If companies, particularly call centers, are serious in finding out the pulse and sentiments of their customers, then they ought to tap what is arguably the most pervasive and outspoken medium to emerge recently – social networking.

This is the main argument put forward by cloud computing firm Salesforce.com as it launched recently a new social networking application for the enterprise sector called Salesforce Chatter.

In announcing the company’s new offering at its annual DreamForce conference in San Francisco, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff said the new Web-based tool brings social networking to the business space by integrating the functionalities of Facebook and Twitter into a nifty interface for corporate users.

Benioff lamented the fact that companies, mainly call centers, are slowly becoming irrelevant and unreceptive to their customers by failing to respond to their concerns, which often can be found in social media sites and online communities.

This inability to react proactively, Benioff said, can be attributed to the outdated software model that enterprises are using now.

“I know more about strangers on Facebook than my own employees. Facebook has made us smarter through social networking, but why aren’t we getting smarter in our companies?” he asked.

Call center companies, he said, could be one of the likely targets for Salesforce Chatter since their primary function is to cater to the needs of customers. Their existing IT system, however, is keeping them “disconnected” with their own workers, Benioff said.

“We’ve been eclipsed by consumer applications like Facebook and Twitter. Aren’t we ready for a change in enterprise collaboration?” he queried.

Research firm Ovum, in a comment, said that Salesforce.com is “making a logical move” by “capitalizing on the increasing popularity of social media.”

Aphrodite Brinsmead, analyst at Ovum, said the release of Chatter is timely as the “melding of social media and CRM is a hot topic” nowadays. “Enterprises are constantly looking to use social networking in the business environment, and Chatter offers a way to do this,” Brinsmead said.

The analyst firm said it remains to be seen “whether Chatter is more than a glorified content management system, but it is clear that employees need better collaboration tools and that social networking, like cloud computing, is here to stay.”

The research house said enterprises will face challenges adopting Chatter as it could potentially add another outlet for staff to waste time. “Ovum believes that enterprises’ key concern with Chatter will be managing and controlling access to information. Enterprises may find it difficult to track information that employees should have access to, particularly in the contact center where there is often high staff turnover and sensitive customer information,” it said.

The real value of Chatter, said Ovum, could lie in its ability to “resolve complex queries where employees with specific knowledge are needed. Agents and managers can rate each other on their areas of expertise and then be contacted if this subject area matches that of an open case.”

Jim Steele, chief customer officer and president for worldwide sales at Salesforce.com, said call centers, like those based in the Philippines, should keep pace with technology so as not to lose sight of customers.

“Customer service and retention are paramount in this age. If you’re not listening to them, you’re missing an opportunity,” said Steele.

Salesforce executives dubbed Chatter as the company’s “biggest breakthrough ever” as it combines “the magic of Facebook and Twitter to the enterprise.”

Like in Facebook, Chatter also features profiles, status updates, real-time feeds, groups, and social applications. Unlike Facebook, however, it provides users with business content such as documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

The application, which would be available in the early part of 2010, runs on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile devices, or iPhone, the company said. Users of Chatter will be charged $50 per month, although current clients of Salesforce CRM and Force.com, the company’s applications platform, will get it for free.

Salesforce said independent developers would also be encouraged to build applications on top of the Chatter platform.

These social enterprise applications can also be sold at AppExchange, the company’s marketplace for applications.