Which Twitter-clone Should Your Company Consider?
Twitter. It's either the stupidest thing on the internet or it's an essential tool in your workday. Most people feel one way or the other about the service and the biggest indicator of which direction anyone goes is whether they've spent more or less than a full day learning how to use the service.
For the scores of people now convinced that a group micromessaging service like Twitter can be powerfully useful, there are few prospects as interesting as the use of such a tool at work - for work. There are lots of different software options, though, and it's hard to know which one to select. Enter a new report from Pistachio Consulting, topic area experts and providers of an excellent new report on the options.
The report is titled "Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison: Nineteen Applications to Revolutionize Employee Effectiveness."
Pitsachio argues that these kinds of tools are good for everything from corporate intelligence to professional development, from bridging silos to reducing email clutter to harnessing loose ties in an organization. As serious "microsharing" users, we believe these benefits are intuitive, realistic and compelling.
The report includes a matrix comparison of nineteen different vendors, from the already commercialized Yammer to still-unlaunched mega app ESME. Data points on the matrix are: inside firewall, directory integration, twitter's functions, Groups, Location, Sharing, SMS, IM , Desktop Client, smartphone app, twitter integration, underlying software platform, API, twiter compatible API, largest company using, largest group and pricing.
Below is an embedded version of the matrix, read on for highlights.
Enterprise Micro Sharing Tools
Highlights
The report says that Twitter itself may soon offer an enterprise tool, based on statements by company CEO Evan Williams. That doesn't necessarily mean that it will be the best option, however. Benefits and reservations are listed for all the tools surveyed, though the ones specifically built by enterprises themselves are the least-reviewed. That's unfortunate.
Some lessons learned from three year-long deployments of these kinds of tools, from companies IBM, Guitar Center and HotTopic, are included in the report.
The Pistachio report is well written and enjoyable to read. It will answer many of your questions about this field and will help point you smartly toward some software options you likely didn't know about before.
Find the full report at the Pistachio website.
Comments
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Although we aren't using an official Twitter-like application, I think that microblogging is not as good a tool for an enterprise as FriendFeed's real time widgets.
I'm personally thinking of implementing a private room for our company and using it as our "Twitter-for-enterprise" app.
The main drawback I see with Twitter is that there's no dialogue/comment threads, and I think it's pretty important to have this funcionality on an enterprise.
Posted by: jorge.jungleg.com
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November 3, 2008 8:57 AM
Actually, Laconi.ca is the open part of identi.ca. Identi.ca is just one of it's many server install instances....that was a small mouthful :)
Posted by: edythemighty | November 3, 2008 10:45 AM
All the Tweeps I know are narcissistic.
Posted by: Private | November 3, 2008 10:54 AM
well it does not include crowdstatus so therefore a waste of a read :p
I think twitter don't need to enter the business market when they are owning the consumer market.
Posted by: Darren Stuart | November 3, 2008 11:21 AM
Let's face it, Twitter is easy to emulate and it would be simple for anyone to add such a service to an intranet.
But where Twitter like functionality is really useful for enterprises is in engaging in simple two way dialogue with customers about their needs and what you can offer. Twitter can act quite adequately in this scenario.
I am not sure the space needs more tools.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
Posted by: Ian Hendry | November 3, 2008 3:09 PM
@marshallk Thanks so much for covering the report.
@JungleG Take a good look at Headmix and Socialcast (see: Integrated microsharing services) which blend significant FriendFeedesque features into their microsharing apps. In fact, we consider FriendFeed to be microsharing. :-)
@edythemighty True, and our early drafts made the Laconi.ca/Identi.ca distinction. However, Evan requested that we use Identica as he is sunsetting "Laconica" as a name. We probably should have made a footnote to the report clarifying that.
Posted by: Laura "Pistachio" Fitton | November 4, 2008 2:53 PM
You say micro-share, I say over-share. I'd like to see evidence showing how (or if) this type of software is truly valuable for enterprises. It's great that Pistachio surveyed vendors with "micro-sharing" products -- but I have a problem with the implied claim in their title: "Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison: Nineteen Applications to Revolutionize Employee Effectiveness". They offer no evidence demonstrating that these tools "revolutionize employee effectiveness", and don't explain how one might go about measuring that.
Posted by: Tracy Allison Altman | November 11, 2008 5:26 PM