Salesforce Chatter: Facebook for the enterprise? - Stephen Baker

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Salesforce Chatter: Facebook for the enterprise? posted on February 25, 2010

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The business world is crawling with software vendors and consultancies selling collaboration tools, from Microsoft's Sharepoint to IBM's Lotus Notes. That's nothing new. But this Scoble post makes the case that Salesforce.com could become a power in enterprise Web 2.0.

One key: Relevant data. Salesforce's Web-based service reaches deep into some 70,000 enterprises and tracks all sorts of data about customers, deals and transactions. It's new Chatter offering not only lets people follow colleagues and customers (that's nothing new); they can also follow deals or documents. In other words, every time a document you're following is amended, you get an alert on a service that feels like Facebook.

If a service like Chatter takes off, it will be easier than ever for companies to map not only the behavior and friendships of their employees, but also the development of their documents and projects. Increasingly, creative employees will be leaving their fingerprints all over the place--as will everyone else.