Eventually, a known way to connect within your organisation with Workplace by Facebook. It was launched on October 10, 2016 with an objective to bring its immensely popular social network into the world of business. A fully business based version of Facebook with look and functions similar to that of Facebook. Account of Workplace and Facebook are different, so no need to worry about your personal and business life getting mixed.
How does it work
Registering for a workplace is completely different from your personal Facebook profile. You need to get register with your work email address. After getting registered, Workplace will notify if there are other users from your domain. Everyone has a profile, a newsfeed, the ability to join groups, video chat, instant messaging, file storage space and so forth. It has everything you need, regardless of the size of company.
When a company sets up an account in Workplace by Facebook, it can form different groups based on company size from smaller to larger groups, or by department, location. When members join, more groups are formed and leads to better interaction within the employees. The company can also customise settings based on different users, privacy settings and can grant privilege to administrators. The company administrators can monitor data of how much content are generated and the messages inflow and outflow.
Benefits for Organization & its Employee
The greatest advantage of having Workplace in an organisation is because of Facebook. The most popular social networking app Facebook is quite familiar and user-friendly among users from all over the world. So when Workplace was introduced into the business world, many were curious to use the app, as they were already familiar with its features, instead of learning something new.
With Workplace by Facebook it connects almost everyone in the company. For a larger company having branches at different location it is practically not possible to know each and every one. But having everyone on workplace we get to know each other, about their roles, location and much more. A lot of important information and office functions are shared and discussed.
Its tool like instant messaging allows colleagues to chat or set up video calls. Groups can be created which are focussed on specific projects, department meetings and much more. Live video streaming allows to engage with large number of employees at once.
Even if an employee is away from the office or is in vacation it’s easy for him to contact his team or co-workers. You don’t need an email or phone numbers of your co-workers to contact them. You just need to install the software in your phone and stay up-to-date with all the latest news feed, updates, and stay in touch with your associates. Workplace profiles give users the ability to add more information about their jobs, work roles, departments, organizations, and a biography field for personal details.
Plans and Pricing
With its launch in October 2016, Workplace by Facebook didn’t offer a free version. The premium subscriptions opened to companies, with prices starting at $3.00 per active user per month for the first 1,000 people. After the first 1,000 people, the price drops for the next 9,000 people and costs $2.00 each per month. Beyond 10,000 the cost goes down to $1.00 each per month.
Note – The word “active” is significant to the pricing model. You aren’t charged for users who don’t log in during any given month. In other words, if people in your company aren’t using the tool, you don’t get have to pay for them. That’s a very reasonable approach.
A free Standard version of Workplace with fewer features was announced in April 2017. It lacks some of the features that you can’t integrate with third-party storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. and you don’t get any features that are classified as “enterprise”.
Non-profit organizations and educational institutions can get the Premium version for free. Facebook tracks your active users and bills you accordingly each month. There’s no option to pay for a year in advance or to avail any discounts.
It’s Competitors
Workplace is more of a collaboration software and has the potential to change the collaboration game. It integrates with much of the same software available with other collaboration software. It is a serious challenge to other collaboration platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Atlassian , Igloo, Jive and so on. Workplace integration with cloud platforms including Box, Google Drive, One Drive and Salesforce has put him in a good position to leave behind some of the biggest collaboration software players. It also made mobile apps available for iOS and Android devices which added to its advantage.
In price and familiarity it beats all. For years of Facebook usability it practically has no learning curve with its business model – Workplace. Putting price into perspective, it also leave behind its competitors. For example, Igloo Software costs $8.00 – $12.00 per user per month. Jive recently switched to custom pricing although previously it cost $5.00 – $16.00 per user per month. Microsoft Yammer charges around $3.00 per user per month for its Enterprise account. Slack costs $8.00 per user per month for a standard account. So it leaves all its competitors way behind in terms of pricing.
Outcome
Yes, Definitely. It is one of a great way to interact with co-workers in enterprise. And with the immense popularity of Facebook , it has built a platform with Workplace that new users find friendly to use in the organizations. Already, it has 14,000 organizations worldwide using its business collaboration app.
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