What Is A Social Business Platform?

March 15 2012 08:30:00 AM Add/Read Comments [4]
I´ve got a feverWhen asked what makes a product a "social business platform", the criteria I'm currently providing is:

1. Employees must view it as a primary destination for getting work done, not a secondary system that augments the tasks they do throughout the day.
2. It must provide core collaboration components such as dashboards, activity streams/notification, profiles, content creation, analytics, mobile access, etc. without requiring 3rd party integration.
3. It must have an API to allow customers and business partners to extend the core functionality and product integration not available out of the box in #2. Support of industry standards is a bonus, as it makes development easier. (ex: OpenSocial)

Now there are lots of great niche tools out there that don't fit this definition and that's ok. Not everything has to be a platform.

I originally started this conversation on Google+
  1. Brent Peters
    1 | 3/15/2012 8:55:23 AM

    Number 3, is this required on extensibility on the (from the) server-side(REST/ATOM), client-side (view), or Both?

  2. Alan Lepofsky
    2 | 3/15/2012 10:11:47 AM

    Hi Brent, thanks for the great question. "Both" is probably the best answer, as my thinking is around adding extra functionaility or product integration that is not out of the box in #2. I will also modify #3 to include use of open standards.

  3. Fabian Carlos
    3 | 3/18/2012 3:37:50 AM

    Yes, I'm agree with you. Social business platform mainly depends on the customer demand. I think your 3 key points are necessary in order to build up a social business. You no. 2 key point need to modify slightly.

    Thanks for sharing this post.

  4. Alan Lepofsky
    4 | 3/19/2012 7:58:04 AM

    Thank you Fabian. In what way would you like to see me modify #2?