Salesforce launches 'mobile-to-mobile' support system Desk.com

Salesforce, the gold standard of cloud-based CRM, launched on Tuesday a new customer support application called Desk.com, which gives small and medium-sized businesses a "social help desk" designed so ultraconnected, smartphone-toting employees can appropriately connect with the ultraconnected, smartphone-toting customer.

Desk.com grew out of Salesforce's 50 million dollar acquisition of Assistly just five months ago. The Assistly application was notable because it took customer relationships on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and then integrated them with "traditional" support channels such as e-mail and telephone, making social network relationships among the most important methods of communication for companies.

With the launch of Desk.com, Salesforce is emphasizing the importance of mobility as the next frontier of customer relationships. The Desk.com mobile interface is built with HTML5, so employees can use their iOS and Android devices as support interfaces with the same filters and response macros as their desktop client. They can also delegate, change groups, change status, change priority for support cases, and even modify customer information.

Desk.com's reports will be able to show how many cases customer service agents have opened, resolved, replied to, reassigned, or reopened irrespective of the agent's method of connection. This feature has not yet launched, but it is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2012.

Desk.com is available now, with a $49 per agent/month fee for unlimited usage. Salesforce also offers a "flex pricing" scale for part-time employees for $1 per agent/hour. Reporting will incur an additional fee.