Nike, HBO, Sony Tap FMYI For Collaboration

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The $275 million enterprise social media space (GigaOM Pro subscription required) is growing rapidly, as the success of consumer social networking sites has begun to filter into the business world, with heavyweights like Microsoft [MSFT] SharePoint and smaller companies like Jive all after a piece of the pie. But Yuen says he's not feeling pressure from the influx of new competitors: The company's revenues for the first half of 2009 have already exceeded all of those from 2008, despite the economic downturn.

While the market's growth has helped make potential customers more aware of the ways such solutions can improve productivity and solve workflow problems, Yuen's quick to point out that it's not just overall market growth driving fmyi's success. There are many solutions on the market, but "no one has really done it well and cracked the code," says Yuen. From his perspective, fmyi's main selling point is that its social tools are all organized within workflow, allowing companies to reap significant productivity benefits. (For example, the MTV [VIA] show Room Raiders, which uses the system for casting management, reportedly was able to cut the length of an average workday to 9 hours from 14 hours after adopting the tool.)

Monitoring Progress

Yuen is also experimenting with using social media as a way to launch and monitor sustainability projects. Through a partnership with the Northwest Earth Institute, fmyi will offer an online discussion course around workplace sustainability within its platform and offer tools for tracking sustainability projects that emerge from the course. Yuen says the company will begin a pilot with two companies "soon" and launch the template for more widespread use later this summer.

The Portland (Ore.) company, which has been profitable since 2006 without any external investment, currently hosts 6,000 sites. Clients include HBO, Sony (SNE), Nike (although it's using fmyi for product groups, not sustainability efforts these days), and AFLAC (AFL )(field agents use it for tracking customer relationships). Hyatt is one large company leveraging the company's sustainability expertise; the hotel chain uses fmyi to coordinate its Global Sustainability Initiative. As far as Yuen is concerned, fmyi's roots in the sustainability movement may help it work with clients more successfully than its competitors: "Social media and sustainability are both about culture change," he says.

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