The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview

1. Summary

The enterprise collaboration space has entered an exciting new phase in the world of collaboration. Not only are new software and applications coming to market, but also new concepts for how to work and communicate in the knowledge age.

Hosted enterprise lite applications — like those from Box.net, Huddle and Basecamp — have grown in popularity over the last two years, and are taking new software past enterprise IT decision-making processes — often unseen. These apps use a freemium business model that allows users to adopt the application initially without charge, and then through a low-cost subscription generally paid for by the employer.

At the same time, a new generation of enterprise-grade software, known as Enterprise 2.0, focused heavily on collaborative work and social networking, has been comparatively slow to make headway. Companies like Jive, Moxie and Traction now face the challenge of offering enterprise-grade collaboration suites while still keeping pace with cheaper, more user-friendly new entrants.

Meanwhile, large enterprise vendors like Microsoft and Oracle have been updating their solutions’ platforms for the enterprise social networking era to mixed reviews, raising the question of whether enterprise vendors “get” the social aspect of work. In this review of new work platforms, we look to consumer-grade services, new and incumbent Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) platforms, extensions to existing platforms or singlefeature offers and the old software ERP vendors.