Workplace by Facebook to improve business communications in Malaysia
Almost everyone bar someone living in the Siberian wilderness for the past few decades will likely have heard of and is using Facebook to communicate and keep in touch with friends and family. Scrolling through newsfeeds, messaging friends and the like as well as generally getting about Facebook’s familiar white and blue hued menus is as easy as it gets on account of the intuitive design that Facebook offers. Now, imagine harnessing that ease of communication and transferring information for work purposes. Kind of like a serious corporate version of Facebook. Enter Workplace by Facebook.
The Workplace by Facebook platform is currently used by over 14,000 businesses on every continent including Antarctica and interest is growing. It’s completely separate from Facebook and has a similar layout to make it easy to navigate while acting as a secure communications platform for companies to connect, communicate and collaborate with fellow colleagues. Workplace also has similarly powerful features akin to Facebook like a robust auto-translate feature, the ability to form groups and conduct threaded conversations as well as conduct live videos for fast, easy teleconferences without having to fiddle with a ton of wires; everyone just has to get on their smartphones and start using the front-facing selfie cameras.
From left: Melina Lee, Head of Business Development APAC, Workplace – Facebook; Bilal Waris, Group VP HR of Axiata and Shannon Toh, Co-Founder and Director of Saltycustoms share their Workplace success stories during the panel discussion.
Workplace isn’t just about communication as it has exceptionally powerful collaborative tools with deep integration with Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce/Quip, Box and Dropbox so you can preview documents stored on the aforementioned cloud storage options straight on Workplace, download or share them and more. Administrators are also able to build custom bots to automate tasks like assigning duties or address HR concerns, thus freeing valuable manpower for other tasks.
The biggest benefit that Workplace offers is a lifesaver for desk jockeys as it helps to radically cut down on emails due to the very nature of its design: conversations get straight to the point in a group chat and the conversation threading and logging means the usual onerous email trail is cut down by leaps and bounds while allowing for the option to easily search for and recover pertinent information or documents in a group discussion for work.
To date, multiple organisations in Malaysia have employed Workplace with more slated in the coming months. Currently, retailing giant Mydin has employed Workplace to engage employees at all levels as an egalitarian communications platform and as a means to rapidly accomplish projects throughout the organisation. Axiata, one of Asia’s largest telco groups also employs the Workplace platform to expedite network troubleshooting issues, communicate corporate goals and update employees on products, share ideas and conduct open discussions. Local custom T-shirt manufacturer Saltycustoms also employs Workplace to allow their 30 employees across Malaysia and Singapore a means to share content, ideas, initiatives and problems with fellow colleagues.
One of the most exciting adopters for Workplace is the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) who incorporated it as a common platform to connect and collaborate with fellow colleagues. Workplace also acts a means to enable group polls and to disseminate information quickly to staff. To wit, Workplace has offered tangible benefits and improvements in organisations that have employed it from small companies to large ones spanning the globe.There is currently a free tier to Workplace for interested users to try it out for free with higher levels offering more functionality available for a regular subscription fee. For more details swing by www.facebook.com/workplace.
