Published on the 16/05/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Plans to launch a tool able to integrate content from SAP, Oracle and Salesforce systems with SharePoint social networking plug-in NewsGator are on track for a June release…
Enterprise social networking specialist NewsGator has confirmed that it is on track for a June release of tools that will allow users of SAP, Oracle PeopleSoft and Salesforce to bring content from those systems directly into their in-house social networking system. This, for example, could allow an executive to approve an expenses request filed in SAP without ever leaving the company’s internal social network.
With local clients including Telstra, AMP, Stockland and the Reserve Bank of Australia, NewsGator is establishing itself as a serious rival to alternative enterprise social systems such as Yammer.
The company’s director of business development in Asia Pacific, Cuneyt Uysal on a visit to Australia this week said that McKinsey & Co had last year released research exploring the business value of enterprise social networking and found that there were opportunities for 20-25 percent productivity improvements among knowledge workers if they were provided with effective communications and collaborations tools.
He also said that the McKinsey report found socially engaged companies reported up to 200 percent improvements in innovation capability.
NewsGator is a plug-in for Microsoft’s SharePoint system, and uses its content and search capabilities to serve up relevant information for users. Unlike non enterprise-grade social networks the system can be sculpted to fit corporate needs – for example only providing access to information on a need-to-know basis.
According to Uysal, “social is a new lens on the information that’s in there,” and full benefits would only accrue to those organisations that deployed the system widely and developed effective social media policies. He also acknowledged that to create the richer social content – which could take in information from other enterprise applications such as SAP – enterprises would need to rework their information systems to ensure data could be moved from one application to the social platform.
He said the company would shortly announce a deal with a global IT services company which would be able to support users in this regard.
