Here below are summaries of the details on which we have based our assessment of the innovativeness and corporate readiness of the listed products and services.

1. Atlassian Confluence is Java-based wiki software that also provides scope for blogs, software project management (through Atlassian's JIRA product), mashups and 100+ third-party plug-ins. It integrates with Microsoft SharePoint and runs in Microsoft, Apple and Linux environments.

• Packaging: Downloadable from the Web or as hosted service.
• Innovation score: 3.0. Apparently doing little new directly on features. Add-ins extend the range of tools but are unlikely to be as effective as native capabilities
• Company: 200+ employees; 3 offices - Australia (home), USA & The Netherlands; partners worldwide; 9,000+ customers in 100 countries
• Corporate fitness score: 4.0. Used by a long list of household names worldwide, with some large installations. Narrower set of features than some competitors. Smallish company supporting several products.

2. DreamFace Interactive is a open-source Web 2.0 product, based on AJAX, that lets users build their own social networking systems and mash-ups. Uses 'DataWidgets' for creating, distributing and syndicating content, all accessible from PCs, Web browsers and PDAs. Mobile services include banking and payments.

• Packaging: Downloadable from the Web as an open source (Community Edition) or commercially-licensed (Enterprise Edition) product.
• Innovation score: 4.0. An easily adaptable product, using modern tools and methods.
• Company: 10+ employees; 1 office - France; some partners; no large customers listed
• Corporate fitness score: 1.5. Potentially useful but little evidence of enterprise adoption so far.

3. EMC CenterStage is Web client software for the Documentum system. It comes in basic ('essentials') and 'Pro' versions. Pro combines social networking tools with mobile access via BlackBerry devices, federated search and textual analysis, all with control of security, compliance and data retention. It is designed for use inside or outside the firewall.

• Packaging: Available as a discrete, single-server version or, for larger installations, a multi-server, multi-tier product
• Innovation score: 4.0. A wide set of tools all closely integrated with a leading enterprise electronic content management (ECM) system.
• Company: 37,000 employees; 400 offices in 60 countries; many partners; many customers, of all sizes
• Corporate fitness score: 4.5. EMC is a corporate software specialist. CenterStage has high potential but is not yet widely used, even by existing Documentum customers. It is unlikely to appeal to companies that don't (or don't intend to) use its ECM software.

4. FreshNetworks is a hosted service, built on the Drupal open-source content management system and offering a wide range of features. These can carry the customer's branding. There is a strong marketing bias in the company's software and services.

• Packaging: FreshNetworks' service includes installation, community management and traffic analysis. A network can carry the customer's branding.
• Innovation score: 3.5. Its reporting and analysis service make FreshNetworks especially useful for marketing-based communities.
• Company: 25 employees; 2 offices - UK and Spain; no details offered on partners or customers
• Corporate fitness score: 2.5. The company operates internationally but seems to have few customers. Its software service is outside the firewall.

5. Huddle.net is a networked service aimed at helping teams collaborate on-line, both internally and across the firewall. Tools include voice and web conferencing, whiteboards, management of digital assets, documents and projects, and personalised dashboards. Huddle is accessible from iPhones and via Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and Xing. There is a connector to the InterCall conferencing service.

• Packaging: Offered in free and paid versions. Branding is available. Aims for 'viral' spread.
• Innovation score: 2.5. The network basis is attractive but the tools are more groupware than social netting.
• Company: 30+ employees; 1 office - UK (+ USA in 2010); no details offered on partners; large number of users, including household names worldwide
• Corporate fitness score: 3.5. There are some large installations.

6. IBM Lotus Connections combines adaptable social networking tools with enterprise-strength platforms. Wide range of social netting tools but needs other IBM tools for a full offering, typically at some cost in complexity. Client software runs in Microsoft, Apple and Linux operating environments and on various PDAs; server software runs in Microsoft, AIX and Linux environments. Integrates with Microsoft Exchange.

• Packaging: Licensed software to run on customer's machine(s), purchasable online or via partners. Many features are offered as a 'cloud' service, LotusLive Connections.
• Innovation score: 4.5. Part of IBM's campaign to bring Web 2.0 to its big (and smaller) iron. Enterprise-wide shared bookmarking (from its Dogear project) and task-centred working are ahead of its competitors' offerings.
• Company: Nearly 400,000 employees; offices in over 170 countries; many partners; many customers, of all sizes
• Corporate fitness score: 5.0. IBM is a corporate software specialist and has several large installations of Connections worldwide. Will probably appeal mainly to existing IBM customers.

7. IGLOO produces and hosts turnkey social networking systems, branded for each customer. It offers a range of groupware, social netting and document management tools that integrate to form either internal ('Workplace Communities') or external ('Marketplace Communities') systems. These can integrate with Google Analytics and are accessible from BlackBerry and iPhone PDAs.

• Packaging: A hosted service.
• Innovation score: 3.5. A useful set of tools offered in easy-to-adopt packaging. Provide a best practice 'playbook' online.
• Company: 50 employees; 1 office - Canada; some partners; good list of well-known customers but mainly in IGLOO's domestic market
• Corporate fitness score: 3.0. Can integrate with Microsoft SharePoint and other enterprise software. Small to medium-sized installations so far.

8. Jive Social Business Software offers a collection of groupware and social netting tools. They can integrate with YouTube, Twitter, Microsoft Office and SharePoint, SAP, Salesforce and, in 2010, Documentum. Access is possible from iPhone and BlackBerry PDAs, as well as PCs and browsers. Multilingual searching is offered, as is traffic analysis.

• Packaging: As licensed software, as a hosted service or via a cloud.
• Innovation score: 3.5. A good set of tools in a range of packagings. A new bridging tool lets users import external discussions to internal conferences.
• Company: 150+ employees; 10 offices - USA (HQ) and Europe; some partners; wide range of customers
• Corporate fitness score: 4.0. Has some large installations, mainly in North America and Europe, including EMC (q.v.).

9. Josh XCAP is a modular, Java-based product for external communities. It runs in all the main small-server operating environments and uses the MySQL database. XCAP offers more than 20 modules for a wide range of social netting functions, including content management.

• Packaging: Downloadable licensed software for user organizations and site developers. XCAP Xpress is a ready-for-use version.
• Innovation score: 3.5. XCAP's environmental versatility, modular structure and large number of APIs help make it adaptable to most needs.
• Company: 15 employees; 1 office, in Sweden; 4 partners, all in northern Europe; a good number of customers
• Corporate fitness score: 2.5. The software is used outside the firewall by several large publishing companies but mainly in Scandinavia.

10. Liferay Social Office provides a good range of groupware, social networking and content management features for internal or external use. A plug-in to Liferay's popular open-source Portal product, Social Office can mirror the organizational structure of a company. It is built in Java and offers an API for integration with corporate software.

11. Mzinga OmniSocial integrates social networking, groupware, e-learning and learning management, and membership analysis tools.

• Packaging: A hosted service supplied in three versions - for marketing, human resources and support - all able to carry the customer's branding. These can occupy their own Web site or sites or can be made part of another site.
• Innovation score: 5.0. The inclusion of its previously separate learning tools makes Mzinga's software unusual, if not unique. Community activity analysis is a bonus.
• Company: 170 employees; 9 offices - 2 real and 6 virtual in the USA, 1 (real) in Australia; no partners listed; customers around the world, some large
• Corporate fitness score: 3.0. The combined product is new and has few customers so far. Enterprise integration is not evident.

12. Novell Teaming offers a wide range of social networking tools allied to groupware (GroupWise) and document management, with an option of workflow management. It is written in Java and runs on Linux servers. Access is by a range of Web browsers. Teaming integrates with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice and can use MySQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases.

• Packaging: Licensed software to run on customer's premises.
• Innovation score: 3.5. The workflow tools make Teaming unusual.
• Company: 3,900 employees; 100 offices around the world; many partners but few for this product; many existing customers, often large, but few for this product
• Corporate fitness score: 4.0. Novell is a corporate software specialist. It seems to be aiming this product at formalised organizations. There are no public details of large installations.

13. Open Text ECM Suite is an integrated suite of groupware, document management, search, workflow and, latterly, social networking tools. It is an evolution of Open Text's longstanding LiveLink enterprise offering and can integrate with Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle or SAP.

• Packaging: As licensed, downloadable software and as a hosted service.
• Innovation score: 3.5. A strong product but slightly off the pace in its social networking abilities. The company's recent acquisition of Vignette should improve that.
• Company: 3,000 employees; 46 offices, in Canada (HQ), others in North & South America and Europe; many partners worldwide; many existing customers, often large
• Corporate fitness score: 4.5. Open Text is a corporate software specialist with worldwide offices; it aims ECM Suite at strongly formalised organizations. There are few publicly-listed large users of the social networking tools.

14. Socialtext offers a set of integrated social netting tools, including wikis, micro-blogging and, new this autumn, 'social' spreadsheets. The tools are accessible from desktop devices running in Windows, Apple OS and Linux. Mobile access is also possible. Socialtext software uses the Google OpenSocial API, and can link to Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Connections.

• Packaging: Available as a hosted service or as an 'appliance', a plug-and-go bundle of hardware and software on Socialtext's premises or the customer's.
• Innovation score: 5.0. The appliance offering and the 'behind the firewall' wiki spreadsheet are unique.
• Company: 75 employees; 5 offices, in the USA (HQ), Canada and the UK; no details listed of partners; many existing customers
• Corporate fitness score: 3.0. Socialtext has a good set of features but it comes from a smallish organization with, so far, no large customers listed.

15. ThoughtFarmer is software for behind-the-firewall social networking. It offers a range of Web 2.0 tools that link closely with a user organization's Microsoft infrastructure, such as .NET, SQL Server, Active Directory and Exchange Server. Access is by browser, running on varied devices, only Internet Explorer gives single sign-on. ThoughtFarmer is multilingual, offering localised user interfaces, multiple language versions of any page and automatic translation of content (using a Google service). The user interface can carry the user organization's branding.

• Packaging: Commercial product to run in a user organization's Microsoft server environment.
• Innovation score: 5.0. For being able to switch between 7 languages and for its relationship browser.
• Company: 25 employees; 1 office, in Canada; has a few partners, in three continents; few large customers.
• Corporate fitness score: 3.5. The reliance on Microsoft underpinnings narrows the range of potential user organizations. Growth will also be limited by the small number of partners.

16. Traction Teampage is a Java server for internal and external collaboration that gives users wiki and blog tools, with discussion and tagging. The latest release includes free-text search and analysis (from Attivio) and the option to link to Oracle databases. The server software can run on Windows, Linux, Solaris or Mac OS X computers. Access is by Web browser running on Windows, Macintosh or Unix machines or BlackBerry PDAs.

• Packaging: TeamPage Server is a downloadable licensed package to run on the customer's premises or from a cloud (Amazon EC3). TeamPage5 is a free, downloadable server package with limited use and capabilities.
• Innovation score: 4.0. For its fluid user interface and access to Attivio's information extraction tools. A broader range of social netting tools would be welcome.
• Company: 11 employees; 1 office in the USA; 1 European partner and a Japanese reseller; users worldwide, some of them large.
• Corporate fitness score: 3.0. Traction Software is a small company that is not growing. It has a popular product but there is no indication of its likely integration with corporate processes or application software.

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That completes the summary of results on products, services and their delivery.