Facebook At Work Slated For Launch Next Month To Challenge Yammer And Slack

Roland Moore-Colyer,

The enterprise version of the social network looks to take on Yammer, Slack and other collaboration tools

Facebook At Work is set to launch next month, bringing an enterprise version of the social network to the business world.

The Information reported that Facebook At Work is a few weeks away from its launch and will be charged at a monthly price per user rate. This model should ensure that companies opting to use the service only pay for its use, rather than sign up for an allotted number of users.

Facebook At Work

collaborationFacebook has been developing the work version of its social network for the past two years, with testing underway in 2015, with notable customers such as the Royal Bank of Scotland where it has been well-received.

“I’ve already been using Facebook At Work while we test it and it’s been so useful – allowing me to exchange information and ideas quickly and securely with all my team on a wide range of projects,” said Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer.

While many people access Facebook while in an office environment, Facebook At Work is a rather different beast, aimed at enabling enterprise-wide collaboration as opposed to posting updates on engagements, babies and food.

When it is fully released to the enterprise world, Facebook At Work will squarely compete with the likes of Yammer, Slack, Jive and other business-orientated social network services.

Taking on established players in the market is a bold move, but Facebook At Work has evolved out of a social network which Facebook’s own employees have been using, so the service is probably more mature that it would first appear to be.

Furthermore, the Facebook brand and the massive appeal of its core social network could go some way to encourage its adoption, as companies are likely to sign up for tools that have interfaces that their employees are probably familiar with from using similar software at home on PCs, tablets and smartphones.

If Facebook is to find success in the entries world, it will need to ensure that Facebook At Work has robust security, as businesses are likely to not be forgiving of security holes such as those recently found in Messenger and Facebook Chat.

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