RBS becomes largest ever Facebook At Work customer

Over 100,000 RBS employees set to use Facebook At Work business collaboration service

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to deploy Facebook At Work, the business version of the social network, for use by more than 100,000 employees.

The deal represents the largest deployment ever of Facebook at Work and the first time a bank has signed up to use the service. RBS is rolling out Facebook At Work to encourage collaboration and to allow employees to communicate faster and more efficiently.

A decision was made to move forward with a full-scale deployment of the Facebook At Work collaboration service following a successful pilot among 100 RBS employees.

RBS found that staff were able to work much more efficiently together, answer questions from customers faster, update colleagues on projects more quickly and use it to source ideas for ongoing projects.

Facebook At Work looks and operates like a regular Facebook account, so RBS found that only minimal training was required to use the service. Employees will be able to use it to post photos, create groups and send private messages to colleagues.

"I've already been using Facebook At Work while we test it and it's been so useful - allowing me to exchange information and ideas quickly and securely with all my team on a wide range of projects," said Simon McNamara, RBS chief administrative officer.

"I'm excited about how bringing people together from all across the bank through Facebook At Work can help our employees do their job better - whether it's being able to find answers to customer queries much faster or helping us come up with bright new ideas," he added.

RBS began to pilot Facebook At Work in July and aims to roll it out to 30,000 employees by the end of March 2016 before deploying it to all 100,000 employees by the end of next year. The service can be used by RBS employees at their desktop computers, tablets and smartphones.

Sean Ryan, VP of platform partnerships at Facebook, welcomed the Facebook At Work deal with RBS.

"Facebook is a simple way for people to connect, share ideas and organise events. We hope Facebook At Work will help RBS, which employs 100,000 people, bring staff closer together and allow them to collaborate on projects much more effectively," he said.

The deployment of Facebook At Work by a global enterprise like RBS is significant for the social network, which has previously struggled to gain momentum with its business collaboration platform.