Companies can now use Facebook's internal workplace app

While many managers struggle to keep their employees off social media during working hours, Facebook employees have been actively encouraged to use the app at work for years. After realising other companies could benefit from using a dedicated Facebook for the workplace, the company worked with over 1,000 organisations to introduce Facebook at Work to their businesses. Now, it's available to any company or organisation that wants to use it.

Facebook announced the worldwide launch of its new service earlier this week. The solution, appropriately named Workplace, offers Facebook's familiar infrastructure with features like news feed, groups, chat, live, and trending. The company has also added unique, Workplace-only features such as a dashboard with analytics and identity providers that allow companies to more easily integrate Workplace with their existing IT system.

Managers who aren't sure about actively inviting Facebook into their workplace given its reputation as one of the top procrastination tools can rest assured, as Workplace is completely separate from personal Facebook accounts. Furthermore, in contrast to the consumer version of Facebook, companies retain ownership of the data their employees post into Workplace, and have mechanisms to manage and export that information.

Where Facebook is free, companies do have to pay for Workplace, with pricing set per active user, per month. Companies will pay US$3 for each of the first 1,000 active users. Additional users (up to 10,000) are charged at US$2 and beyond 10,000 each person costs US$1 per month.

Companies like Danone, Starbucks, RBS, and the Government Technology Agency of Singapore are already using Workplace. A shipping company now connects with their ship crews via Live video using Workplace, and a bank uses the application instead of fax machines and newsletters to share updates with its distributed bank branches.

In a press release regarding the launch, the company states: "The new global and mobile workplace isn't about closed-door meetings or keeping people separated by title, department or geography. Organisations are stronger and more productive when everyone comes together".

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Photo / Facebook