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Everyone enjoys getting a pat on the back for a job well done, and the new enterprise social networks seem to be enabling as many backs to be patted as possible.
For example, Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE), which made its reputation providing social networking analytics, on March 28 branched out to launch its new Jive Social Intranet Solution, which is built atop Jive’s own Social Business platform.
“Business are fundamentally social. That’s the way the work gets done,” Jive Vice President of Product Marketing Nathan Rawlins told eWEEK. “People work with other people. Now, for the first time in technology history, IT has caught on to the way people want to work.”
‘Gamification’ the Operative Term
Better get used to the term “gamification.” This is something Jive is using big time in its new intranet.
Gamification is the use of game-design techniques, game-type thinking and mechanics to make non-gaming environments more interesting. For example, in new enterprise social networks like Jive, Moxie, Yammer, Salesforce’s Chatter, BroadVision’s Clearvale and others, colleagues and managers alike can call attention to individual tasks and group projects well performed by awarding “merit badges” of accomplishment to key employees right in the Facebook-like intranet, for the entire company to see.
Other rewards, such as photos or videos of special events like birthdays and anniversaries, also can be posted in this “gamified” intranet, which itself is a term that is returning to more common use.
Studies have shown that peer recognition often ranks nearly high as compensation itself in its desirability among team members inside an enterprise. Employees under the age of 40 have grown up playing video games and are accustomed to earning virtual points, gold stars and other types of awards for performing well against a computer or fellow players. The gamification environment is becoming more familiar to users all the time.
The Jive Social Intranet Solution combines these social features with advanced gamification IT and integration with standard Microsoft applications, such as Outlook, SharePoint and Office.
Old-School Intranets Manage Content, Not People
“Most businesses today rely on traditional intranets as vehicles for companywide communication and team collaboration,” Rawlins told eWEEK. “Traditional intranets, however, are mostly stale, static and siloed. They are built on older-generation technologies designed for managing content, rather than engaging people.”
Jive features include:
- Advanced collaboration: Easy document creation and editing, content sharing, and extensive search capabilities; intelligent recommendations and filtered activity streams, alerting users to the information and experts most important to their work; and enterprise-level controls for security, privacy, permissions and compliance.
- Anytime, anywhere access: Integration with Microsoft Outlook, Office and SharePoint; access from mobile and tablet devices, including Android, Blackberry, iPhone and iPad.
- Integration with legacy systems: The ability to socialize data and interact with legacy systems, right from the social intranet; and migration of old data and content into the new social intranet.
Jive also has its own Apps Market, which includes:
- Gliffy: An easy-to-use diagramming tool for visual communication from within Jive. Embraced by a growing number of businesses, it is a replacement for legacy desktop tools such as Visio and Omnigraffle.
- Goshido: A project collaboration app that can help manage everything from a personal daily to-do list to a companywide, cross-functional multiyear project;
- Spigit: A collaboration platform for the enterprise in which employees and customers can capture, share and execute ideas.
Jive has hundreds of customers, including companies such as Quest Software, Alcatel-Lucent, Bupa International and Prudential.
The Jive Social Intranet Solution is available now, Rawlins said. More information, including pricing, is available in Jive’s Social Intranet Resource Kit.
Chris Preimesberger is eWEEK’s Editor for Features and Analysis. Twitter: @editingwhiz