for W3c validation

Forrester have just realised a new Wave, looking at one slice of the enterprise social business software space. Similar to our view, Forrester divides the world of workforce collaboration and social intranet platforms (sometimes also called enterprise social networks) into two broad groups – activity streams and enterprise social platforms (I call them “suites” for short).

These are the most recent Forrester Waves:

For comparison, here is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace (August 2011):

As you can see there is some overlap between the analysts, but also some difference. We suggest you use analyst reports like this as a guide, not a rule book. Make sure you understand the analysts’ reasons for inclusion and exclusion. As Gartner point out, you should consider the relationship between the social platforms and:

• Content management, compliance and search.
• A broader communication infrastructure for email, presence, real-time conferencing, voice and video.
• A specific business activity, such as customer support.

In the Australian and Asia Pacific market there are also other vendor factors you may need to take in account. I would also add a specific call out to consider mobile in the equation too (something I’m writing a report about right now).

You can download full copies of those Forrester report from Yammer, Jive and Telligent.

Please get in touch for help navigating the options and developing the business case for social inside your organisation.

BTW Have you read our new paper, The State of Social Business in Australia 2012?