Facebook has officially introduced Workplace by Facebook (formerly Facebook at Work), an enterprise social network for business communication. The platform, modelled after Facebook’s internal corporate network, takes on the likes of Slack, Microsoft’s Yammer and Google’s Hangout.
Workplace by Facebook will be composed of co-workers only and a separate account is needed to access. It looks very much like the consumer version with the news feed, trending posts, groups, chat, reactions, live and search – though the trademark Blue colour has been replaced by White.
Some of the highlighted features include the dashboard with analytics and integrations with single sign-on (SSO), in addition to identity providers that allow companies to more easily integrate Workplace with their existing IT systems.
Furthermore, a new feature called Multi-Company Groups will be rolling out to all customers in the coming weeks. The new feature allows employees from different organisations work together, to extend collaboration beyond your company in a safe and secure way.
Businesses using workplace are charged a monthly fee per head – $3 for a business’s first 1000 users, $2 each for 1,001 – 10,000 users and $1 each for over 10,000 users. In comparison, Slack charges $6.67 per user monthly for its lowest tier but offers more features like additional storage.
Yammer charges up to $8 per user monthly but is included as part of the whole Office 365 package and Google’s Hangouts which starts at $5 per user is part of the its core range of products. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is partnering with Microsoft and Google by having their products integrated at launch.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
