Introduction and danger of distraction
Enterprise software is, by and large, quite dull. Microsoft Office, a long-standing fixture in almost every workplace, has not changed much in design – bar a few tweaks around the edges – since it launched over a decade ago. Others remain much the same, too.
Newer companies, like Slack or HipChat, have brought some colour and life to the office, but only focus on one very specific aspect – instant interaction – that does not permeate much beyond a specific type of employee or workplace.
Facebook wants to alter all of that and the way the company is doing it could, in a few years, change how you work.
Huge engagement
The project, called Facebook at Work, is still in its early stages but, according to several people we spoke to at different companies, engagement with it by everyday employees – i.e. people outside the IT department – is off the scale.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, which was one of the first companies to trial the software on a large scale, saw over 90% of its users return to Facebook at Work, according to Kevin Hanley, who leads design at the bank.
"I think Facebook lets us communicate, discuss and solve problems that other solutions, such as email, simply can't," he said in an interview last year. "We love the fact that Facebook at Work gives you the ability to opt-in to forums and groups you want to be part of rather than being on the receiving end of email distribution lists that you want to opt out of."
Song remains the same
The basis of Facebook at Work is, like Facebook at Home, the news feed, messaging, groups, photos, and everything else you'd expect. The layout – news feed in the centre, blue bar at the top, and so on – is largely the same, albeit with a few minor changes.
This, Hanley said, was why people are engaged with it: unlike Office, email, or any other application, people already use Facebook. According to the company's most recent earnings report, the average user spends around 50 minutes per day on the social network.
"You would almost struggle to tell the difference between Facebook at Work and at Home," Hanley said. "That is a very specific intent. What you would recognise as Facebook in your personal life is what you'd recognise at work."
That kind of engagement is unprecedented and gives Facebook a massive springboard from which to build out other applications for different environments, like the workplace.
Danger of distraction
Of course, the fact people are already into Facebook can be a downside. "The biggest challenge for us is taking it from the social 'fun' experience to doing actual work on it," said Ben Sand, VP of operations at Kenshoo, in an interview earlier this year. "I would be lying if I said that we were not struggling with that even today."
Other companies we spoke to had similar problems, with employees spending time scrolling through the news feed rather than doing work. One person, who asked to remain anonymous because Facebook at Work is still in the testing stage, said the software can be "distracting because there is always something new to look at."
However, this may not be such a problem as the news feed is filled with work stuff, from pictures of products to statuses from your boss to messages from colleagues. Rather than scrolling through BuzzFeed, which is unlikely to have any work-related content, users are at least looking at semi-relevant updates.
Email eradication and security
Email eradication
One of the things that Facebook at Work does eliminate is email, which is the bane of many people's lives. According to Hanley, "[e]mail, in our experience, is hierarchical [and] tends to be used for broadcasting, for cascading information [rather than] for discussion or feedback."
As everyone knows, email sucks for every task that doesn't need to be documented forever and this has driven the rise of Slack, among other messaging apps, because they work just like the apps people use in their everyday lives.
On this point, Facebook also has an advantage in Messenger, which has over 900 million monthly active users, up from 400 million two years ago. The software bundled with Facebook at Work is just like Messenger because, well, it is Messenger, just with colleagues rather than friends or your mum.
"It's a different way of using Facebook," said Jayenne Montana, a marketing manager at Landmark Group. "It's a great boost to communication and productivity."
Facebook the company has recently been on a streak. The last earnings report, which captured the three months leading up to April, sent the stock soaring as the company reported 1.6 billion monthly active users, almost all of which are on mobile.
The company's other properties, like Instagram, are also growing rapidly, although it's unclear if Facebook at Work will ever get the benefit of breakfast-time photos.
Security reassurances
The social network has also released a white paper which aims to reassure businesses that Facebook at Work is safe to use in terms of security.
The document, which covers everything anyone could want to know, shows the level of commitment which has been put into getting Facebook at Work off the ground. This isn't just a side-project, it's something that is at the core of what Facebook does.
"We have dozens of teams working around the clock to keep your information safe," the company says. "Your connection to Facebook is protected with the same kind of strong encryption technology that banks use to keep financial data secure."
Adoption of the platform, which has been available for a little under a year, is accelerating as more and more companies try it out, according to one person at Facebook, who requested anonymity because the details are not public. It's unclear how many will stay, but users are definitely enjoying it.
As Val-Pierre Genton, VP of Audience at BrightTALK, commented, Facebook at Work "makes our global teams feel more united and closer," and that's all the company wants.
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