Worklight's Workbook - Business Front End for Facebook

Here is one cross post interview from Fast Forward that slipped by me. I think it is worth repeating here and I am adding some useful material from a comment I received from Worklight, itself. Yes, there is an enterprise Facebook market. You knew this was coming. I got an email a few days ago from Worklight, Announcing WorkBook, “a Secured Facebook for the Enterprise. WorkBook, an addition to the WorkLight 2.0 software platform currently in use by Global 500 companies, allows employees to interact with their colleagues using the hugely popular Facebook service, while eliminating the security issues that have constantly dogged organizations looking to leverage and embrace the social networking revolution.” Look what happens when you open up your APIs.

Unlike Facebook which is free, Workbook pricing starts at $10 per user per month, with volume discount pricing available. I hope that their security features warrant this. Serena, as I wrote about on the blog, created their own security features through custom Facebook apps. Not every company may have that capability but Serena assured me the apps were quick and easy. However, there are many companies that may want more security than they can build themselves. I kidded them a bit about the $10 cover fee and got the following comment which I found very helpful and not at all defensive. Good for them.

As the comment stated, WorkBook is a security overlay for Facebook. The way it works is an employee to a company logs into his public Facebook account and then installs the WorkBook application, just like they would install Funwall or SuperPoke. Once the application is installed, they are authenticated by their enterprise authentication engine, which provides them with the appropriate access to enterprise data based upon their corporate roles. This information is served from the WorkBook server (which is installed behind the firewall) and viewed on a Facebook canvas (technically an iFrame).

What the customers are paying for is not for any Facebook functionality, but rather for an on-premise server that is able to securely serve protected enterprise data through Web 2.0 tools, like Facebook. Facebook, in this case, is the front-end tool through which information is delivered, much like iGoogle, MS Live, Netvibes, and other home page servers can be used to display application data via gadgets, widgets, or RSS (which is the original WorkLight functionality).

“Enterprise data” in the WorkBook context includes things like “Q&A,” search for expertise, news sharing, contact information sharing, even application data, – basically all the social networking functions one would expect. However, Facebook provides none of this functionality – it all comes from WorkBook. (end of comment quote).

Here is what Dan Farber & Larry Dignan said in WorkLight secures Facebook for enterprises. They have pictures. They also link to Andrew McAfee on the related security concerns around apps like Facebook in People, Computers, and People People.