Facebook at work : now it is possible, this is called Workplace – The Parisian

Riche of his worldwide success, Facebook has launched this Monday its version for the desktop, called the Workplace (workplace English). This version, pay, the most popular social network in the world (that displays more than 1.7 billion users in July) intends to propose to companies, associations or NGOS an internal network more simple that traditional intranets, while also providing a platform of direct communication to replace, in part, sending of e-mails between employees and colleagues.

Baptized before “Facebook at work” (Facebook at work) as long as he was at the stage of the project, this new tool for collaboration in real time is developed for two years by the u.s. giant in its offices in london and already tested in beta by a thousand companies in the world.

“We replace things that already exist by bringing them together in one tool that will allow users to have a wall of information — such as on their private profile –, Facebook live, videochat, etc,” says Julien Codorniou, director general of the Workplace, stating that “95% of what we’ve developed on Facebook is built-in to Workplace.” The giant of the Internet so well on the habit of its private users to adopt, to the office, their platform for the exchange of information favorite.

However, there is no need to have an account with Facebook staff to use Workplace. On the contrary, this separate tool respects the independence of the entities and provides its user with the ability to connect with his e-mail address. Similarly, Workplace displays the seriousness of the grey as the dominant color and not the blue that is typical of the personal version.

Accessible on computer as on mobile phone or tablet, the platform Workplace is available to all businesses, from SMES to multinational. This new professional social network will also allow partner companies to create secret groups on the model of those already existing on Facebook. Workplace specific in this regard cannot be allowed to pass through the data, which shall remain the property of the companies.

in recent will pay a subscription of 1 to 3 dollar (ujn little less than euros) per employee attached and by month, depending on the size of their structure. NGOS and structures such as large schools will be able to, they, receive the service free of charge.

Respond quickly

“For the time being, we will have 1000 companies, which have created 100000 groups, having already switched on the Workplace prior to its worldwide launch,” noted Mr. Codorniou, who says that Workplace, that incorporates the principles of use of its predecessor, requires no training, especially for someone who already uses Facebook as a private.

Among these companies, groups such as Danone or Booking.com, financial corporations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland or the NGO Oxfam or Save the Children.

Danone, where some 5,000 employees have tested the platform in fifteen months, wants to switch its 100000 employees on Workplace by the end of the first quarter of 2017, ahead of Francisco Camacho, director general of the pole waters of Danone. For him, the main asset of the Workplace lies in its design that is oriented towards use on a mobile device in the first : “people are more mobile today, and when they have the platform in their hands, they can exchange [of information] more quickly, share ideas more quickly and react more quickly”, he explains to AFP.

Where is the border between work and private life

However, the new platform will not fail to raise questions about the boundaries between professional and private life, at the time or a lot of employees do not disconnect never really outside official hours of work.

“Facebook has never really been something that pushes them to work, but rather the opposite : how to make his social life more rich,” by sharing more of texts, photos and videos with friends, family, and friends, advanced however, Craig Le Clair, an analyst at Forrester, for which the main challenge for Facebook will be to evolve its image.

To win, the american giant hopes in any case to be able to rely on his strike force. The social network business Workplace is already available in 100 languages : “This is a potential market of 2.5 billion employees in the world, which is not the target person currently. We have the ambition to connect the world, what passes in the world of business”, concludes Julien Cordoniou.