We’re Riding a Big Wave and Loving It

In case it wasn’t clear before, the release of Forrester Research Inc.’s first ever August 2011 “The Forrester Wave™:  Enterprise Social Platforms, Q3 2011” report further cements what we at NewsGator have been experiencing first hand – enterprise social is not a niche, fad, or point solution, it is the future of work in the enterprise and that future is now.

NewsGator is positioned solidly among the handful of Enterprise Social Platform leaders, all selected, “due to breadth and depth of functionality and long-range strategy.” That last part is key. We were early into the social computing revolution and our close relationship with Microsoft gave us an inside track on delivering social capabilities to the enterprise as a global platform capability – not just a siloed, point solution.

When we first partnered with Microsoft and began building what would become Social Sites, it was with a goal of targeting the entire enterprise, infusing it with a new connective tissue for communicating, collaborating, and working.

As the particular features and functionality of enterprise social collaboration have emerged and matured in the market, that broad original vision has proven a valuable edge – both for us in the marketplace and for our customers in the real world of work.

Companies adopting enterprise social computing are both tempted by the real world benefits of the technology (e.g. better communication, higher productivity, increased innovation, easier expertise discovery) and challenged by today’s economic times. They must make the most out of existing IT investments while avoiding the type of integration expeditions that were legendary in the cash flush dot com days.

Built directly on top of SharePoint, our Social Sites 2010 product gives companies the advanced social collaboration benefits they want, enterprise-wide, with no fuss, no drama. And our agile development focus on pushing what’s possible in social ensures their platform investment will always be kept at the forefront of what’s new and best.

The enterprise social computing wave is growing and we’re glad to be out front riding it. Congratulations to the NewsGator team for this great accomplishment!