Social Networking is Going Corporate

As I was reading newspapers this past week, I came across a great article that gave some good insight as to how businesses are adjusting in order to continue to be successful and keep their workforces "together". Internal social networks makes sense as companies struggle with a slumping economy that has made travel cost-prohibitive even as workforces are spread out as never before. No, we are not just packing it in and going home or shutting down. Companies are asking themselves "How can we make our workforce more productive?" Well, the popularity of social networking has been used more and more over the past few months to improve productivity and communication among workers. Public sites include Facebook and Linked-in. An employee-only site, or intranet, is an excellent format for geographically dispersed organizations to communicate and elicit ideas from their peers and co-workers. Studies show that 85% of all employees work on projects with colleagues in other offices. Private social networks let people choose what they want to read and discuss, based on their participation, without being intrusive and annoying. They also cut down on unnecessary e-mail and instant messages among co-workers, and the sites can be accessed over the Internet.

So if you have been wondering just how you can keep your dispersed workforce together when travel may not be the best option, think about social networks. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 has great social networking capabilities and it enables you to maximize the use of what you currently have in your environment. There is no need to purchase another component if you are already running Office SharePoint Server 2007. If you are running Windows Sever 2003 or 2008, then you are already licensed to run Windows SharePoint Services v3, which is the prerequisite of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. It provides the foundation for having that centralized collaborative environment. Windows SharePoint Server v3 is a free download if you are currently on v2.

Maximize what you currently have and save money and increase productivity at the same time. I you want to know more about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, please see our home page that has lots of resources for you – here.

Have a great weekend.

Stephanie