LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 

Salesforce introduces social networking tools


By Alex Handy
Email    print   
November 18, 2009 —  (Page 1 of 2)
Facebook has had an influence on Salesforce. In San Francisco this morning, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spoke at his company's annual Dreamforce conference, where he introduced Chatter, a social network built in the likeness of Facebook, but designed for enterprise use.

While some enterprises have already woken up to the power of social networks using tools like Facebook, Ning or Twitter, Salesforce's Chatter is unusual in that it’s an offering specifically designed to facilitate business communications.

“Why do I know more about strangers on Facebook than my own employees?” asked Benioff. He then demonstrated Chatter's abilities, which appear similar to those found on Facebook and other social networking sites. Chatter allows employees to make profiles, update their status, join groups and build social applications.

Benioff pointed out that many modern enterprise employees already live in the world of Facebook and Twitter, and thus, he said, it was logical to present enterprise applications in these familiar contexts.

The Chatter social network builds on the Salesforce platform by enabling existing applications to be connected into the new social dynamics. Chatter includes APIs for pushing and pulling data from the system’s databases, and the company is also showing off tools for integration Chatter with Facebook, Google App Engine and Twitter.

Those integrations can be sued to scour Twitter for tweets made about a company’s products, for example. Chatter can also pull in RSS feeds, and groups of employees can be fed information from these feeds. Additionally, existing Salesforce applications can be associated with Chatter profiles to allow employees to be associated with the tools they most often use.

Cloud++
Benioff also introduced Service Cloud 2, a new set of capabilities for the Salesforce customer-service platform. Companies seeking to support their customers over the phone can now store their own knowledge bases within the Salesforce cloud. Integrations with Google and Twitter allow let those service workers to track down external support information online from within the Salesforce portal.

Benioff described his difficulties in pairing his Bluetooth headset with his BlackBerry smartphone. Benioff said he turned to Google for help rather than calling BlackBerry. He said his answer was found in an online tutorial video made by other BlackBerry owners. That’s the type of knowledge that Service Cloud 2 hopes to tap, he said.


Related Search Term(s): Salesforce

Pages 1 2 


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/33930
 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter


Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
Loading




close
NEXT ARTICLE
VMware targets Java for Salesforce cloud with VMforce
Salesforce and VMware promise a Java cloud this fall, combining VMware’s infrastructure with the Spring framework Read More...
 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?


 
blogs tab
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
02/07/2012 11:57 AM EST

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
02/04/2012 01:57 PM EST

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST

 
Events calendar tab
Cloud Connect
2/13/2012 to 2/16/2012
Santa Clara
TechWeb

SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conf.
2/26/2012 to 2/29/2012
San Francisco
BZ Media

RSA Conf.
2/27/2012 to 3/2/2012
San Francisco
RSA

IBM Pulse Conf.
3/4/2012 to 3/7/2012
Las Vegas
IBM Tivoli

Game Developer Conf.
3/5/2012 to 3/9/2012
San Francisco
TechWeb