NBN Co claims to be the first Australian enterprise to sign up to Facebook's new Workplace social media platform for business, following a six-month trial.
The national network builder said it had been testing out the product - which became publicly available today - since July 8 with 6000 employees and contractors. Prior to that it had around 100 of its staff playing around with the platform.
The "overwhelming" response to the trial saw more than half of the company sign up in the first few hours of July 8, NBN Co head of corporate affairs Karina Keisler said in a statement.
Around 90 percent of NBN Co's employees are currently registered to use the platform, with 84 percent of staff actively using it, she said.
NBN Co opted to implement the tool to help improve its employee engagement numbers, and move from the bottom to the top quartile of engagement - a target it has since reached, Keisler said.
The NBN Co team used the Work Chat function to communicate between French Guiana, San Francisco and across Australia when the planned launch of its second Sky Muster rocket was delayed last week.
"There were 1400 posts, 1700 comments and 8400 reactions from across the business, and across the world, that would not have happened via email. We all shared the spoils of our employee space bake off, watched the launch and shared in the celebration. It was truly incredible," Keisler said.
"It's early days and there's work to ensure Workplace remains a productive tool but there is no question it is helping us reduce emails, connect with colleagues, learn more about our business and share our wins and challenges with each other."
The Facebook business tool has been in testing for more than a year. It was released today in a direct play against the fast-growing Slack platform, with Facebook offering lower subscription prices to convince users of its business viability.
Workplace is priced at between US$1 and US$3 per user, compared to Slack's base US$7 price per user.
Facebook is targeting businesses whose employees spend most of their time away from a desk. It today claimed to have already signed up more than 1000 businesses to the platform.
