WorkLight Launches WorkBook in UK to Secure Facebook for Use at Work

The United Kingdom is host to the highest number of active Facebook users outside the United States, totaling about 13% of the population, according to official records of the popular social network service. This surge is felt at work, where there is increasing demand for similar collaboration tools driven by employees. A recent Forrester Research survey of employees in Europe and North America found that implementing a collaboration strategy was considered a priority or critical priority by 59 percent of respondents.

Driven by the growing demand for these tools, WorkLightô Inc., an Enterprise 2.0 company, today announced the launch of WorkBookô, a secure Facebook solution for enterprises, in the United Kingdom. An addition to the WorkLight Web 2.0 platform currently in use by Global 500 companies, WorkBook allows safe and effective use of Facebook at work.

Facebook has become the pre-eminent consumer social networking application on the Internet, with a total user base of over 64 million users globally and a growth rate of more than 250,000 new registrants per day. This consumer tool is making its way to the enterprise, where employee-driven, unsanctioned use of Web 2.0 technologies is a concern for IT organizations. With the proliferation of social networking applications in the workplace, enterprises are faced with a choice: either ban popular utilities such as Facebook, Instant Messaging, etc., or embrace the change by leveraging the inherent collaboration and networking functionality offered by these tools.

The WorkBook application, previously only available in the U.S., combines all the capabilities of Facebook with all the controls of a corporate environment. This includes integration with existing enterprise security services and information sources, which allows companies to harness the capabilities provided by the social networking service while providing their employees with a safe and secure solution for increased collaboration and communication. WorkBook eliminates the security issues that loom over organizations seeking to leverage and embrace the social networking revolution.

With WorkBook, employees can securely use Facebook to:

Find colleagues by name, location, department, project and area of expertise

Collaborate with peers using familiar Facebook capabilities

View up-to-date, corporate-specific information about peers such as status, department, role and location

Receive general and personalized company news directly from a Facebook news feed

Create groups around shared interest areas and work-related projects

Setup Q&A forums with colleagues to get quick answers


In addition, WorkBook provides businesses with:

Secure provisioning that ensures the application can be used only by authorized employees

Information security ñ corporate-related information is visible only to employees

Compliance with existing security policies ñ enterprise security integration authenticates WorkBook users via corporate authentication facilities, enforces access control policies and supports Single Sign-On (SSO)

Integration with the companyís directory or applications to augment information from Facebook profiles

ìThe United Kingdom is host to over 8 million Facebook users, and user adoption is growing at a rapid pace,î said Shahar Kaminitz, CEO and founder of WorkLight. ìAs we have seen with the introduction of WorkBook in the U.S., there is a significant advantage to using this consumer tool at work, as long as it is safeguarded. Companies are particularly interested in leveraging employee expertise and mindshare to increase productivity with consumer tools, without hampering employee-driven initiatives. Facebook is a perfect example of how we are seeing this trend is impacting the corporate world.î

WorkBook is part of the WorkLight platform, which securely supports various consumer web 2.0 technologies, such as iGoogle, Netvibes, RSS, desktop gadgets and widgets, among others. The WorkLight server is licensed to enterprises by yearly subscription. Pricing starts at Ä10 per user per month, with volume discount pricing available. To learn more about the service, visit: