SelectMinds has been providing social networking platforms for employees to support innovation and engagement and increase productivity, and for former employees to enhance recruiting and business development since 2000. I recently spoke with their CEO, Anne Berkowitch.  We discussed both best practices for creating social networks (see Launching Social Networks for the Enterprise in FastForward) and the capabilities of the SelectMinds platform, which is the focus of this post.

SelectMinds provides a comprehensive member profile that has three main components: who you are & what you know – your expertise, who you know – your network, and what you are doing – an auto generated activity stream of what you are doing within SelectMinds and other applications that are integrated with SelectMinds. These profiles are searchable and a directory of profiles is provided. The user has control over what is seen and can opt for privacy on any aspect. Here is a sample profile.

Groups can be created by members or by administrators. There is a comprehensive permission management system that was created in response to a number of client implementations. Groups can be completely open, semi-private or private. In the semi-private groups, non-members can see content but can only contribute with permission. Groups operate as mini-networks and possess all the functionality of the system as a whole. SelectMinds can be integrated with other applications such as Confluence for content sharing. Here is a sample home page.

There is robust event management with the ability to post events and manage the RSVP process. Members can send messages to each other without the email address displayed to maintain privacy. You can create different user experiences across groups based on permission levels so individual members see different content and even different branding if desired. Here is a sample forums page. 

The administrators can maintain activity logs on members beyond what members see and run reports on usage stats. There is strong security and many clients are in very regulated industries than demand this security. SelectMinds is very scalable in terms of both numbers of members and groups. It is Java based and pure SaaS.

SelectMinds began by offering employee alumni networks in 2000.  Companies found workforces can be fluid and wanted to maintain contact to increase the potential of rehiring talented former employees. These former employees can be a good source of recruiting referrals and business development. The latter is especially true for consulting companies who often lose employees to clients. I have experienced this myself in my past work life.

Companies are now also using SelectMinds to host networks inside the enterprise.  Anne said that there are three main reasons. First, they can enhance productivity as expertise becomes more visible. Second, they can be used to support innovation. New research and development can become more visible and ideas can be more easily exchanged. Third, they can help employee engagement. Anne noted a recent increase in this third goal because of the current downturn in the economy. Companies want to stay connected with their employees so they do not leave once things turn around. They also want to give them an outlet to deal with the crisis issues.

Grant Thornton LLP provides a good example of uses both inside and outside the enterprise. Grant Thornton is one of the Global 6 accounting organizations with operations in 100 countries. They recently launched a new employee social network. It is designed to cultivate relationships with current and former partners and employees and provides a forum for collaboration and the opportunity for knowledge sharing inside and outside the firm.

Grant Thornton’s new network includes an Executive Team blog where employees can discuss a variety of topics with executives, and other discussion forums for women and diversity groups, new hires, and others. The network also provides direct access to the firm’s Microsoft SharePoint system with additional integrations planned for the future.

Grant Thornton also launched its alumni social network with SelectMinds five years ago as way to remain in touch with retired partners and former employees. Now, retirees, alumni and employees can all connect for the purposes of business development and general networking.

I think that social networks will continue to play an increasing role within enterprise 2.0.  As I have written before, these applications should not be implemented with consumer tools, as they require business tools such as SelectMinds to be successful (see Enterprise 2.0 is not Web 2.0 nor is it an Oxymoron).  SelectMinds provides a comprehensive set of tools developed through years of enterprise engagement to serve this need.