Many times you have heard Social Collaboration Software and wondered what exactly it means? You have Googled the keyword only to encounter with more than million links matching your queries. You browse through first few links, go through the definition, some examples, case studies and if time permits couple of white papers on the subject. For a moment you think you have mastered the subject and are ready to take on the world anything related to social collaboration, after all you have invested quite an amount of time on it, but suddenly out of the blue you hear Enterprise collaboration software and you are taken back for a split second, what’s going on you may question yourself. You will ask did I hear Enterprise collaboration or Social collaboration. All seems too confusing and to pause and ponder for an answer is even more challenging. You may think all your time and effort went down the drain you may want to know a solid explanation for the difference between the two. Although there doesn’t seem to have much difference between the two.

In fact both Social and Enterprise words are used with reference to the context in which collaboration software is used. We can define collaboration software as the platform or program that allows people to take part in a common activity to achieve goals. The collaboration can be with respect to information sharing, project and knowledge sharing, communicating with each other in real time etc. Some of the well-known examples of Social collaboration software are salesforce, Jive, bluekiwi, Success factors etc. Though Social collaboration software is widely used in many organizations in US and Europe but it is still not clear whether it will maintain the momentum in the future. In India and in many other parts of the world social with reference to workplace is not welcomed. Many still believe that too much social factor in the work environment can hamper the work and productivity of the team. Hence collaboration software which caters to the enterprise segment and offers open collaborations among internal staff members is termed as Enterprise Collaboration Software. The collaborative tools integrated in the Enterprise software dedicatedly serve the everyday operations in the workplace. Some of the well-known companies in this segment are Atlassian, Socialcast, Mangospring etc. Though detailed study is required to know how collaborative software will help to change the dynamics of the world businesses.