Socialcast was one of the first enterprise microblogging providers (see 2008 post: Socialcast Brings Twitter Style Functionality into the Enterprise) and I have covered them several times since that first post (e.g., Socialcast Adds Broadcasting Capability to Enterprise Microsharing). Recently, I spoke with CEO Tim Young on the latest developments, which turned out to be quite a list.

We started at a high level. Tim sees a major shift in enterprise collaboration happening every twenty years: the business telephone exchange was introduced in the 1950s, the FAX in the1970s, email in the1990s and now activity streams – through tools like Socialcast – are starting to play a major role right on time, in 2010. I think there is certainly a movement beyond siloed email to the more transparent enterprise 2.0. Activity streams may be the tool that carries this transparency throughout the enterprise to reap the opportunity for increased awareness that enterprise 2.0 brings.

Socialcast is focusing its efforts on helping large enterprises, in particular those of 10,000 or more employees, increase their collaboration capabilities. I think this is a smart move given their capabilities and the market. To support this strategy they have made a number of moves, including enhanced features that we will look at: Outlook and SharePoint integration, and increased support for mobile devices. BlackBerry support has been added to their existing iPhone support, with an interface geared to align with BlackBerry features. All of these should appeal to the large enterprise user. They now refer to their role in the large enterprise as providing the enterprise activity stream engine or EASE. This capability can be deployed as a SaaS, a private cloud, or on-premises.

New features include the addition of automated updates to the stream based on user actions. Through their REST API they can mine these automated updates from almost any enterprise applications such as a CRM, data warehouse, or logistics system. Users operating within these systems can also submit manual updates in the traditional Twitter style without having to go into the Socliacast application itself. When someone replies to an update the reply is called a comment and it starts a threaded discussion on the topic.

In addition to the traditional microblogging follow/unfollow capability, there is the option for a universal update stream that users within a particular group can automatically follow using the enterprise’s LDAP. Socialcast can play in the foreground as the common interface to what is happening across many applications. Or it can operate in the background allowing users to stay within those applications. Email is one example of this. You can have Socialcast updates go into the email system, or you can use the email system to update Socialcast.

To further support this email integration, Socialcast has integrated with Outlook. Now Socialcast messages can be part of your Outlook folder and you never have to leave Outlook to use Socialcast. Currently, there is full support for Outlook 2003 and 2007, and 2010 will be supported soon. In the sample screenshot below, you can see Socialcast as part of the Outlook folder scheme and see Socialcast in operation with Outlook.

Tim said that the Outlook integration has proven to be a useful way to get late adopters within enterprise organizations participating in microblogging; people start within Outlook and many migrate to using Socialcast directly to access additional features. The SharePoint integration brings comprehensive microblogging capability to SharePoint and should provide a similar adoption path. There is support for SharePoint 2003, 2007, and 2010.

One of the major new areas is the addition of enhanced analytics that the company refers to as Social Business Intelligence.  Some of its many features include organizational network analysis tools to identify the informal connections between individuals and groups. Socialcast reports on posting, commenting, and “liking” activity over time, offering insight into conversation initiation and response behaviors. There is also lurking and listening activity analysis. The interactivity patterns between users are identified, showing proactive and reactive relationships with others in their social graph.

Moments of transition from passive to active usage are also recognized, allowing you to find people and topics that start conversations. There is interactive visualization of all community discussions, surfacing the most active messages based on user interaction, popular posting times and dates. Here is an example of an activity analysis screen that shows a glimpse of overall network activity and top contributors, active teams and groups.

Here is an example of a deep dive into a user’s activity, showing where he or she fits into the social graph.

Here is an example of the measurement of trending topics, important conversations, and influential members.

User roles are identified and defined as follows:  broker: spurs conversations that include input from a wide variety of users form different business units and departments, central connector: spurs diverse discussions from within their business unit or department, and peripheral player: engages infrequently and primarily with people from their business unit or department.  User activity levels are also reported on.

I was impressed with the depth and variety of analytics that Socialcast has conceived. I think it represents a strong step in the right direction of realizing the transparency that Enterprise 2.0 can provide.