Today Salesforce.com announced its long awaited release of Communities, which in Salesforce’s own words ended the era of legacy portal software. These are heady words, but Salesforce may have actually created something that is taking the portal concept into a different direction. The motor that is driving Communities is Chatter, Salesforce’s social collaboration platform. Salesforce.com used to have distinct offerings for Partner and Customer portals. With Communities, Partners, Customers, and even devices are collaborating.
This video was published by Salesforce.com today to explain the concept:
The distinction between platforms and applications also becomes blurred. Any device is the new mantra, and customers, partners, distributors, and your Chatter-enabled toaster will soon be collaborating on one platform. This falls in line with Salesforce’s Customer Company strategy centered around building a transformative platform to sell, market, and service better.
Communities is not in general availability yet, but is stated to be released as part of the Summer 2013 release. On the Salesforce.com website it is possible to sign up for additional information on Communities as it becomes available.
