Salesforce.com's Chatter enters general release

22.06.2010
Salesforce.com's Chatter social collaboration platform became generally available Tuesday, with the vendor hoping to spur adoption beyond sales workers to entire enterprises via a low-cost licensing option.

The release follows a private beta that started in February, and months of hype prior to that. Salesforce.com and its brash CEO Marc Benioff plan to continue the trend during an event scheduled for Tuesday.

But Chatter may be deserving of the extended hoopla, given the reported response so far from customers. One hundred companies initially took part in the beta, but after "overwhelming demand" it was expanded to more than 5,000, Salesforce.com said. Ninety percent of the beta testers said they would recommend Chatter to others, the company claims. Users also experienced double-digit productivity gains, according to a statement.

Company spokesman Kraig Swensrud couldn't say how many of those beta customers will convert to paying ones, but indicated the number is healthy.

Chatter incorporates a range of familiar, Facebook-like social networking features, such as document sharing, groups, profiles and information feeds, but applied to a business context, said Swensrud, who is senior vice president of product marketing. "You don't follow Ashton Kutcher, you follow colleagues and deals and other things that are important to you at work."

The application's Facebook-like environment has been received enthusiastically, Swensrud said. "The rollout of a new enterprise app is usually painful. Chatter is the opposite."