If you been to the last few Dreamforce conferences, or had a Salesforce sales person in your office, you’ve heard their pitch.

In 1999, you asked:

… Why can’t Software Be Like Amazon.

In 2009, you asked:

… Why can’t Enterprise Software Be Like Facebook?

Salesforce’s Chatter was one of the first enterprise software that mimicked the look and feel of Facebook.  The beauty of a Facebook-like interface is no training required! 

Last week, Box.net unveiled their new UI.  

The interview make sense as you want to design enterprise software in the way that works best for end-users.

From the test drive, it appears they are being one step closer to being the Microsoft SharePoint Killer.

From Fast Company:

Take the latest iteration of Box.net, for example. The five year-old cloud-based, document-sharing and collaboration utility is currently used in 10,000 companies.

Today, it released new features that have taken a page from social networking. A discussions page (above) adopts the commenting paradigm you’re used to seeing in Facebook.

And real-time notifications, that keep team members apprised of any changes being made as they happen, reflect the real-time world that Twitter and other social networks have gotten us accustomed to.

<snip>

A lot of Box’s new features “are driven by the consumer Web, and what we’ve learned.  But a lot of it is also just driven things that you would expect to see if you could design enterprise software in the way that works best for end-users.”

Photo source: Fast Company