Trudon, a South African search and marketing company and the publisher of the Yellow Pages, is a staunch advocate of social media, but had never considered social business software (SBS) until it came face-to-face with Wyzetalk.

MD Thabo Seopa says the company realised it needed the powerful business communication of SBS to support its business growth plans.

So when Wyzetalk presented its platform in April 2014, Trudon embraced the opportunity with an implementation plan that saw the footprint of the solution growing rapidly.

“We’re using it primarily for internal communications and social interaction at the moment, but also for private messaging and group discussions on topics of mutual interest. We wanted to build trust with transparent, rationalised communication across the board. We have over 500 staff members around the country, and we felt it could be a breakthrough for us, helping us solve queries in an efficient manner and much faster than it was happening over e-mail.”

Not unexpectedly, it has had much traction in the enterprise. Today, more than 90% of the company is registered on Wyzetalk and actively talking, Seopa says.

Wyzetalk Enterprise is a social business platform that integrates easily into a business to facilitate the conversations that encourage people to work together, communicate in a more transparent and easy way and as a result improve productivity levels.

“The great thing about the solutions we provide is that all members within an organisation can make use of it irrespective of their function and geographical presence,” adds Gys Kappers, CEO of Wyzetalk.

“There is high activity and engagement among the 520 users on the system, whereas previously we found that informative communications like newsletters were not given the attention we would have liked.” Accessing Wyzetalk via a browser interface and mobile apps (across all mobile platforms), Seopa says staff find it easy to use, responsive and effective in eliciting action. The benefits are both palpable and intangible.

“Simple things like birthdays being instantly visible to everyone, or pics from company events, give people a sense of belonging and common purpose. At the other end of the spectrum, we had an occasion when we needed funds for a company event, and after just one post on the Wyzetalk platform we were assisted by a number of exco members,” Seopa adds.

The next phase for Trudon is to use Wyzetalk for business ideation and innovation, including exco-specific communication and strategy alignment. Longer-term, says Seopa, the company plans to bring customers into this collaborative platform.

“Embarking on an enterprise social strategy is a process that requires active engagement from all staff, leadership and a strategy. Guided by the Wyzetalk team, Trudon understood this from the get-go and their strategy and implementation is already paying off.

“Many minds working towards a common goal will lead to game-changing solutions that any company’s bottom line can look forward to. It’s great to see South African companies embracing social business this concept and Trudon is one such company reaping the rewards,” concludes Kappers.