Salesforce announces addition of real-time updates

Real-time updates will be available in June

Salesforce has announced real-time updates to its on-demand applications for customers upgrading to its Summer 09 release in June.

Customers will be able to collaborate with third-party suppliers to provide more immediate responses to client demands and complaints, according to the firm.

This is likely to come in handy when clients have a problem with a product and service, for example, and do not want the hassle of phoning around different companies to see which one can help.

To do this, Salesforce has created a "single version of every case", an update that will also help sales representatives who need to share information with colleagues that might be able to help sign off a deal.

Salesforce has also added email alerts that will inform service agents of changes to customer cases. A triggered email update will allow sales representatives to automatically send customised marketing offers base on customer behaviour.

Visual tools, meanwhile, will allow companies to make quicker and more informed business decisions, according to Salesforce.

The Summer 09 release will feature new displays, colours and chart types, and a Workflow Visualiser will open up company approval and procedure processes to simplify the management of complex workflows, said the firm.

In addition, developers will now be able to use Visualforce to create customised dashboards and help pages for the first time.

The new release follows application integration between Salesforce and social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, that allow businesses to track what is being said about their brand in real time.

"Customers need to operate, report and act on information as soon as it comes into the business," said Tim Barker, Salesforce product marketing director. " These updates are driven directly by customers."

Many web vendors have made real-time updates to their products in recent months, most recently Google. Marissa Mayer, the company's search executive, said at a US press event last week that she was thinking of adding micro-blogging messaging to search to bring more value to end users.

Mayer said that web users are interested in seeing what is happening immediately, as has been demonstrated by Twitter's success.