One thing I don’t want getting lost in the hubbub of how Microsoft’s platform is going social is the powerful social applications– and as importantly, the thought leadership– coming out of Denver, Colorado based NewsGator.
While their Social Sites product may no longer be the default weapon of choice for Microsoft field reps trying to combat the dark tides of Jive and Chatter, I’d argue that NewsGator is actually more relevant in this brave new Yammer world Microsoft is forging. While Microsoft orients Yammer to think about the platform, NewsGator is free to innovate and improve on what they’ve always done best: social business for its own sake.
As a pure play social vendor but dedicated to the Microsoft platform, NewsGator is even more important now than it was a year ago. The Microsoft platform is the dominant platform for enterprise productivity, and NewsGator is committed to it– unlike the above referenced Jive and Chatter– but unlike Microsoft itself, NewsGator isn’t concerned with protecting Office’s market share. They just want to help businesses get more value with social tools, plain and simple.
They’re still doing it– and will be doing it well going forward too– as both Forrester’s Rob Koplowitz and I separately noted in our joint webinar earlier this spring. More evidence is available in a blog post recently published by NewsGator CEO Daniel Kraft, highlighting the ways enterprise social was in use at last week’s SHARE Conference.
Making money, sure. Drinking beer? Interesting. Saving children?
Whoa, seriously? You can do that with enterprise social tools?
Check it out and see for yourself.
