Coming soon to a cubicle near you: Facebook at Work

SAN FRANCISCO — This version of Facebook is safe for work. In fact, it was made for work.

Next month the giant social network will release Facebook at Work, a long awaited suite of communications tools for businesses and their employees.

The new product, which has been in development for two years, will compete with Microsoft's Yammer and Slack, charging a monthly fee per user.

The service could provide an untapped revenue stream for the giant social network, which makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising. It has been privately tested by hundreds of large companies.

"There's a big chunk of people's time that Facebook really doesn't address at all today, and that's the time they spend working. Facebook at Work is a way to open up a whole new addressable market for Facebook with fairly significant potential revenues," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research. "It's also a nice hedge against what's an almost entirely advertising-driven business today, with a new business model based on subscriptions instead."

Facebook at Work belongs to the trend of making corporate software friendly to consumers. Facebook users will recognize the tools they use daily with their friends and family — News Feed, Groups, Events, chat and search — but in this case the networking and communications will all take place inside their company.

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More than 450 companies have been testing Facebook at Work for free, including Heineken.

"Facebook at Work lets our staff communicate, discuss and solve problems faster and more efficiently in a way that tools, such as email, simply can’t," Kevin Hanley, director of design at the Royal Bank of Scotland, says on a Facebook page promoting the service.

Facebook sees the product as part of its broader mission to connect the world. Facebook at Work's slogan is: "A connected workplace is a more productive workplace."

Technology news outlet The Information was the first to report the timing of the product's release. Facebook would not tell The Information how much it planned to charge for the service.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

According to The Information, Facebook has been pitching companies on artificial intelligence technology that will be able to read the mood of employees, including how they feel on certain topics. A Facebook spokesperson told the news outlet that employee sentiment analysis could be offered "down the line."