Windchill SocialLink

[Bob1]

Windchill SocialLink

I've seen this video demo and it looks interesting. Does anybody use this product? I haven't seen anybody talking about it, so is it actually any good?

[DavidBlair]

Hi Bob,

I am the product manager for Windchill SocialLink. The product leverages SharePoint as the foundation for this technology, so that is a pre-requisite. There are a number of customers who have purchased the technology, but most are in pilot mode. For example, Boeing Satellite has done some interesting things with the product.

[Bob1]

Thanks for the reply. I've seen your demo videos on PTC.com and I even saw your post in a thread on another site about Why Engineers Don't Like Company Private Social Networks. I have a feeling that many of the engineers at my company may feel the same way as the engineers mentioned in that article. So I was really looking to hear from someone who works for a company that has rolled this out, and see whether or not they feel like this product is worth a real look. It certainly looks neat, but it wouldn't be worthwhile if nobody uses it...

Maybe it's too early to be asking this question, and I need to wait a little longer for the product to mature a bit...

[sm]

Socal tools are also suspect to culture and assimilation during the adoption phase. Some folks naturally gravitate towards these technologies while others naturally stay away. Think of your own FaceBook friends. Some of them update you (too much) some update you once in a while and some update you almost never. However, there's always a big group that is just watching, cosuming the information and becoming more informed.

SocialLink is a great solution, it just needs a home where its part of the business and one of the primary means of communication. With a few champions using it effectively, it can grow to be a critical asset by involving more and more people that may not have an opportunity to interact otherwise. You may not be ready for it today, but with kids coming out of school as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. experts, you can be sure they'll be looking for similar tools to use in their corporate life.

[Bob1]

This is a good point. Most of the guys here are mid-30s or older (myself included) and most are not part of the Facebook/Twitter/whatever crowd. So they might not be interested in something like this. I can imagine that as younger people enter the workforce, something like SocialLink will seem like an obvious tool to them. Thanks...