I met recently with Ektron, whose CMS400.net platform has been updated with, among other things, social networking capabilities. Version 7.5 of Ektron CMS400.net allows organizations to build social networking platforms, both for internal and external customers.

It's easy to see why companies would want to provide social networking capabilities for external customers. They build community and site stickiness, and provide instant feedback. Just as intriguing is the use of social networking for internal users as a place to allow employees to advertise their expertise--and for their colleagues to then find that expertise--all under Ektron's content management umbrella. The productivity possibilities are almost endless.

In addition to the new social networking capabilities, CMS400.net 7.5 includes faster search, a rebuilt document management engine that mimics the folder structure on users' local machines, an address book that allows users to more easily find colleagues through the use of tagging, a photo server and forums.

But Ektron has stiff competition in open-source platforms such as Drupal and Joomla, which are both highly flexible and old social networking hands at this point. And, as eWEEK Chief Technology Analyst Jim Rapoza recently pointed out, many enterprises already have the applications it takes to build a social network right at their fingertips.