Salesforce.com, the cloud-based enterprise CRM solution that boasts over 77,000 customers, had released a social networking tool called Chatter. It was free for Salesforce.com users, but $15/month for non-customers. Well, they just made it entirely free for everyone and I’m giving it a test run with my team.
What is Chatter? It’s basically a private Facebook – a social network just for the folks within your organization. They limit access by domain name, so that only the people within your company can login and access.
In this day and age, with remote and virtual workforces and distributed offices, and far-flung teams spanning multiple disciplines and departments, Chatter offers a way for everyone to interact, share ideas, answer questions, and more. Like with any network, the value of the network increases exponentially as more users join.
If you use Facebook, then you “get” the concept behind Chatter. Make a post, comment on posts, yada yada yada.
Unlike Facebook, however, it’s a closed ecosystem. Only the people in your company (or to whom you dole out @yourdomain email addresses) can participate.
Businesses are turning to Chatter to enable real-time interaction and collaboration, yet in a “safe” and private environment where company secrets and confidential information can be discussed without fear of leaks as you would have with a public system such as Facebook.
Salesforce.com recently dropped the fees and make it open to everyone and anyone. I think it’s a pretty smart move – they get to expose their brand to more and more people, help smaller startups collaborate and hopefully reel them in as CRM customers down the line as their businesses grow.
For smaller entreprenuers and virtual organizations or companies with lots of remote offices, remote workers, sales teams out on the road, etc., free is a pretty great price.
The product is quite robust and they have an array of “native” apps for various platforms. So while it is a web-browser based app to start, they have a terrific native iPhone app, and Mac & Windows desktop applet as well, which make it extremely easy to keep up with what’s going on without having to have a browser open or an actual computer in-hand (in the case of the mobile apps).
My core team (headcount under a dozen) has been using it for a couple of weeks and so far so good. It’s a nice way to keep people on the same page, and cross-pollinate the teams. Now the engineering team can get a feel for the new projects coming down the pike, they can see what the Sales guys are working on, what the Designers are involved in, interact with the Marketing team, and vice-versa.
One of my initial concerns was yet-another-web-app. In otherwords, overload. We’re already checking Facebook, Twitter, Flow (project management), email, blogs, yada yada yada. I was (and still am) concerned about maintaining yet another presence. But I was willing to give it a try, and the concern is waning. The service itself is extremely solid, well done, and…just works.
We’ve only been using it for a couple week, but so far, so good. I’ll be happy to report back a bit later after we’ve had a bit more of a track record with the service. At this point, I can recommend taking a look — it’s worth a try. Especially if you have remote workers who feel isolated. This is a great way to bring everyone into the fold.
