Facebook at Work goes Corporate and Enterprise - 1.3 billion Active Monthly users is Riding BYOD Trend via Familiarity

“We know that people use Facebook to connect and collaborate. The same way we connect people, we want to connect coworkers. Internally at Facebook we've been using our product for years, and now we're ready to start testing Facebook at Work with a handful of partners”

Facebook spokespersons via email to CNET News explaining what Facebook at Work hopes to achieve

Facebook is getting serious about Work.

So on Wednesday January 14^th 2015, they’ve launched Facebook at Work, a new Private Cloud based version of Facebook that fosters collaborative work while being separated from the main Facebook  website as reported in the article “Facebook at Work aims to get on boss' good side”, published January 14, 2015 10:24 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

Facebook at Work is basically a Facebook Mobile App with no advertisements and no connection to the main Social Network as was initially reported last year November 2014 in the article “Facebook preparing new website for office use: FT”, published Wednesday, November 19, 2014 , The Jamaica Observer and “Facebook Takes On Tech Giants With Social Network For The Workplace”, Published Wednesday November 19, 2014, By Hannah Kuchler, The Jamaica Gleaner.

In essence, what Facebook was BEFORE it became very commercialized but with all the advanced features of the modern Facebook, including collaborative tools to boost workflow productivity at work. Available on Google Play Store and Apple iTunes store, it can only be downloaded and used by partners who’ve agreed to trial the App.

 It’s the traditional features of Facebook combined with Document editing and collaborative work tools e.g. VoIP, Group IM, etc. to make work possible in a Facebook-like environment.

Somewhat like working at Facebook, actually!

Rather than being a distraction, Facebook at Work hopes to foster better communications among the workers in a company with more than 100 employees sans the distraction. The familiarity by virtue of the fact that it works just like Facebook will make adoption easier while the Closed  Network and lack of advertising will ease fears among Manager and Network Administrators wary of internal information leaking out and viruses.

Think of it as a Facebook Rooms but for Corporate and Enterprise as well as SME's as described in my blog article entitled “Facebook launches Facebook Rooms - The 90’s Return as Facebook faces competition from Anonymous Mobile Social Networks”

Facebook at Work goes Corporate and Enterprise - Riding BYOD Trend via Familiarity  

Facebook at Work may also be Facebook 's answer to such collaborative work trolls as Microsoft's Yammer, VMWare's Socialcast and Convo that combine Social Media with IM (Instant Messaging) and VoIP Calling to empower smartphone toting users to work better.

It’ll also be able to compete effectively against Social Networks such as LinkedIn, which are great for working professionals but has limited Social Collaborative Tools. Plus, Facebook has one big advantage over these Social Networks; it’s sheer popularity and diversity across continents, languages via its other two (2) Social Network platforms means Facebook at Work will soon find many willing partners.

Facebook has some 1.3 billion active users monthly along with WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook that has some 700 Active Monthly Users as explained in my blog article entitled “WhatsApp reaches 700 million Active Monthly Users - Double Blue Checkmarks from China, Japan and South Korea and Russia with Love”.  

Like those other platforms, they make money from contracts with Corporate and Enterprise clients as well as SME (Smaller Medium Enterprise) for access to license the use of the App for their employees as well as access to their private Cloud, be it hosted by Facebook  or licensed to be hosted within the company on their own internal servers.

It also has dash of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) as the smartphones being used to create this ad-free workspace based on Social Media uses the workers own smartphone via a Cloud based App not connected directly to Facebook, falls in line with prediction of App development to suite Corporate and Enterprise Clients as predicted in my blog article entitled “How BYOD trend in Jamaica will require Local Jamaican Developers to develope Enterprise and Corporate Apps”.

Best of all, Facebook  actually uses this product in-house, as apparently being as they’re a social Network themselves, they have to allow their employees to communicate without leaking information their OWN Facebook  Social Network as noted in the article “Facebook Unveils Facebook at Work, Lets Businesses Create Their Own Social Networks”, published 14.01.2015 by Ingrid Lunden, Techcrunch.

So with BYOD in full swing in most workplaces as they seek to save on cash by not issuing smartphones to employees, will Facebook at Work also be coming to Jamaica as a Work Productivity tool, being as Facebook is already familiar and popular with workers during their breaks?

Facebook at Work will be a success, so long as it’s not a distraction with people using the IM to chat all day and Facebook can keep a Corporate Secret.....secret!

Facebook at work for Google Play Store

Facebook at Work for Apple iTunes Store