TI built the platform on technology from , a company that makes Web 2.0 technologies for the enterprise (often called Enterprise 2.0 apps). allows customers to interact with the company hosting the forum, and each other, to solve problems.

According to Oliver Young, a senior Forrester analyst, apps like Telligent's have become popular for the type of externally-facing forum TI has built. SharePoint, Microsoft's , can be used for external communities, but the licensing is more complex, so companies have more often relied on it for internal purposes.

"Companies buying social software have often been focusing on this marketing side of the house, and tying internal communities with the external," Young says. "Having the seamless ability to surface information from the external communities and take it inside can be very hopeful."

C.G. Lynch writes about consumer and social technologies, and tracks their migration into the workplace. You can follow him on Twitter: .