UAE-based Al Sharqi Shipping, part of Al Sharqi Group and a leading logistics service provider in the region, has revealed that it is testing out a new platform to connect its staff using Facebook at Work.

Kashif Rafiq, director of Al Sharqi Shipping, said: “We rolled it out to all different companies in the group across different locations in a bid to overcome internal communication challenges.”

“Emails are almost archaic in this day and age. It’s becoming an increasingly less effective method of communication in a digitalised age of collaboration,” he said.

The company wanted to try and utilise a platform that allows team members to communicate, discuss and solve problems faster and more efficiently while significantly reducing the volume of emails per day, said a statement from the company.

Rafiq said: “The beta testing of the platform has been positive so far. Just like regular Facebook users, Al Sharqi users can like, share and comment on posts in real time, something you can’t do effectively via email and organisation-wide.”

Atif Rafiq, cheif marketing officer of Al Sharqi, said: “It has also allowed all our staff from Asia, Middle east and Africa to feel closer, across different companies in the group.”

“Now everyone can see what is happening across all offices, work collaboratively and effectively,” he said.

“Facebook at Work advantages include user’s familiarity with the platform and the ability to work from anywhere, including through the mobile app. Additionally, Facebook’s built-in security meet most of the department’s needs, and the platform scales easily,” he added.

Facebook started beta-testing the service in January last year and offers it as a free, invite-only service. It is yet to hit public release and only a handful of organisation across the globe are testing it, said a statement.

Al Sharqi prides itself as an innovative and fast growing group of companies. Their keen interest in the adoption of new technology in order to improve their SLAs have always been an organisation wide goal, it added. – TradeArabia News Service