The first time I can remember realizing how critical mobile phones were to people was back in 2006, while I was working in India. It was a blistering summer, and I'd heard the news that rural farmers were waiting in mile long lines to bring their produce to market; most had to spend the night catching what sleep they could on their bullock carts. Sadly, the heat of the summer spoiled nearly all the produce that didn't make it to market that week, and many farmers were distraught.

A few…

It wasn't all that long ago - perhaps only a year or two - that organizations began to think that social media just might have a role to play in enterprise collaboration. But of course, in technology time, a year or two is an eon. Now businesses are well past asking, "What is social media?" and they're deep into the more challenging (and wide-ranging) question: How do I use it?

How will social media impact the business? How do we get started? Now that we have begun, how do we measure the…

At J.Boye 2012, it was made clear that sharing is caring. Whether it's information about what's working or what isn't, it's essential that everyone from development teams to sales and marketing to community managers share insights so as to help everyone innovate and make improvements. Session after session, valuable information about mobile web strategy, SharePoint development and web governance were shared, giving us great insight on how we can avoid pitfalls and work smarter.

Work Smarter…

Social platforms are helping to enable the creation of socially enabled enterprise applications. Just as developers integrate a database or web server to provide a set of services for their applications, social platforms supply social features. Whether enhancing current processes or creating new ones, social platforms provide the underpinnings for socially enabled applications.

Content management systems are also emerging as a way to develop socially enabled applications. Vendors such as Igloo…

Enterprise social media improves employee communication and makes collaboration easier. But ensuring seamless social media integration into an employee's workflow is another story.

Employees use email and instant messaging, in addition to social networking sites like Twitter, to get their jobs done, but switching back and forth between disparate UC systems and social networking platforms can be time-consuming and slow social media adoption.

Vendors are now heeding the call with products that…

In speaking with Dan Latendre the CEO of IGLOO Software, I've become versed on collaboration tools, and most importantly, the distinctions between many of them.  Igloo develops securely stored social, collaborative business solutions that can be used for employees, business partners and customers. Delivered in the cloud, the company's social software includes an integrated suite of content management, collaboration and enterprise social networking features.

Adapted from Ragan Communications,…

IGLOO Software is a company that develops social software providing online business communities. Providing a powerful suite of content management, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, the cloud-based service gives employees, partners, and customers a voice in their business activities. 

In speaking with Dan Latendre the CEO of the company, I was educated on five key considerations any company should make in determining their social software needs. 

1.  Embrace "Social" for the Right…

Igloo Software is a company that develops securely stored social, collaborative business solutions that can be used for employees, business partners and customers. Delivered in the cloud, the company's social software includes an integrated suite of content management, collaboration and enterprise social networking features.

Canadian-based, you may not have heard of Igloo before. But there's truly a greater reason for that--they are behind the scenes. In fact, their collaboration suite powers…

You probably already know it's a good idea for companies to have social intranets.

In a time when many employees travel, work remotely, or are part of global brands, social intranets create sense of community and bring employees-and their knowledge-together.

A new white paper from IGLOO Software (pdf) explains the benefits of a social intranet, as well as the four features every social intranet must have to make employees' lives easier. Does yours have all the components on this list?

1. An…