Salesforce Chatter Tool, Its Services, Pros and Cons

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Background and Competitors
Salesforce Chatter
Chatter Services
Chatter: Advantages and Disadvantages
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The present-day post-industrial society regards information as one of the core values. Data and facts are of great importance in any sphere, especially work. Within a company, one not only has to establish numerous external contacts but also fulfill routine duties and cope with challenges that relate to internal issues. One can hardly imagine efficient work without knowledge-sharing, up-to-date statuses, discussions, and coordination on various projects, documents, files, business processes, and application data: to achieve success, concerted efforts become a must for an organization. Besides, time expenditures should not be huge: all actions are expected to be prompt.

In this context, social networking elements may be an optimal solution. The purpose of this paper is to examine Salesforce.com, a leading company specializing in customer relationship management (CRM), and Chatter, a useful collaboration tool intended for different organizations, particularly the large ones with wide staff network and smaller companies with geographically separated employees. In this context, the history of the company is viewed briefly, and the main competitors of Salesforce are identified. Further, the most important opportunities that Chatter offers are scrutinized. The advantages and disadvantages of Chatter are analyzed. Finally, the possible use of this collaborative tool is considered in the context of the company that introduced it to its employees.

Background and Competitors

Salesforce was found in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez, who intended to create a new kind of company with a new technology model, a new business model and a new philanthropic model (Our history, n.d.). Five years later, the stock market launch was inscribed in the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CRM; about $110 million was earned.

However, the experience of the company was not always positive. In November 2007, a phishing attack occurred: contact information on a great number of Salesforce.com clients, which was then used to send highly-targeted phishing e-mails to the users, was compromised (Out history, n.d.). This accident demonstrated the necessity to improve CRM safety against spam menace and other threats. Under these circumstances, the service had some outage time. For instance, in January 2009, services were unavailable for at least 40 minutes; it negatively affected thousands of businesses (Our history, n.d.).

What helped Salesforce expand its business was a wise acquisition policy. The list of Salesforce acquisitions is long and includes such companies as GroupSwim (2009, currently the part of Salesforce Chatter), Informavores (2009, now re-branded to Visual Process Manager), Buddy Media (2012, the part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud), ExactTarget (2013, the part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud), and others (Our history, n.d.). As a result, the company is currently a leading vendor in the sphere of CRM and cloud computing.

As for the company’s competitive landscape, there are other organizations offering similar services. Although they are not directly represented by the company, it is still possible to identify them via press releases and articles describing Salesforce’s rivals. In this context, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the main competitors. In 2011, organizations all over the globe, such as Comcast-Spectacor, JVL Corporation, and Milestone Systems, were choosing Salesforce CRM over Microsoft Dynamics CRM to accelerate business growth using social, mobile, and real-time customer relationship management (Enterprises around the world, 2011). Another competitor in the cloud computing and CRM market is Oracle Marketing Cloud. While companies sometimes cooperate, they are still rivals in terms of services and products (Salesforce.com and Oracle, 2013).

Salesforce Chatter

Chatter is the enterprise social network that connects every employee with the files, data, and experts they need (What is Chatter?, n.d.). This product may be called the composite of Facebook, Google Wave, and Twitter features. The following services are notable for their practical utility in the context of business activities.

Chatter Services

The opportunity to create groups for a team, upcoming events, new accounts, or campaign is one of the most beneficial services (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). Within a Chatter group, it is possible to share text and visual materials, insert videos, and invite new users, including customers. Later on, every member of this group can find necessary files and read previous posts. Groups are ideal for discussions since information posted in a group is private – the whole community does not have access to group contents. Besides, the whole staff cannot view unlisted groups through search or public posts (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). Consequently, one may state that the levels of information security and convenience of reference are high.

Another significant Chatter service is Salesforce Files. The company reinvents file sharing for the enterprise: the new approach places documents, videos, or presentations into the center of sales, services, and marketing processes (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). It is possible to obtain admittance to these materials from anywhere. Because the file system is regularly updated, one can always receive documents of the highest quality in the recent version. One can see files in the most significant for work sections: various types of groups notes, selling campaigns, and service cases. An employee can stay in touch with their colleagues with the help of different gadgets regardless of their location since files are synced. Apart from that, companies can unlock files from third-party repositories, for instance, in the cloud or on premises, and make them instantly mobile and social (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). Using Files Connect, clients can easily link SharePoint documents to Salesforce workflow procedures. Search through all repositories is also available; as a result, a user can instantly find the necessary material.

One of the most peculiar Chatter features is the set of tools designed to engage each member of the organization. Contribution scoring motivates employees to take part in discussions and other activities, and customized badging identifies those who contributed most (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). It is a good way to thank an employee. Another way to encourage workers who put up a good performance is colleagues’ assessment: they can award them as experts on a particular topic with a special badge. As a result, the most hard-working employees are recognized by every team member.

Further, a user has the opportunity to make use of feeds: owing to this function, it is possible to stay in the know with in-process projects and topics. If a large audience should be addressed, one can post files, videos, images, and other assets directly to the feed where co-workers can partner on sales opportunities, service cases, and marketing campaigns (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). Apart from creating and reading posts, it is probable to perform feed actions: approve business reports, update the materials published before, and even cooperate with a third-party. Since the most recent information is displayed first, a user can see what is currently central. In other words, feeds are beneficial in terms of time savings. Instead of looking for the necessary information in groups and constantly checking if something new is added, workers can see newly posted data in their feeds.

Different kinds of recommendations are also remarkable. Based on users’ activity, documents, and communication, people, files, and pages are recommended (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). This service makes one’s feeds more individual and corresponding to interests and present-day demands. While an employee might omit some files and events, recommendations can improve the situation and help find essential data. What is more, Chatter provides suggested experts’ assistance: they can draw workers together in spite of organizational and office barriers.

Polls and answers are similar services intended to obtain opinion-based information from employees and customers. One can look through the posted answers and select what they need. As for polls, they can be carried out directly across the company, to specific groups, or just to one’s followers by any employee (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). This service is advantageous because it gives a chance to collect the staff’s opinion in a short period of time. Feedback on posted polls is also available.

It is necessary to mention that these services are created for mobile devices. Using the Salesforce1 Mobile App, employees can post to a group, download a file, update a service case or sales opportunity, and perform any other action (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). The application is user-friendly and appealing.

There are other companies that offer similar products, for example, Microsoft’s Yammer. This social network provides similar services, such as groups, inbox and notifications, discovery feed, and so on (Yammer, n.d.). There is no unanimous opinion about these tools – different users make different choices.

Chatter: Advantages and Disadvantages

Just as any service or product, Chatter is not perfect. The task of primary importance is to evaluate its advantages and disadvantages and understand whether it is beneficial in this context. In this section, pros and cons of Chatter are considered.

Analyzing this social networking service, it is possible to state that it has more advantages. First and foremost, a user can work with a wide range of documents and other files: PowerPoint, PDF, and so on, and perform different operations from attaching them to posts to direct sending. Then, it is possible to trace special service records, also known as sales cycles: one can see what requests were received from each client and recognize the progress. Moreover, employees’ activity can be monitored via this instrument. The third advantage refers to the possibility of integration with other services, for instance, Twitter. As a result, additional data included from the outer sources is put at the disposal of a user: the latest news and innovations are available. Further, the privacy and openness issues are addressed in a convenient way.

On the one hand, a company can provide enough information for its current and potential customers and business partners: names, scopes of activity, contacts, and other data are displayed. On the other hand, Chatter values privacy and confidentiality. The risks of the unwanted public disclosure are minimized: all users have the opportunity to protect their information without much effort. Cooperation occurs in Salesforce’s secure cloud: private business correspondence, files, and other data are secure. Finally, status updates are a considerable advantage. By means of e-mail, employees and chiefs spend too much time on checking what a certain worker, not to mention team members and other groups of people. Statuses demonstrate what is going on quickly: a user saves their time, and their productivity is higher.

One should also mention the key disadvantages of Chatter. The professional version of its services costs much, more than $700 per annum (Connect, collaborate, and take action, n.d.). In this respect, businesses may arrive at the conclusion that they do not obtain the benefit associated with the usage of Chatter. The second disadvantage is connected with this issue: only larger organizations achieve positive results. If a company has many employees with several locations, it is likely to need services similar to what Chatter provides, but with small organizations, other modestly priced tools are desirable.

The example of Vanquis Bank that utilized Chatter in order to gain a competitive advantage is illustrative. Known as the organization that works with high-risk clients and provides them with credit-card loans to reconstruct their rating, Vanquis Bank has been a success. However, the company needed innovations, and the usage of Chatter became one of them. The company’s goal was to create a more diverse team at their contact center to better reflect their customers: in this respect, Chatter helped develop an excellent candidate experience and an employer brand (Vanquis Bank, n.d.). The idea that Vanquis Bank needed focus groups was put into action via Chatter instruments. To cut a long story short, interactive cards with all necessary information were used instead of traditional careers websites: potential workers saw them directly. This approach brought positive results. More than 3000 applications were handled within four months: there was a 40% increase in the number of applications from candidates outside of the Vanquis Bank contact center industry, with a 20% increase in the number of women at their contact center (Vanquis Bank, n.d.). Besides, these candidates demonstrated an excellent understanding of the company’s business. Thus, the implementation of Chatter proved to be advantageous for Vanquis Bank.

Conclusion

To sum it up, the modern technologies and communication play a significant role in business at the present stage of development. While employees need various instruments to participate in external activities and cooperate with partners all over the globe, the internal contacts are equally important. A wide range of daily tasks and operations, such as knowledge exchange, updating information, discussions, negotiations, document- and data-sharing, is addressed by a worker. Thus, they need appropriate tools to enhance their performance and raise productivity.

Under these circumstances, many technology companies offer products and services intended to help companies organize their internal work. Salesforce exemplifies this tendency. Founded in 1999, the company has become one of the customer relationship management and cloud computing leaders. Salesforce remains successful although intense competition takes place in this sphere: Oracle Marketing Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and other companies are present.

One of the most useful collaborative tools provided by Salesforce is Chatter, the enterprise social network. There are many useful services that help employees not only stay in touch with each other but also process information effectively: Groups, Salesforce Files, Feeds, Recommendations, Polls, and Answers are among them. In this regard, companies that use this tool, for example, Vanquis Bank, obtain benefit. Overall, one can state that Salesforce provides high-quality services, and Chatter is a perfect example.

References

Connect, collaborate, and take action anywhere. (n.d.) Web.

Enterprises around the world select salesforce CRM over Microsoft. (2011). Web.

Our History. (n.d.). Web.

Salesforce.com and Oracle announce new strategic partnership. (2013). Web.

Vanquis Bank. (n.d.). How we helped a challenger brand to challenge out-dated perceptions. Web.

What is Chatter? (n.d.). Web.

Yammer. A smarter, faster way to connect. (n.d.). Web.

Click Here To Order Now!