to information-related staff in a targeted manner ."

Dewing pointed out that the integration of social services on the collaborative platform is the center of the social media trends of large enterprises. Salesforce launched Chatter, an enterprise communication platform that adopts the Facebook interface style, while IBM's social software Sametime integrates the Polycom REALPRESENCE platform. "I think the general trend is to reduce the number of switches on different software," he said ." "Through the IGLOO enterprise Weibo application, communication can be completed in one window." For enterprises, integrating all social media sources into one window is a blessing."

Social media integration can promote the acceptance of tools by social media users.

Dewing pointed out that as social media plays an increasingly important role in the work of its employees, the demand for specialized event stream management and Weibo has become increasingly important. "Five years ago, the mail client was the main communication tool for enterprise employees. Now, the main communication tool has become an instant messaging client ."

Brad Shimmin, chief analyst at Current Analysis, pointed out that the social media integration to optimize enterprise workflows will become an industry standard, but now the supplier has just started the business. "IGLOO adopts a new product architecture that suits the needs of different companies," he said. Their ultimate goal is to give enterprises flexibility and truly enable communication context ."

Enterprises will seek suppliers that can handle different deployment methods, including pure software as a service (SaaS), and can deconstruct products to adapt to enterprise intranets or other communication platforms. Moreover, Shimmin pointed out that these products can serve as a unified knowledge base for employee UC flow and integrate existing products well, which is very important for enterprises.

Dixon pointed out that pushing users to apply social media is not a change in behavior. "Enterprises cannot require people to change their behaviors, such as stopping using e-mails and starting to use social tools for communication," he said. On the contrary, we need to send Weibo messages more efficiently based on the existing common work methods ."

Dewing pointed out that enterprise Weibo and direct integration of communications into people's work environments will have the same effect as email. He said: "I think looking at the enterprise five years later, you will think, 'If you don't have these tools, what should you do? '"