Salesforce's Chatter available, aims to bring in new enterprise customers
Salesforce.com on Tuesday said that its Chatter corporate social networking platform is now generally available. For existing customers, Chatter is free as a new feature. The company has a Chatter-only option for $15 a month for each user.
Chatter takes the best features of Facebook and Twitter and integrates them into the enterprise. According to Salesforce.com Chatter will enable customers to better track documents, internal expertise and real-time data.
Screenshots: Salesforce.com's Chatter: A walkthrough
Meanwhile, Chatter is designed to bring in more customers to Salesforce.com's ecosystem. Salesforce.com has 77,300 customers---5,000 of them that played with Chatter in beta---but executives see the platform as a way to bring in new users.
Salesforce.com will walk customers through Chatter partnerships and features at its CloudForce 2010 powwow.
Al Falcione, senior director product marketing at Salesforce.com, said the company is hoping to expand Chatter usage within an enterprise. When Chatter gains more users it will likely be more beneficial to companies.
Here are a few screenshots of Chatter in action. We have a more detailed walkthrough in a gallery.
In addition, major enterprise players plan to integrate Chatter into their Force.com applications. CA Technologies has built a development application that integrates Chatter to better track projects. BMC Software also plans to integrate Chatter into its BMC ServiceDesk application on Force.com. Salesforce.com will also be a reseller of ServiceDesk. Both will be available on the ChatterExchange.
Related:
Salesforce.com ramps Chatter beta; Launches social enterprise app exchange