Yammer, which looks cool mainly cause it looks just like Facebook by Sun
A lot of companies deploy a lot of disjointed, expensive software to help people work together. These apps suck because they focus on specific tasks (timesheets, email, documents) rather than on the point (working together). Social networks are really good at that task, but they don’t mix well with work. To that end, products like Chatter and Yammer enable companies to set up social nets in-house (NYTimes).
This is cool. My only question is, what if Facebook and LinkedIn decide to get into the game? What both companies sorta suck at is segmentation. They’re better than the previous anonymous/username based Internet where no one knows you’re a dog. They’re still, however, learning to divide up social networks into usable chunks the way, say, walls do. Not that this division isn’t possible, but it’s not easy.
Back in the day the hot products were Backpack and Basecamp . With plugins like BuddyPress you can make WordPress into a pretty functional social blog. The question is really what people with use, and they generally use whatever people are using (even if that product isn’t ideal). Thus, inertia matters.
So, while start-ups are entering this space, as soon as it starts moving serious numbers, the big boys will get into the game. Actually, they should probably get into it before. But who knows. Innovation comes from random places, and within business there is certainly a need. Personally, I’ve had about enough of logging into five different systems to verify that I’m a human being. Yes, I’m here. Now let me work.