Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has entered into an entirely new market with its social network version aimed for businesses: Facebook At Work. More than a hundred employers have signed up for the new social feature, with the Royal Bank of Scotland being the first bank and the biggest company so far to have done so.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has signed up to have its workers gain access to the social network's office version, reports Fortune. Facebook At Work aims to connect people across the company both through mobile apps and in the desktop version. Taking advantage of people's familiarity with the site, Facebook replicates its original features and is limiting it in a corporate environment but with a much enhanced security. Further developments are being made to find ways of interacting with customers through the social platform.
"We're very sensitive to discoverability of data . . . we've been very rigorous in terms of testing with them, the level of security. We're satisfied we've got something that will work," said Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer. "I'm excited about how bringing people together from all across the bank through Facebook At Work can help all our employees do their job better - whether it's being able to find answers to customer queries much faster or helping us come up with bright new ideas."
The British state-owned bank has included more than 100 of its employees in the pilot of Facebook At Work which started in July. By March 2016, RBS is looking to sign up 30,000 of its employees, and by the end of 2016, its entire 100,000-strong workforce, according to Fortune.
Employees are given access to Facebook in its normal operations, but will have separate professional profiles from their private accounts. Only the people within the bank will be able to gain access to all the information shared therein.
Although Facebook At Work is currently accessible for free, Facebook later on plans to charge for extra features such as integrations with other software like Microsoft. Gaining the approval of RBS is a huge boost for Facebook's leverage for popularity as it shall be going head to head with technological giants like Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google as well as startups like Slack.
