It’s a humble appliance, but, without it, workplace culture doesn’t stand a chance. It’s the water cooler, where employees meet to open up about themselves and their work.

But as companies disperse operations globally and encourage employees to telecommute, the old-time water cooler is getting to be a lonely place. What’s needed is a virtual water cooler—a browser-based application that will enable employees to easily find each other to exchange information and advice.

The concept isn’t new. Facebook, LinkedIn and others have been connecting people for years. But many companies frown on or even ban usage of these potentially distracting and insecure tools during company time. In their place, enterprises are running applications with similar capabilities securely behind their corporate firewalls.

 “Document-centric collaboration by itself just isn’t enough. You need to have something people-oriented right alongside it,” said Oliver Young, an analyst at Forrester Research.

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