Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) are becoming common in French corporate information systems. They are playing an increasing important role as enterprises of all sizes start to realize the potential advantages of developing social ties between staff, partners and clients.

Yet a social network alone cannot cover the whole spectrum of corporate needs. Olivier Dedieu, Jalios R&D Director, explains: "An enterprise social network that only serves conversational needs is, in my view, of limited value. The ESN must have federating impact and facilitate the circulation of information. That means the information must be easily accessible, and not just verbal but in the form of multimedia content and documents. I see the ESN as a means of enriching an existing collaborative environment, helping to reconcile reactivity and productivity with conviviality. That's what we are now offering with the Jalios Social Collaborative Suite."

The power of a social network is greatly amplified when it is associated with collaborative capabilities that enable joint preparation of documents, easy access to information, project planning, assignment and follow-up of tasks, organization of events, and much more.

That is why Jalios Social Collaborative Suite combines social networking and collaboration in the same product. Its social network features facilitate relationships (conversations, exchanges of information) between people and collaborative spaces to support common interests. It manages user profiles, activities and relationships and makes it easy to find the people with specific expertise. Naturally it encompasses external contacts such as partners, customers and suppliers. This tool makes it simple to find out who knows whom inside the company, or even outside (although external contacts are not necessarily granted access to the enterprise network). And of course it meets the most exacting security and confidentiality requirements.

Jalios Social Collaborative Suite benefits from 10 years of experience at Jalios in developing enterprise content management and collaborative portals. It optimizes access to existing information and provides a powerful yet user-friendly tool for creating content continually. Indeed, this is the essential advantage of this suite over "pure-player" offers that address only conversational aspects but not documentary ones.

This integration of communication with content management makes Jalios Social Collaborative Suite one of the most function-rich solutions on the market.

USEO, a French consultant specialized in ICT project management, recently benchmarked the functional cover of over 30 leading open-source and licensed products (http://referentiel.useo.net/). The Jalios solution was rated one of the best for its functionality and relevance to business needs. And it is the only one in this comparison that combines portal creation, document management and publication, collaborative working… and enterprise social networking.

OSEO rating of Jalios Social Collaborative Suite.

This new Jalios product aims to provide a solution, easy-to-learn and easy-to-use, that helps people work more effectively. Jalios CEO, Vincent Bouthors, adds: "At Jalios we believe that the modern technologies we employ should stay out of sight, allowing users to see only the usages and benefits of the tool. Good software should be like a cellphone or television that you just use without thinking about the immense know-how that went into its design and fabrication. So I am pleased that our customers who have already tested or installed Jalios Social Collaborative Suite are confirming that they see its simplicity of use as a real advantage."