Ixxus launches tool to integrate Alfresco with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Alfresco has given its enterprise content management system a social makeover with a new application by systems integrator Ixxus, underlining the growing importance of social network information to businesses.

The Ixxus Social Content Platform features out-of-the box integration with social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

"Customers were asking for more push marketing capabilities at the same time as wanting more of a pull structure for connecting with their user bases," said Ixxus director Paul Samuel.

"We get a lot of feedback from customers as we concentrate on front-end capabilities, while Alfresco is focused more on back-end development and release cycles."

Customers can use the application to create a central repository based in Alfresco in order to manage traditional and social content.

A new 'Social' tab in the CMS allows users to send content to social networks and receive any comments or 'likes' made on that content within the repository.

"We have made sure the data they create, and the comments that come back, all come into the same repository so they don't have silos of information," explained Samuel.

Content sent to social networks can be enterprise information found in the CMS through the Alfresco search box, or blogs and opinions put together by employees for social networks.

Such opinions can be sent through an approval process before they are posted on social networks, Samuel said.

Business tools that mimic or integrate with social networking sites are continuing to flourish. Offerings from firms like Yammer, Tibco and AtTask all offer functionalities similar to sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.