Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at Work – an app by the giant social media network that is geared to connect employees and employers on Facebook for better communication has added Telenor, a Norwegian multinational telecommunications company which is one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia.
Telenor is adding 36 000 employees to the program with a view to add more and more as they use the app in order to accommodate everyone who works in their 203 countries where they are located. Telenor joins a list of selected companies using the program which is still in closed beta stage and still has up to 60 000 companies on the waiting list.
A part of parent company Facebook allows businesses to create a social media account on Facebook to allow employees and employers to send work messages and links to each other separate from their own private Facebook accounts.
Telenor joins a list of 450 countries which are being updated regularly. Facebook seems to accept companies strategically at the moment with Telenor providing a host of advantages that allow the Facebook at Work program to be advertised more and more in different aspects. According to Julien Cordoniou, head at Facebook at Work, Telenor is a global carrier which has strong IT business and therefore Facebook could use them as resellers of their program. Telenor chief Sigve Brekke however reiterated that the whole aim was to give the Facebook at Work to their employees and not resell any of Facebook’s programs.
Facebook is trying to beef up its own sales team and hired the Vice President at Box, Monica Adractas in February to head up sales in North America. Codorniou has been tasked with fronting the Asian front as Facebook aims to gain on their recent rise in the Asian market. Telenor which owns a considerable amount of carriers in developing countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and India is therefore a strategic game player for the technological giant.
Facebook at Work statistics show that the highest number of applicants for the program have come from Asia so certainly Cordorniou is doing something right. “They are trying to connect to each and every one of their employees and they see this program as a way to conveniently do that without any foolish expenses” he said from Singapore.
He also looked forward to the future for the program as they look to integrate other services as they look into asking businesses to pay for the service. As of now it is still free of charge but the plan for Facebook has always been that as it will go from beta stage it will try to justify itself for pricing the product.
Facebook is doing so much to connect people and now they have just entered our workplace. Good or bad? Time will tell!
