Stepping up its game, Facebook announces new Workplace features and updated capabilities for Facebook Messenger bots
Facebook just added a slew of capabilities to Workplace at this year’s F8 conference.
Since it’s release late last year, Workplace by Facebook has gained traction with a community of 14,000 organizations worldwide—a notable increase from last year’s 1,000 members, as Facebook Workplace Vice President Julien Codorniou explained.
In an initiative to meet the needs of larger enterprise customers, Facebook’s attempt places themselves in direct competition with Slack.
A Top Contender for Business
Facebook secured its top spot as the most popular platform for users worldwide with currently over 1.9 million active accounts, making way for uncharted opportunities to reach a new level of consumers globally.
Through eliminating any need to toggle between apps, Facebook’s Workplace feature increases productivity for consumer and provider alike. It allows users to create bots that connect them with familiar tools, said Facebook Workplace Product Manager Simon Cross.
“It actually clicks for most people because they use Facebook in their personal lives.”
-Founder and Principal of Talk Social To Me, Carrie Basham Young
Buying into Facebook Messenger Bots
Facebook Messenger bots can provide anything ranging from weather updates, to receipts, and even shipping information.
Through Facebook’s flexible application program interface (API) for each integration system, developers are able to tailor every experience to their customer’s specific needs.
Facebook Messenger’s platform gives businesses the tools to instantly communicate and establish lasting relationships with a community of customers that is over 900 million strong.
It’s most alluring perk is that it brings a conversational approach to businesses and developers, making for a more casual interaction between consumer and provider.
Facebook Messenger Bots Pack a Punch with Their Potential
Facebook Messenger bots impact the market by catering to a generation seeking to maximize productivity through convenient technology.
A great example of this is the Trim bot, which sends users’ phones text messages of all recurring charges to their bank account in real-time. This provides an easier way to keep up with those dreaded autopay charges that can fall by the wayside.
The company has also partnered with Microsoft, Box, Quip/Salesforce, and Dropbox to bring an optimum experience to businesses wishing to share files in a group chat for editing and commenting.
Bringing Compliance to Workplace
Maximizing the use of Facebook Messenger bots comes with the challenge of finding ways to adhere to pre-existing compliance and governance systems in the company. In order to gain the trust of IT and security professionals, this is an essential step.
“Compliance is about as exciting as watching dirt, but lack of it is an excuse big companies use not to move to new software.” explained IDC analyst John Jackson.
Which is why, rather than the less promising attempt to build its own compliance and governance tools, Facebook has opted to integrate with established entities like Smarsh, CSDisco, Skyhigh, and Netskope––initially.
“Facebook’s idea here is to let enterprises use the compliance tools they already have and take away that reason not to move, and that’s a big deal,” said Jackson.
More Than Just a Competition
In response to Workplace being lauded as the “Slack killer,” Cross explained:
“We compete with pieces of paper taped to the break room door. When you go into a retail company of 10,000 people, no one except those in the head office has email or a desk or a laptop. We want to connect everyone.”
