According to Alex Bard, the Vice President and General Manager of Desk.com, Salesforce developed the platform because it recognizes the challenges businesses have with customer service.

What’s the biggest challenge your business faces over customer service? Please share.

As Bard explained, Salesforce talked with thousands of businesses about their customer service needs. What they found was that these businesses want a customer service platform that is social, mobile, and simple.

“In today’s world, really the driving factor is the customer, and the customer is now social… the customer is now mobile… and the customer is global,” he said.

Social has quickly become an important component to businesses because it is such an integral part of everyday life. Simply put, it creates an ideal channel for reaching masses of people. Companies such as Southwest Airlines and Budweiser recognize this and have utilized social channels to handle and defuse any damaging situations.

“That pressure is forcing big companies and small businesses to revisit their tools and process and, really, philosophy around customer support,” said Bard.

He went on to say that investing in social was just as important as investing in traditional methods.

The mobile capability that businesses need is also very important because customer service issues happen any time during the day or night.

“For these businesses, business doesn’t stop when you leave the office,” said Bard.

Therefore, businesses need to be able to address these issues no matter where they are.

To answer the simplicity factor, Bard said Desk.com can be set up very quickly and doesn’t need IT help.

“[Desk.com] helps you capture all your interactions across these channels – social and traditional – it’s got a mobile aspect that helps you carry your help desk with you no matter where you go… and finally, it literally takes just minutes to set up,” Bard summed up.

Desk.com is geared toward small and medium-size businesses and also provides overall management capabilities such as easy reporting. As for pricing, the first seat is free, but every subscription added after that is $49 per month.

Do you see Desk.com helping to meet your customer service needs? Let us know.

“Desk.com and Desk.com Mobile enable businesses to deliver personal customer service using a help desk that is social, mobile, and easy to use and deploy: key attributes for any SMB today looking to leverage social enterprise technologies,” spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

“Desk.com gives companies a simple and affordable help desk they can use to engage customers on social media, email, chat, or phone,” she adds. “Even companies without IT staffs can get up and running over a weekend and for as little as $49. And, with the launch of Desk.com Mobile, companies can carry a help desk in their pocket and answer customers on the go.”

Desk.com is actually a product of Assistly, which Salesforce acquired in September.

“We built Desk.com so that every company can deliver personal customer service in a social and mobile world. Desk.com is social at its core; its mobile app instantly lets any employee, anywhere, deliver awesome customer service; and it can be deployed quickly and easily,” says Alex Bard, VP and GM of Desk.com.

It probably goes without saying that the product includes Facebook and Twitter integration (though no mention of Google+).

The mobile version is built with HTML5, and supports iPhone and Android devices.

Both the desktop and mobile versions are available today. Pricing starts at $49 per full-time agent, per month, for unlimited usage. Flex pricing is also available for $1 per part-time agent, per hour. The mobile version is free with the desktop version.

View more infographic round-ups here.

Cult of Mac looks at the life of the iPod:

[x]Cube Labs looks at The Android Story:

Finally, Salesforce shared this one about AppExchange surpassing 1,000,000 installs:

The announcement was a bit surprising especially since it was just earlier this year that Yammer CEO David Sacks slammed Salesforce over its new social service Chatter. He told Chris Crum of WebProNews:

“Chatter is Yammer circa 2009,” he said. “There are no features we didn’t have two years ago. Obviously we’re on to Yammer 2011, so they’re pretty far behind. From an innovation standpoint, the launch of Chatter.com is a total non-event.”

Here is a video account that further details the history between the two companies:

However, as Sacks explained to us just recently, Yammer released its activity stream API not long ago in order for other enterprise applications to be able to push their stories into Yammer’s stream. In other words, as long as another company has an accessible API, Yammer can integrate their activity into its feeds without a formal partnership between the companies taking place.

He told us that the integration with Salesforce happened this way and that it allows the activity stream to be socialized and shared with more of the company.

“By pushing these activity streams into Yammer, these stories can now be shared with a much wider range of employees,” said Sacks. “It can, basically, be shared across the whole company.”

He refers to Yammer as a “private enterprise version of Facebook or Twitter” and said that the company’s goal was to “bring into Yammer all the conversations that are relevant to employees of the company.” Because social networking is one of the most efficient forms of communication today, he believes that enterprise applications should encourage socialization and sharing throughout the entire company. If not, the company will become siloed with each department dependent upon its own social network.

“You still need, we think, a social layer across all these applications where we can aggregate these feeds,” said Sacks.

Yammer is striving to become this “social layer” and believes that this integration will help it meet this goal.

In an effort to let people know about this integration, and its integration with NetSuite, the company launched a “Friends with Benefits” campaign, coincidentally during Salesforce’s Dreamforce event. The company went all out for the event and even had a Yammer mascot holding hands with the Salesforce mascot promoting its free Starbucks drink.

“Certainly, Salesforce is a very special friend with benefits, but it’s not our only friend with benefits,” said Sacks.

He also told us that Yammer hopes to work with more enterprise applications in the future.

Also announced was touch.salesforce.com, designed to bring mobile apps into the social enterprise with HTML5, optimized for touch devices for all Salesforce and Force.com apps.

Salesforce also announced Heroku for Java, Chatter Connect and Database.com, which the comp;any says, “will deliver the most open, flexible and social enterprise platform in the industry.

“Our social enterprise vision fundamentally changes how companies collaborate, share and manage information,” said Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff. “By creating social customer profiles, employee social networks, customer social networks and product social networks, companies can delight their customers in entirely new ways.”

Here’s how Salesforce describes each product:

Chatter Now: Chatter Now will deliver real-time collaboration by enabling users to see when their colleagues are online, instantly chat with them in context and share their screen without leaving Chatter.

Database.com Data Residency Option: The new Database.com Data Residency Option will be for companies that want to take full advantage of the cloud, but have requirements, policies or perceptions that may prevent them from gaining the strategic benefits that cloud computing has to offer. With Database.com Data Residency Option, companies will have the option of keeping readable versions of sensitive data where they want, allowing them to take full use of salesforce.com’s trusted cloud computing model.

Also worth noting, Salesforce has Metallica headlining the Dreamforce Global Gala:

That’s what Toyota wants to find out, and thanks to their partnership with Salesforce.com, consumers will be able to find out, as well. The partnership was made to power the “Toyota Friend” program, a social network designed to engage other Toyota drivers/owners. According to the release, Toyota Friend is a social network that connects Toyota owners to their car, the dealership, and with the Toyota company, providing things like maintenance tips and other service-related information. An example used in the announcement introduces the concept of Toyota Friend informing hybrid owners if their battery isn’t sufficiently charged.

Powered by the Salesforce Chatter network, which is described as a “private social network for business,” Toyota Friend will issue “tweet-like” notifications to the owner’s mobile device, which seems to ignore the elephant in the room. Aren’t we in a time of informing people about the dangers involved in mobile device use during vehicular operation? Doesn’t such a service bring the temptation of driving while playing with a mobile device? Questions for another day, I suppose.

While the Toyota Friend social network will be a private one, members can connect to their friends on other social networks like Twitter and Facebook, an idea that seems to court the potentially deadly combination of mobile device use while operating a vehicle even further. Killjoy reactions aside, Toyota President Akio Toyoda likes where the partnership is going:

“Social networking services are transforming human interaction and modes of communication. The automobile needs to evolve in step with that transformation. I am always calling for Toyota to make ever-better cars. The alliance that we announce today is an important step forward in achieving that goal.”

Unfortunately, it’s doubtful Mark Schaefer will approve of this latest social network capability. How about you? Does the idea of a socially-networked vehicle, one that let’s you connect with other social networks, appeal to you? Could you see yourself driving a socially networked vehicle, one that issues messages about the condition of your car? As for the service, will you be able to “friend” other Toyota drivers you see out and about? Something like, “hey, did you see that babe in the Camry? Send her a friend request, dude!”

If so, Toyota Friend’s potential just increased a great deal.

The service is scheduled to debut in 2012, and will be initially offered in Japan to hybrid and electrical Toyota owners.

Salesforce had already been utilizing Radian6. The company recently unveiled its Service Cloud 3 initiative, which involves Facebook, Twitter, and any other social network support via Radian6, so the acquisition makes a great deal of sense. Radian6 product manager Ryan Strynatka told us back then that they were shooting for general availability by August.

“Radian6 adds huge value to salesforce.com by delivering the public, social web across all our products,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “Giving customers the social intelligence they want with the business context they need will further differentiate our products and accelerate our growth.”

“Radian6 brings the voice of the customer into the enterprise, helping to transform way a business operates,” said Radian6 CEO Marcel LeBrun. “We look forward to working with salesforce.com’s customers to show them the power of listening to, and engaging with, the social web.”

According to Salesforce, Radian6 is used by over half of the Fortune 100, and companies like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS to monitor, analyze and engage in social media conversation.

The deal was expected to be closed before the end of July, so it appears that no time was wasted. Salesforce intends to integrate Radian6 across its product offerings.

According to Salesforce, Radian6 is used by over half of the Fortune 100, and companies like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS to monitor, analyze and engage in social media conversation.

“With Radian6, salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “We see this as a huge opportunity. Not only will this acquisition accelerate our growth, it will extend the value of all of our offerings.”

“Social media has made every business recognize the value of paying attention to the voice of the customer,” added Radian6 CEO Marcel LeBru. “Radian6′s technology is built for the new norm of customer engagement – real time, two way conversations that includes social channels. Joining the salesforce.com team will allow Radian6 to grow faster to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding customer base.”

Salesforce says the acquisition will accelerate the enterprise’s shift to “Cloud 2″ by helping companies better manage the social interactions taking place both inside and outside their companies.

Salesforce has already been utilizing Radian6. The company recently unveiled its Service Cloud 3 initiative, which involves Facebook, Twitter, and any other social network support via Radian6, so the acquisition makes a great deal of sense. Radian6 product manager Ryan Strynatka told us they were shooting for general availability by August.

The deal is expected to close in Salesforce’s fiscal second quarter ending July 31, so it sounds like it should be done in time for that. It’s already been approved by Radian6′s board of directors and stockholders.

“The explosion of social technologies has changed the game for customer service,” said Alex Dayon, executive vice president of CRM at Salesforce. “Facebook and Twitter taught consumers to expect social customer service in real time.”

The product also has built-in social analytics. Companies can monitor and manage customer interactions across social channels with real-time reports and customizable dashboards. Salesforce says these things will help agents identify trends and alert managers of issues that are impacting the business.

The emerging tablet market should play into the always-on social customer interaction approach. Salesforce seems to be pretty hyped up for the iPad 2.

Service Cloud 3 is generally available today with Twitter support. Salesforce for Facebook is scheduled for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. Radian6 for Salesforce is scheduled the third quarter of fiscal year 2012. Update: Radian6 product manager Ryan Strynatka says in the comments, “Radian6 for Salesforce – we are shooting for general availability by August (in time for Dreamforce) and will be including support for Facebook as well.”

David Sacks, CEO of Yammer (and former COO of PayPal) had some things to say about chatter.com, as it is a direct competitor to Yammer. "Chatter is Yammer circa 2009," he tells WebProNews. "There are no features we didn’t have two years ago. Obviously we’re on to Yammer 2011, so they’re pretty far behind. From an innovation standpoint, the launch of Chatter.com is a total non-event."

Yammer launched back in 2008 at the TechCrunch50 event, where Sacks says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was a judge. "Benioff having been a judge at TC50 is the reason there is a Chatter," Sacks tells us. "He raved about Yammer at the time and now he’s trying to copy it."

He also tells us that Yammer has approximately 2 million users, and is in 80% of the Fortune 500 and more than 100,000 companies.

Salesforce has an ad campaign for Chatter.com set to launch on Super Bowl Sunday, with ad spots directed by will.i.am. 

A representative for Yammer told us in a previous email, "If there was any kind of innovation or newness, the product would be able to stand on its own and Salesforce wouldn’t have to invest in SuperBowl ads with will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas."

So, yeah, there seems to be a little animosity there. Yammer is claiming better functionality to back up its position, however. For example, the rep said, "Chatter.com gives the first person to sign up on the network the power to moderate it, including deleting both posts and users. With Yammer, this function is fully decentralized — all users can police the network, which is also valuable in the event that the moderator suddenly leaves the company."

It’s still going to be hard to compete with a Super Bowl spot as far as getting people to take notice, but Yammer certainly seems up for the challenge.