Socialtext announces Socialtext Connect, creating a social layer in the enterprise architecture

Critical events from on-premise and cloud-based enterprise applications can now be syndicated across the organization.

June 16, 2010, Boston, Mass

At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference today, Socialtext announced the beta release of Socialtext Connect, a new offering built on open standards that frees vital information currently locked in enterprise applications. Socialtext Connect enables companies to surface critical events from enterprise applications and inject streams into Socialtext’s social software platform, where employees across an organization collaborate and take action.

"Until now, critical information, events and processes have been locked in enterprise applications and only accessible to the people who use the particular application," said Eugene Lee, Socialtext’s CEO. "Our social software platform creates a social layer that spans departments, geographies and, now, systems. With Socialtext Connect, events and streams from enterprise applications can be syndicated and fully leveraged, in real-time, across the organization."

Socialtext Connect works with traditional on-premise as well as cloud-based enterprise applications. It also integrates with and leverages the fast innovation taking place in web-based consumer applications such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz. Socialtext Connect adheres to established and emerging web standards, including Twitter Annotations and Google OpenSocial. Socialtext also plans to support the activitystrea.ms standard.

With Socialtext Connect, companies will get more business value from traditional enterprise applications like CRM, ERP and document management systems. Companies can now let their people subscribe to the events that matter most to them from enterprise systems. They can see those events in the Socialtext application streams they monitor and, where authorized, send updates to the enterprise systems from Socialtext.

"Next generation social applications need a social layer that can bridge the gap between Enterprise 2.0 and legacy applications," says Ray Wang, a partner with the Altimeter Group. "Altimeter Group sees the integration of multiple enterprise applications into a social layer as the next major wave of value that customers will derive from Enterprise 2.0."

There are three core components of Socialtext Connect:

1. Connectors. A Connector serves as a bridge between an on-premise or cloud-based enterprise application, and Socialtext. Connectors use Socialtext's ReST API, and can be built to connect any application to Socialtext. Connectors can be built by IT developers, system integrators, and third-party developers. Socialtext has pre-built Connectors to Microsoft SharePoint and Lotus Connections. A Connector can be hosted in the cloud, as a plug-in to Socialtext's hosted service or appliance, or on the enterprise application itself.
2. Signals Annotations. A Signals Annotation contains metadata from an enterprise system, including rich media, and accompanies a Socialtext Signals microblogging message. Annotations add context and relevance, enriching the value of application streams. Signals Annotations are built to the emerging Twitter Annotations standard, and will evolve with that standard.
3. App Bots. An App Bot is a bi-directional software agent that listens for specialized events or information from an enterprise system, a web application or Socialtext, and writes to these applications.

Starting today, developers, system integrators and ISVs can sign up for the Socialtext Connect beta program. To learn more, visit www.socialtext.com/products/integration.php.

About Socialtext

Socialtext addresses the critical issues organizations face as their people and teams struggle for better ways to share knowledge, ideas and expertise. With Socialtext's enterprise social software platform, people and teams are synchronized, highly engaged and able to move fast. The Socialtext collaboration platform employs a broad set of social software technologies including microblogging, social networking, filtered activity streams, widget-based dashboards, blogs and wikis. Socialtext offers both the convenience of SaaS and the security of an on-site appliance, for the fastest time to value. More than 6,500 businesses world-wide have accelerated their business performance with Socialtext, including Oxford University Press, Meredith Corporation, OSIsoft, Symantec, The Washington Post, and Epitaph Records. Learn more about Socialtext at www.socialtext.com.

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© 2012 Socialtext, Inc. All rights reserved.

As the Enterprise 2.0 leader, Socialtext applies Web 2.0 technologies such as enterprise microblogging, enterprise social networking and wikis to the critical challenges facing businesses. Socialtext's enterprise collaboration platform allows employees to share expertise, speed workflows and get their jobs done faster. Read our latest news highlights, press releases, coverage & awards, and recent and upcoming events.