Bloomfire vs. Socialcast (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Bloomfire
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Bloomfire provides knowledge engagement, aiming to deliver an experience that connects teams and individuals with the information they need to excel at their jobs. Their cloud-based knowledge engagement platform aims to give people one centralized, searchable place to engage with shared knowledge and grow their organization's collective intelligence.
$25
per month
Socialcast (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Socialcast was an enterprise social networking and collaboration platform acquired by VMware in 2011. The platform allowed an organization's employees to share information and documents with co-workers in real time through a Facebook- or Twitter-like news feed. VMware announced its end of availability (EOA) effective May 2018.N/A
Pricing
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Basic
$25.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$25 No setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Features
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Bloomfire
-
Ratings
Socialcast (discontinued)
6.3
Ratings
20% below category average
Task Management00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
Search00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings3.40 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Bloomfire
-
Ratings
Socialcast (discontinued)
7.5
Ratings
5% below category average
Chat00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Bloomfire
-
Ratings
Socialcast (discontinued)
5.7
Ratings
31% below category average
Versioning00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Small Businesses
Front
Front
Score 7.1 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BloomfireSocialcast (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Bloomfire is most appropriate in a medium to large business entity since onboarding can be difficult without an organized tool to prioritize job functions. It would be most well suited for positions that incorporate data analytics/reporting and consist of regular deliverables. So for example: if an accountant wants to learn how to compile a cash flow statement but also has to turn it into a client-facing presentation, there are resources specific to internal accounting and then separate resources (also in the accounting vertical) for data visualizations and client reporting.
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Socialcast has been a great tool for FactSet. I would recommend it to any firm looking for an easy-to-use tool to centralize communication and collaborate on a global scale.
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Pros
  • Quickly reach out to whatever employee segment you want to reach by posting a topic and it will send a notification to everyone in that group with a link to the posting.
  • Bloomfire saves all of the previous posts so in your free time you can go to the site, and explore the various range of topics others have posted. The information on there will only be as good as the person posting it, but it will be people within your company and industry posting it. So it will always be helpful.
  • Bloomfire is a place to be noticed by your peers. Have a great topic you want to express, my company allows all to post there as long as we keep it professional. So you can share your ideas or experiences in a safe and productive manner. But we do have some fun on there too!
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  • Had an easy to use interface.
  • The ability to opt in and out of various groups is great.
  • It works great for large companies with lots of people.
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Cons
  • Providing more videos about the differences between the dental plans.
  • Providing more videos about the differences between the carriers in regards to med supp or med adv.
  • Providing more videos about processes and functions that we at AWL have to do on a daily basis.
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  • Mobile App does not provide enough functionality to be useful, but improvements have been made.
  • More workflow tools
  • More common business process apps
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Likelihood to Renew
I am with a different employer now days where training is not part of my job description. If I ever found myself doing E-Learning again, Bloomfire would be the first interface I would recommend.
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Beyond the value FactSet derives from using the platform, Socialcast (the firm) has been a good partner to FactSet. We've experienced very little downtime with the service and they have been responsive and fair with enhancement requests and questions
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Usability
Bloomfire is an easy-to-use platform for posting information and asking questions of my peers. It also has a user-friendly search capability. Yet like any other CMS, the secret to success rests in such items as the ability to use metadata to tag content or posts, and Bloomfire provides a wide range of options to make posting content and subsequently searching for it.
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The UX is its best feature
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Support Rating
I have not needed to pose questions to the support team yet, as it is a very simple piece of software to use, however, its help documents and the bot ready to answer questions let me know I am in good hands. The help center could load a little quicker, but that's my only complaint.
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Excellent support; of course not perfect. :-)
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Not applicable, as it is a SaaS platform with minimal implementation
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Alternatives Considered
- Easier to use - Easier to upload new information - Easier to search - Easier to share Bloomfire search-ability means much less work trying to organize and categorize documents. That means easier upload, which means more information gets stored there and used.
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CA Flowdock, Igloo and SocialCast are similar tools that deliver essential features to build an internal social network.
SocialCast is reliable and supported by VmWare. This can make people feel "safer".
SocialCast has also a clean interface where you can find options and features quickly. The interface is friendly and fast and is not annoying like the CA Flowdock interface (which opens a new tab/window in almost every place you click).
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Return on Investment
  • Feedback from users in being able to perform transactions for members has greatly improved.
  • There has been an increase in engagement of material presented in posts by learners in training classes.
  • Reps and agents say they feel confident they can easily locate information if ever there is a need on the front line.
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  • Definitely more organized project management and team collaboration.
  • Efficiency in carrying out tasks.
  • Creates a spirit of collaboration and friendliness among colleagues.
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ScreenShots

Bloomfire Screenshots

Screenshot of You are provided with a variety of options to brand your Bloomfire community, such as customizing its colors, displaying your organization’s logo, and building a custom Promo Bar. This creates an aesthetic that truly reflects your company’s culture.Screenshot of Bloomfire features an AI-powered search that makes sharing and searching for information a lot easier. It deep indexes every word in each piece of content, regardless of whether it’s a PDF, slide deck, video, or any other file type. The platform also creates tags for your content automatically. And if a video is uploaded, Bloomfire automatically transcribes it, making the spoken words searchable and allowing users to jump to the exact part of a video where certain keywords appear.

All of those features result in an easy and smart searching experience. There’s no need to navigate through folders or guess file names. All you need to do is perform a search like you would with Google. When searching, you can further narrow down your results based on categories such as author and content type.Screenshot of Bloomfire's AI enables you to search and find the video you are looking for based on its audio contents.Screenshot of Use Bloomfire while you work seamlessly across your favorite apps.