<p>NewsGator is re-architecting its Social Sites enterprise social networking (ESN) suite so that it can be installed independently of Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration server.</p><p>The decision isn't terribly surprising, given that Microsoft last summer bought NewsGator competitor Yammer for US$1.2 billion and has ambitious plans to deeply integrate Yammer with SharePoint and other Microsoft products, like Office and Dynamics CRM. However, this decision is a big technology and strategy shift for NewsGator.</p><p>"Today Social Sites still runs on SharePoint," said Brian Kellner, NewsGator's executive vice president of products. "As we go forward, we're working on an architecture that doesn't have a dependence on SharePoint, although it can still take advantage of it."</p><p>NewsGator's CEO, Daniel Kraft, hinted at this move back in August, when he told IDG News Service that while the company would continue solidifying Social Sites' standing in the Microsoft ecosystem, it would also expand the product's scope to, for example, enterprise applications from SAP. The idea, Kraft said then, would be to let users manage processes from those third-party applications within Social Sites.</p><p><a href="http://www.techworld.com.au/article/453553/newsgator_plans_uncouple_its_enterprise_social_suite_from_sharepoint/?fp=16&fpid=1">Keep reading...</a></p>