Dreamforce 2010, the Salesforce.com annual show, has already been interesting after just the first day. There have been interesting product introductions, and lots of announcements from partners and developers that continue to build on the Force.com platform ecosystem.
Because of my interest in startups and small, fast growing companies, the new integration announced by Zendesk is particularly interesting. I’m looking forward to playing with that and understanding it in detail.
Also important is the continuing development of the capabilities of Chatter, the internal communications platform. Today Salesforce announced that Chatter will be free to everyone in a client company, instead of that being an extra option. ReadWriteWeb did a great job covering this on their Cloud coverage section a couple weeks ago:
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff reportedly told analysts today that the company will announce a free version of its enterprise activity stream product Chatter at the annual Dreamforce event in San Francisco next month. The revelation came in a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the company’s third quarter financial results, according to CRN. Benioff confirmed the story via Twitter this evening. Salesforce.com currently offers Chatter for free to Salesforce.com users or for $15 a month per user for non-Salesforce.com users. Benioff described the free, stripped down version of Chatter as a “virally based product.”
Excerpt from: Salesforce.com’s Chatter to Go Freemium (Updated) – ReadWriteCloud
But most interesting in my mind is the holistic direction of all of this. Salesforce.com continues to develop a strong platform that extends beyond the salesforce automation market. Even where people can point out deficiencies in the current offering, talking to the Salesforce people you see good thought going into the ongoing development, and overall strategy.
I’ll be watching closely. Even if you’re not a Salesforce.com customer, so should you.
