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Chatter (discontinued) vs. Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Chatter (discontinued)

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AChatter was a collaboration platform with integration into the business process and the ability to conduct actions like approving expense reports and creating support cases from the activity feed itself. It was acquired by Salesforce and is currently discontinued.N/A

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Social Squared is a SharePoint Discussion Board App that can be deployed across SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Social Squared improves productivity and efficiency by providing structured discussion forums for employee and student discussions. For Microsoft SharePoint Social Squared is a SharePoint discussion board application where users can post questions within relevant forums and receive answers to their questions from subject matter experts. The…

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Pricing
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Prices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    90%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    81%
    Happy with the feature set
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Chatter (discontinued) and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.3
    52 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Task Management8.836 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gantt Charts8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scheduling7.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow Automation8.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.049 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Search7.944 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Chatter (discontinued) and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.4
    54 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Chat9.050 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Notifications7.153 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Discussions8.151 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Surveys8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase8.036 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting9.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts8.920 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook9.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Chatter (discontinued) and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.5
    48 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Versioning8.828 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Video files8.833 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Audio files7.930 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.941 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Access control8.034 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.929 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device sync8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
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    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
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    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (56 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.6
    (27 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Chatter (discontinued)Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    [Chatter] is the tool that makes our relations
    stronger. It provides advanced ways of communication. I have trained my many
    team members because of the easy features and functions of this tool, It is very user-friendly. Give it a try if you want to improve your relations with your
    customers. It will surely enhance the productivity of your organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    Their customer service it top notch and always responsive. I struggled in the beginning a little bit because I'm not tech savvy and we had to add it to our SharePoint site but they helped me along the way and even had share screen meetings with me to assist!!
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Chatter provides us with a live internal conversation for all to see without the noise that other mediums have i.e. e-mail.
    • One of the main features that really works well is the 'Groups' that you can join. We have multiple groups set up to not only distribute procedural changes and communicate news etc, but also have conversations around upcoming tasks in the months ahead.
    • Chatter works really well in instances where we need to look over historical conversations that have been had and the sentiment of those conversations with our shareholders, often using hashtags.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Groups does not have the private messaging functionality. Since most collaboration takes place in Groups, private messaging would allow for relevant conversations to be contained and not reside separately.
    • On a Group index page, there are two boxes for Information and Description. These content types seem redundant. You could replace both with a content type called About the Group. There could also be another box listing the Owners for quick reference.
    • On the main index page, the newsfeed has the same look and feel of most social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Jive, IBM Connections, SharePoint. There could be an alternate display of tiles that shows People you interact with most frequently, Files you access most often, most recent Topics, etc. The display could be something like Delve in Microsoft Office 365.
    • On the main index page in the right rail, it would be useful to have the ability to incorporate RSS feeds to gather outside content. Many departments heavily leverage RSS feeds to compile competitive intelligence and cultivate general awareness.
    • For user profiles, can we combine Feed and Overview into one consolidated view? It would save users a click to find relevant information about the person. Also, the Contact module should also have the person's phone number for convenience.
    • The Files feature does not allow for real-time, concurrent document editing. You have to download the document, make your edits, save, and then upload a new version, which only allows for one editor at a time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • I would love to be able to assign various people as administrators of different topics (this may be an option now but a couple years ago it wasn't)
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Chatter can fulfill at least 85-90% of our business requirements in an easy-to-use platform. Usability is a key requirement and we have had our share of bad usability experiences. In our experience, even the most novice users were able to pick up Chatter in a relatively short amount of time with little/no assistance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    It is easy to use but the impact of it feels like it is a bit antiquated. It does not feel collaborative and real time. Chatter is more akin to email versus Slack or Hangouts where it feels like problems are being solved as you are communicating.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    Our employees really like the fact that they can find things easily with the search feature and add questions and comments as they see fit.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    If I ever came to a situation where i needed help they do a very good job of getting back to us quickly to explain our error or why we are not seeing something. The support is quick to help provide groups or teams if you seek. Fortunately it is user friendly so I rarely need support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Skype is used more for audio calls. Chatter is used to track updates on items of interest in Salesforce. Chatter is deeply integrated with other Salesforce products. No other competing products come close. Slack is a traditional project management tool. So it does not compete with Chatter. Because of its close integration with Salesforce, it is a unique tool for Salesforce users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Chatter has closed deals faster, and brought us in revenue at a quicker rate in turn.
    • Chatter has left some things undone simply because people didn't see it and it has cost us a few deals.
    • Overall, Chatter has brought us a cleaner, more efficient Salesforce process and brought in revenue because of organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • We signed up for a 3 year contract and hope to do another 3yr contract when this one is up. :)
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN, RESPONSIVE SHAREPOINT DISCUSSION BOARD
Discussion Forums can be created for a variety of different reasons. This example is a Forum Group for the Microsoft 365 technologies such as Teams, Planner, and SharePoint. Forums are then created within the Forum Groups for more specific discussions. Under the SharePoint Forum Group, there is a Forum for SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online. Anyone looking to ask a question regarding SharePoint 2019 for example would be able to post their question under SharePoint On-Premises rather than SharePoint Online. This also allows subject matter experts to focus more on the questions that they can respond to and provide value.Screenshot of SHAREPOINT DISCUSS BOARD – TOPICS VIEW
When navigating into a forum, the topics and discussions that are taking place are shown. Any new topics that not yet read will be highlighted. It also displays whether topics have been answered, their average ratings, how many views and posts are within the topic, and also provides the ability to subscribe to the forum to be notified of new posts within it.Screenshot of READING DISCUSSIONS AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Social Squared offers a threaded discussion view with the ability to provide feedback to other users.

Posts can be rated, voted upon, or liked by users in order to give feedback to the user creating or responding to a post. Additionally, replies can be marked as answered or marked as featured, which gives readers of forums assurance that the response they are reading is validated to be the correct answer.

Users also receive feedback through the earning of badges. The more users post or mark posts as answered, the more points are rewarded. This makes it easy to spot subject matter experts.Screenshot of SUGGESTED TAGS
Social Squared provides a rich text editor for creating and replying to topics. The Rich Text toolbar provides functionality such as inserting images, YouTube videos, Stream Videos, Formatted Code Inserts, as well as font formatting.

While typing, suggestions on how to tag a post appear. Selecting an existing tag will provide consistency in the tags used making it easier for other users to discover the post.Screenshot of SOCIAL SQUARED TAG CLOUD VIEW
The Social Squared Tag Cloud view makes it easy to navigate to posts within a specific category even if they span multiple forums. The more a tag appears in different posts, the more prominent it will be in the tag cloud. Users can navigate to posts with the tag in one click.Screenshot of DISCUSSION BOARD WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS TAB
Social Squared is a Discussion Board App for Microsoft Teams Tab’s and Microsoft Teams Personal Apps. Social Squared provides information workers the ability to post questions within relevant forums, and receive answers from their team. The Discussion Board layout for posts makes it easier to find answers to questions that may have already been asked before. Through features such as “Mark as Answered”, “Forum Moderation”, “Post Rating”, “Post Likes”, “Post Voting”, users will be assured that the answers they are reading are validated.