Facebook's Workplace Faces Realities

I have always had a soft spot for enterprise vendors who believe they are going to change... everything. Their approach is so different, so valuable, so game-changing that the normal practices of how to compete in enterprise markets don't apply to them. They insist that free entry-level offerings pay for themselves and see little need for capabilities like archiving, detailed security configurations, effective management consoles, compliance controls, and integrations with established enterprise vendors. Consumer-oriented vendors entering the enterprise market show this endearing behaviour most often.

I also love watching as they slowly retreat from this idea to gradually enter the real world. After Google and Dropbox before them, Workplace from Facebook seems to be taking those same lurching steps towards enterprise realities. Workplace has announced new partnerships and integrations with Cisco Webex and Microsoft. They are also dropping the free version of the product formerly known as Workplace Essential.

Workplace is a very appealing offering. The number one problem with any enterprise social product is getting users to use it, so its Facebook roots provide a big advantage. The user stories of companies really achieving the benefits of social enterprise are compelling. Now claiming over 5 million paid users, it has achieved enough penetration to attract interest from major enterprise players.

Certainly, Workplace has long had an API and app store providing integrations, but it never seemed to be much of a priority. They were there; use 'em if you want to. A vendor's third party API risks becoming an outlet for functionality or integrations that the company really isn't interested in doing itself. They can tell prospects that if a feature is really important to them, they can do it themselves or find a partner to built it for them.

That's what makes the Microsoft and Cisco announcements different. These are being pushed by both companies from a senior level. Cisco is even giving Workplace customers free trials and discounts not available to everyone. This kind of commercial relationship is an important distinction in these relationships. It is easy to make videos where everyone says how much they love each other; real partnerships happen when money gets earned and transactions close,

The Microsoft relationship is still far from clear, with lots of overlapping capabilities, particularly with Microsoft Teams. The integration points with OneDrive, Azure AD and Sharepoint are useful, but these vendors are still highly competitive.

Ending the free version, or at least burying it so that it is almost impossible to find, is almost a rite of passage for consumer vendors pivoting to the enterprise. Such a move makes sense and in some sense is inevitable. I wish that Workplace had not been so cavalier about the move, though. Workplace Essential users have just two months to switch to a paid version. It really is only about six weeks since it straddles the holiday period. Users can stretch that time by making use of a free six month trial offer, but they must take action now to avoid losing their data. This is not a friendly approach to business users.

I have never been a fan of using free versions for real business use; you get what you pay for, If you are serious about your business, you should treat your suppliers seriously also. It seemed to make sense in a Workplace context, however. Their focus is on building community, which can start with very small organizations, before they can pay. Eventually, they get big enough to want to pay. Workplace certainly has the right to decide whether this offering still makes sense for them. Customers and prospects have the right to decide how they feel about those decisions.

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