New Collaboration Tool Enables Businesses to Benefit From Being 'Social'

LONDON, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Formicary Collaboration Group's MindLink unlocks information from untapped resources to create new business assets

Formicary Collaboration Group (http://www.fcg.im) a provider of team-based collaboration solutions, has today launched MindLink, its social collaboration platform. The new tool creates an engaged and informed workforce that, through open group collaboration, increases productivity and drives the business forward.  

MindLink adopts a fresh approach to unlocking the valuable pool of knowledge that exists in every organisation - transforming it into a business asset. It enables businesses to be 'social' but, unlike the individual emphasis of social networking, is focused strongly on team communications.

With MindLink, organisations leverage the technology, business processes and workflow that they have already, as well as the expertise that exists in their staff.

MindLink moves away from closed private conversations that are traditional in most organisations. Instead it provides an open and transparent forum for employees to share information and knowledge on a wide variety of topics relating to day-to-day business activities and objectives.  With MindLink, relevant information can also be pulled from document management, CRM and project management systems into appropriate conversations in order to make these more dynamic and pertinent.

Users control how they share, discuss and consume ideas and information. They also decide which streams of information are most relevant to them and filter out unnecessary chatter.  

"Traditional businesses are very 'siloed' - they contain vast amounts of intellectual capital that is never accessed by the organisation," explains Eileen Brown CEO of social business consultancy Amastra and author of Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business.  "In contrast, the social business democratises data by breaking down the information hierarchies and ensuring that knowledge stays alive, and a true organisational asset. MindLink brings together all the collaboration features, making them intuitive to use and accessible to everyone who needs them throughout the organisation."

Daanish Khan, head of marketing and strategy at Formicary Collaboration Group, adds: "There is a growing recognition that businesses must now be 'social' and the current trend is to bundle everything of this nature together.  However, there is a distinct difference between social networking - which is focused on the connections between individuals - and social collaboration, which is a multi-layered discussion between a group of people with the aim of meeting a specific objective. MindLink has been developed to ultimately increase business productivity - for example by collaboratively resolving an issue or developing creative strategies."

"MindLink has been specifically designed to 'set knowledge free' by moving away from closed private conversations and 'email jail' and encouraging a culture of collaboration," Khan continues.  "It is a way of letting organisations optimise their most valuable of resources - the knowledge of their employees."

MindLink leverages Group Chat, a component of Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 so users do not need to invest in a completely new technology.  It is accessible via the web, mobile, SharePoint and Outlook Formicary Collaboration Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with extensive experience in developing solutions for Microsoft customers and extending the value of Microsoft Lync 2010 Group Chat.

About Formicary Collaboration Group

Formicary Collaboration Group (FCG) is a provider of team-based collaboration solutions. FCG's MindLink software leverages existing knowledge and communication assets to enable users to consume and share information and ideas, delivered through a next generation user experience providing best of breed Enterprise 2.0 and social features, and accessible on any device for today's increasingly mobile workforce. The team behind FCG has more than ten years' experience working with many medium to large sized businesses, facilitating better collaboration for both internal and external users.

FCG is a Microsoft Gold Partner and RIM Alliance Member. FCG solutions are fully compatible with Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.