Saleforce delivers 'Cloud 2.0 collaboration' with Chatter for Mobile

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Wednesday 8 September 2010 at 17:41:00

Software allows staff to collaborate in real time using their smartphones

In an exuberant presentation at London?s South Bank Centre today,
Salesforce.com
CEO Marc Benioff launched Chatter for Mobile, a collaboration tool available for
Apple and RIM handheld devices.

The product resembles Facebook and enables employees in an organisation to
collaborate as if they were using the social networking tool. Chatter was
launched in January this year, but the emphasis today was on the mobile version
of the software.

Mobile and social media collaboration was described by Benioff as "Cloud 2.0
" - a new paradigm in computing.

Staff using Chatter for Mobile update their status by responding to a 'What
are you working on?' box - as opposed to the 'What's on your mind?' prompt that
Facebook users receive - and will follow relevant colleagues and sales deals.

The product has been launched for the iPad, the iPhone and BlackBerry, with
Chatter for the Android platform due to be released in early 2011.

When asked why he was developing applications for different platforms as
opposed to just one web browser, Benioff explained that the company was actually
doing both.

?The iPad application has a Cocoa frame, which makes it seem as though it is
a native app but it actually runs on a high-fidelity HTML5. We are creating some
apps natively, but many are run via servers.?

Benioff explained that the new generation of workers, who have grown up with
the web and use collaborative social media, would liken the technology run by
many IT departments today to exhibits in the San Jose tech museum.

?Lotus Notes was conceived before the CEO of Facebook [Mark Zuckerberg],? he
joked.

Salesforce has rolled out Chatter for Mobile internally and Benioff said that
he has personally seen a 40 per cent reduction in emails sent and received at
work.

He also said that he was reorganising the company's renumeration system
because the software showed which staff were working hardest and most
collaboratively.

"It shows who the rock stars are," he said.

Risk management company Mysis rolled out Chatter for Mobile 60 days ago and
Kimberly Jansen, CRM systems programme manager at the company, said: ?The
product is great for new starters, they get an immediate insight into whose in
charge of what immediately.?

Simon Wheeldon is CEO of startup company Cloud Apps, which provides
sustainable business solutions to corporations, and also uses Chatter for
Mobile. He explained during a morning roundtable at the event that because the
product runs from the same platform as other automated business processes,
energy or water meters can also chatter and keep staff informed of important
sustainability data.

?This means that the business as a whole can start to understand these
metrics,? he said.

Salesforce also released some research alongside the launch which surveyed
600 organisations and found that 38 per cent of workers at these organisations
were suffering from information overload, with seven out of 10 arguing that
email was the worst culprit.

Robin Daniels, director of product marketing at Salesforce.com said: ?Another
problem with email is that is was not designed for collaboration and where
several people are working in tandem it can make versioning of documents
confusing.?

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2269459/beniof-launches-chatter-mobile