Tibco Launches Social Computing For The Enterprise

Tibco Software, which got its start 25 years ago giving brokers real time analysis of financial data, will now do the same for the largest Intranets using social data from Facebook, Twitter, and similar services.

Tibco executive vice president Ram Menon said the service, called Tibbr, integrates that data in a single view with other internal data, giving salesmen and managers a real-time view of customer needs or internal processes, streamlining operations, and enabling delivery of real-time offers.

This provides benefits to both internal and external operations, he said. "It's not just about following people, it's about following systems and processes. You shouldn't have to call Bob in accounting about a purchase order, he should post it to a wall" that's visible to anyone who needs the data. "That's the premise."

With Tibbr, marketing executives can track customers' use of social networks, build internal social networks, and deliver access to all these streams from any mobile device. This gives enterprises access to "contextual information," Menon said, simplifying information flows inside the company and allowing more sophisticated marketing. Applications are added using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

The Tibbr platform is already scaled because of enterprise work the company has done for years, Menon added. "Whether it's checking a package on FedEx or flight timetables on Delta, all those people have Tibco in their infrastructure. Whether you're checking your bank account at Citibank or using Target's loyalty program - we have a wide range of customers."

Tibbr is already being used by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Cyber Consulting, and a large container line. "We worked with core customers, got the beta right, figured out all their authentication issues, and now when we go live we have 41,000 users live and they're going to talk real stuff. Menon said the company's sales effort will first target companies with 100,000 or more employees.

"This is another effort to bring enterprise class technology in a consumer package, and the value of correlation, delivering information in context, to the user," he said. The capability can be integrated with a company's operations within a few hours, he said.