NewsGator Social Sites gives the social workplace broader reach, more human feel

DENVER, Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- NewsGator today unveiled the latest version of its Social Sites social business platform that lets people work the way they like while staying better engaged in the important conversations coursing throughout the organization.

This release centers on the growing demands of user enablement through access and reach with special care for the compatibility between Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013.

Social Sites is now the first social business software fully compatible with SharePoint 2013, as well as SharePoint 2010 in the same code base, allowing existing NewsGator customers to upgrade with ease and confidence.

Making connections and perspective easy, Social Sites introduced a personalized, universal toolbar that lets users monitor notifications, initiate new conversations, ask questions and respond to the items in their activity stream from any SharePoint page or web page. Putting the power of social in the hands of the user, social activity is now enabled from wherever employees choose to work, whether in native SharePoint or another web-based application.

"Not everybody works the same way in the workplace. For social to truly succeed and increase human productivity it must tune to how people work individually," said Daniel Kraft, NewsGator president & CEO. "Social Sites lets people intuitively participate and shape social interactions in ways that suit them, helping them add value through this increased connectivity."

For instance, those who live by e-mail can still be a part of the conversation. Microsoft Outlook email, calendar and tasks can now be brought into Social Sites, allowing work to get done in one centralized and personalized dashboard. Alternatively social activities can be exposed through Outlook. With it, users can interact through customized views, follow up on notifications, ask questions and post new activities in their activity stream from wherever they want: Social Sites, Outlook or their mobile device without missing a beat.

As a leader in the social workplace, NewsGator understands that everyone works differently.  Allowing people to be a part of the conversation from another application or mobile device breaks down the common adoption barriers that challenge many organizations.

Another powerful capability of the new Social Sites release is the ability to customize the view of each employee. From a central administration perspective, organizations can create mandatory views based on any attribute such as role, region or business unit. This functionality meets the common use case seen in corporate communications where there is a need to ensure all employees are included and aware of important communications, are listening and interacting with key executives and managers, and are building camaraderie among their colleagues. At the individual level, an employee is able to customize their views on multiple conversations. With this, social business value can be achieved by staying in tune with the work behavior of the individual. In addition, this configuration is automatically carried through to mobile devices, the universal notification bar and the Outlook plugin.

For organizations seeking to realize the full benefits of social in their organization, Social Sites is available now.

About NewsGator
NewsGator is helping over four million paid users in industries across the globe propel the future of productivity. NewsGator Social Sites delivers robust social technology to the enterprise with proven scalability and security to flagship clients like Accenture, Adidas, Deloitte, Ericsson, General Mills, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kraft Foods, Merck & Co., Unisys Corporation, and the US Army. NewsGator delivers advanced social computing capabilities to Microsoft productivity and collaboration platforms, including SharePoint, Windows 8, SQL, Azure, Windows Phone 7, Lync, Office 365 and Dynamics. NewsGator is a Gold Certified Partner and was honored as Microsoft's 2011 U.S. Partner of the Year. Follow us on Twitter @newsgator and at www.newsgator.com.

SOURCE NewsGator