Contact Information: Contact Information Laura Farrelly NewsGator 303-552-2046 lauraf(at)newsgator(dot)com Jennifer Gazin or Corey Lewis LaunchSquad 415.625.8555 newsgator(at)launchsquad(dot)com
NewsGator to Deliver Advanced Social Networking Capabilities for the Enterprise
Social Sites Upgrade to Provide Enhanced Social Computing Capabilities for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
| Source: NewsGator
SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - March 3, 2008) - NewsGator today announced several new Social
Sites features that will add advanced social network and community
capabilities to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. With these
features, NewsGator will deliver enhanced social networking capabilities
for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that facilitate employee
collaboration and simplify information discovery -- enabling
enterprises to drive innovation, increase worker knowledge and improve
productivity.
"More and more businesses are looking to bring the benefits provided by
consumer-based social networking sites into the context of the enterprise,"
said Tom Rizzo, Director, SharePoint at Microsoft. "The latest release of
Social Sites, combined with SharePoint Server 2007, enables businesses to
implement social
computing capabilities within the secure, firewall-protected
environment of the enterprise -- making it easier for their employees to
collaborate, discover information and locate internal subject matter
experts. NewsGator's innovative product features help Microsoft customers
more easily embrace
Enterprise 2.0 technologies thereby increasing SharePoint Server 2007
adoption and usage."
First introduced in October 2007, Social Sites turns SharePoint Server 2007
into an
Enterprise 2.0 hub for businesses by adding a collection of site
templates, Web parts, profiles and infrastructure into SharePoint Server
2007's existing architecture and security models. Social Sites enhances
SharePoint Server 2007's social
computing features by offering collaboration tools, enhanced tagging,
RSS feed subscriptions and
management, colleague tracking features and content mash-up capabilities.
The new release of Social Sites will make it easier for people to discover
relevant information and experts within an enterprise by providing a
graphical display of a person's social network based on both explicit and
implied connections with others. Social Sites' advanced social network
capabilities will display a user's strongest colleague connections,
recommend additional connections based on common content and interests and
suggest the best ways to connect with new colleagues.
The Social Sites release will also enhance employee
collaboration by enabling users to create, discover and join ad hoc
communities that span organization boundaries to connect people with common
projects, areas of expertise, activities and interests. These communities
will facilitate collaboration by providing rich discussion capabilities,
centralized document management features and the use of tags, relevance
data and RSS feeds to keep all
members up-to-date on their communities' latest news and activities.
"Social Sites lets workers harness the social and collaborative aspect of
their jobs and use each other's knowledge as a competitive advantage," said
Dave Keller, GM, Enterprise at NewsGator. "SharePoint Server 2007 is a
tremendously popular and effective tool for business collaboration and
adding rich social networking capabilities that connect people with content
only enhances the effectiveness of SharePoint Server 2007. We've seen a
tremendous amount of interest in Social Sites from enterprises looking to
easily integrate Web 2.0 capabilities into their organization's day-to-day
processes. With Social Sites, companies are able to better leverage the
broad capabilities of SharePoint Server 2007 thereby driving SharePoint
Server 2007 adoption and maximizing the return on their SharePoint Server
2007 investment."
Companies interested in beta testing the upcoming Social Sites release
should visit NewsGator's booth at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008,
or visit http://www.newsgator.com/business/socialsites.
About NewsGator Technologies, Inc.
NewsGator Technologies is a pioneer in RSS and Enterprise 2.0 technologies.
Headquartered in Denver, Colo., NewsGator develops and markets RSS
aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises and online
content providers. Using NewsGator products and solutions, businesses and
consumers can subscribe to news, information, podcasts and other relevant
content more efficiently and effectively than with traditional channels.
With NewsGator, users have access to RSS information via the Web, Microsoft
Outlook, mobile devices and both Windows- and Mac-based desktop clients.
All NewsGator products synchronize seamlessly, enabling users to read their
RSS feeds anywhere, anytime, with any device. For more information, visit
www.newsgator.com.