Gateway for Facebook is a cloud-based service that can interconnect enterprise IT environments and enterprise applications with the Facebook social graph.
The service converts Facebook social graph data structure into a relational data structure, making it suitable for enterprise applications like CRM, marketing, service, sales, loyalty and mobile applications.
Bidirectional data flow enables social intelligence from Facebook to be added to enterprise applications and enterprise applications to interact back with the social network. Through this two-way communication, companies can inject social intelligence into enterprise applications transforming them into ‘friendly’ applications - inherently mobile, social and personal - that simplify and enhance the consumer experience. For example, a phone company could offer a friendly phone app that synchronises with Facebook data to keep the contact information for all of a user’s Facebook friends up to date.
Developers using a wide range of technologies can use Gateway to inject social intelligence, personalisation and social interactivity into their applications. This includes Microsoft Windows developers, mobile app developers for Apple iOS and Google Android and ERP systems from Oracle, SAP and Microsoft. Custom-built Facebook applications can use Gateway as an access mechanism, particularly when the queries require a real-time response.