Social networking idea, thoughts?

Question

I am thinking about going forth with a sort of social networking idea. The idea stems from the fact that there is a lack of unity and rapport among the different departments in the company I work for. Since I just started a couple of weeks ago, I find myself not knowing who to contact for specific issues. I would ask my supervisor for an answer, but he would then tell me to talk to so and so and so forth. Just wanted to get some feedback to see if it could be a viable business.

So the idea is this: a social networking-communication software suite that improves productivity and supports rapport among employees. The customer would be companies with at least 100 employees (or a point where there would be too many people to know) it would be completely branded for the customer, devoid ads, and would include a (hopefully) internal email replacement, IM, and profile pages. These profile pages will have information such as bio, education, previous work, what their work involves,etc.thoughts?

Answer 1

Don't you have an intranet system? Many companies have intranet sites, and the bigger ones have real cool stuff and functionalities. I've seen some with want ads even for employees who want to sell something or find roommates.

If not develop one. This is the sort of information you can create with an intranet site

Your intranet can have:

- Client management function for adding users, removing users and keeping the intranet running smoothly.

- Employee directory including background, tasks, contact info

- Project Management

- Document share

- Shared Calendar

- Company news

- Discussion Forums

- Chat and video web conferencing

Ask your IT to set it up if you have none yet.

Answer 2

Universities have similar applications. I think they are all custom made, though. Where I go it is called SPECTRUM and is a big help. You may want to call the IT department at a local university to get ideas. There are some programs (one is called e-lync) but they lack the user profile functions.

But yours is a great idea, good luck getting management to affect these changes.

Answer 3

We have something similar in uni called moodle - another intranet system really. Your idea sounds pretty cool tho.