Trampoline's enterprise social networking tools take flight

Sonar Flightdeck takes information from sources such as e-mails, databases and document stores. It then runs specially designed algorithms to identify the key opinion formers, information brokers and communities of interest in the organisation, according to the firm's chief executive, Charles Armstrong.

"We realised there was a set of management needs squarely about social computing that no-one had thought about – that's where the impulse for Flightdeck came from," he explained. "We pick up data about the performance of people, the quality of their collaboration and identify the assets that are underused and the problems that need solving."

Flightdeck then presents this information in an easy-to-use graphical display which can be refined to show results by individual person, country, department, or other criteria, said Armstrong.

According to Armstrong, demand for these tools has been particularly strong where enterprises are undergoing change management programmes, or merger and acquisition activity. "Just as BI tools went from niche usage into the mainstream so this kind of organisational management tool will go through the same process in one or two years," he added.

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