Salesforce.com Adds Mobility To Its Chatter Social Network

Salesforce.com has added new mobile capabilities to its Chatter social network, aimed at making the tool fully functional over iOS- and Android-based devices.

"This is about the ability of our customers to use their mobile devices like never before," said Anna Rosenman, senior product marketing manager for Salesforce Chatter. "Employees are increasingly engaging on mobile devices, and our customers want us to help them take advantage of the mobile opportunity. Our customers want to leverage social networks, and they want to leverage the cloud. They want to create communities and take advantage of the paradigm shift because they want to fully connect with their customers and their employees and their partners."

To that end, the updated version of Chatter includes the ability to access all customer information stored within Salesforce.com, including account information, marketing campaigns, cases, sales leads, opportunities and custom apps built on top of the Salesforce Platform. Users can also upload a variety of data through the system, including files, photos, polls, tasks and similar functions as well as create new accounts. Information can be viewed through the user's profile, which is used to gain access to real-time feeds, trending topics and similar venues for pushed information.

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"We want our customers and their employees to be able access information, collaborate and access structured data from wherever they are," Rosenman said. "In order to be an effective salesperson, you need to be able to identify all of the information about your customer and tap into their needs. And, your employees need to collaborate to drive creative ideas and accelerate innovation."

Users can also remotely access specific details of product offerings available through the Salesforce.com platform, such as unit dimensions and product availability.

The San Francisco-based company claims that more than 195,000 active social networks are already functioning on the system since its inception in 2010, and that a recent survey indicates customers have reduced meetings by an average of 25 percent and email by an average of 26 percent and generated an average of 29 percent more ideas by using the platform. The customer list includes Kelly Services, Virgin America and Vodafone Australia.

The new mobile application is immediately available for free to Salesforce.com customers.

PUBLISHED MARCH 19, 2013