After the enormous success of social networking in the consumer segment, corporates are now

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fast incorporating similar open knowledge-sharing tools to enhance collaboration among employees.

IT services and solutions provider Zylog Systems Ltd (ZSL) has announced the launch of its Enterprise 2.0 computing framework, which will help companies set up their internal social networking tools as well as integrate existing communication platforms.

The social networking framework called SocNet is the first-of-its kind, built on IBM Websphere sMash, which was launched in April. Zylog is IBM’s partner to develop the framework and will together go-to-market, said Shiv Kumar, executive vice president of ZSL Inc.

Though most companies already have internal portals, the usage is minimal because of less or no user participation. The social networking platform helps ideas and information to seamlessly flow within the organisation, he said.

The main advantage of the framework is that it decreases implementation time from a few months to about four to six weeks, he said.

Policy decisions on what to allow or restrict influence the time to implement social networking tools. The medium might be used to broadcast objectionable content or emanate slander.

However, the framework provides general guidelines on what to allow or restrict and hence implementation time is reduced, he added.

Open knowledge sharing within organisations is meant to enhance collaboration and hence innovation. Hence, integration with existing legacy communication systems becomes important. The framework also addresses the concern by enabling service-oriented architecture implementation, said Shiv Kumar.

Social networking platforms are built on web 2.0 technologies, which allow user-generated content in the internet. Forrester Research estimates enterprise spending on web 2.0 technologies to surge over the next five years, reaching $764 million (about Rs 3,200 crore) in 2008 and growing at 43 per cent annually to reach $4.6 billion (about Rs 19,500 crore) in 2013.