<p>The enterprise social market is shifting its focus away from differentiated features, tointegration with enterprise software, according to the latest Magic Quadrant report on socialsoftware from Gartner Inc.</p><p>Enterprises don't want standalone socialnetwork software that emulates Facebook with news feed and embedded commenting features.Employees need social softwarethat ties into business processes through integration with unified communications (UC) tools andcustomer relationship management (CRM) software. But enterprises shouldn't cram social elementsinto existing business applications without first understanding if social could enhanceproductivity within an application and if users would take advantage of the tools.</p><p>"Differentiation is getting harder to do -- many vendors are starting to have the sameelements," said Mike Gotta, research vice president for collaboration and social software forStamford, Conn.-based Gartner. "The destination sites are trying to become more purposeful and morecontextual around getting work done, as well as more integrated with other vendor offerings. At thesame time, social elements are also being added into existing project management and CRMtools."Smaller social network software vendors may be better integrators</p><p>Today, IT departments carry the burden of integrating social platforms and connecting them withUC tools or CRM platforms. Social network software vendors could and should help businesses withaggregation and consolidation of social features, Gotta said.</p><p><a href="http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/news/2240207009/Enterprise-social-network-software-Integrate-with-business-applications">Keep reading...</a></p>