Can Salesforce.com Dominate IT Help Desks? -

In a world saturated with IT help desks, Salesforce.com is striving to build and promote a better mousetrap. It's called Desk.com Business Plus ($125 per user per month) -- an all-in-one customer support app designed for small and midsize businesses.

Unveiled in late June/early July, the latest Desk.com offering features:

Customer Health Monitor: Which helps service desks to identify and re-engage disgruntled customers before they exit for another service provider.

Canvas: With allows service providers to embed third-party apps directly into the Desk.com console.

Custom Controls: Using Desk.com Custom Controls, service managers can set limits on the actions a service agent can take on each case.

Embed: A mobile SDK that allows companies to insert mobile support directly into any app.

While Salesforce.com has a growing footprint in the help desk market, the industry is packed with options -- from pure help desk platforms to PSA (professional services automation) offerings.

Plus, numerous startups remain in growth mode. A case in point: Freshdesk, backed financially by Google Capital and Tiger Global, may launch an IPO within two to three years, according to multiple third-party reports.

And don't forget: Options like ServiceNow remains in hyper-growth mode -- introducing a range of cloud-based service management tools.