Salesforce’s own Mac vs. PC
April 29, 2008
Of quite some interest to bloggers of late has been the initially “leaked” information that Salesforce’s next hardware upgrade is going to include binning their nearly four thousand Dell Inc. PCs.
Macs have a well known reputation as creative machines best designed for graphics art, sound, and digital media design as well as a smoothness of operation and interface for dealing with web design.
Match made in heaven? Try reading the above paragraph with the word “Salesforce” in place of “Macs” and a few tense changes.
Here’s a few posts on the subject.
Dreamforce Europe, vastly more interesting than the press release
April 29, 2008
Though from the look of the announcement Dreamforce’s first European Event could be just as exciting as a conference of dictionary developers, a big name list of web-celebs and CEO’s could make this event one to regret missing.
Benioff’’s lined up quite a few of Europe’s web innovators. Notable among Dreamforce’s guests; Wikipedia founder Jim Wales, CEO of Easyjet and aviation magnate Stelios, and Google’s tech industry head Rich Robinson. These big names are among seventy five plus speakers scheduled for the event.
How Peter Gabriel got in we may never know, but still a talk from a nobel peace prize winner is guaranteed to be something worth seeing.
Dreamforce Europe’s official page, the press post that put me on to this, and a link to Peter Gabriel’s website by way of apology.
The Keys to SaaS Business Intelligence Success
April 25, 2008
The shift from on-premise to on-demand business intelligence applications continues to get a lot of attention in the market. Here are 4 critical factors to look for in a SaaS business intelligence solution:
1) Simplicity (“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo Da Vinci)
The concept of simplicity always rises to the top of the list when discussing the software-as-a-service model. With Microsoft jumping on the SaaS bandwagon this week, launching their Dynamics CRM Online, it will be interesting to see if the folks in Redmond have learned a few things from salesforce.com over the years. If not, they’ll want to check out this excellent presentation called 7 Secrets to SaaS Startup Success, from the recent Tour de Force roadshow. SaaS vendors take their cues from the consumer web – with sites like Google, Amazon, and NetFlix paving the way. As Rick Sheman writes on his blog:
“Part of the appeal of various BI products from SaaS, open source software (OSS) and other “small” software vendors is that they are easy to use and get the job done. This is in contrast to BI products that may win classic product evaluations but are overloaded with features and products stuffed into a BI suite. Feature-rich may win evaluations but not necessarily business users if the offering is too complex.”
As outlined in this introduction to on-demand business intelligence, SaaS applications must be:
- Simple to set up. Gone are the days of the SE flying in to do a killer on-site demo that dazzles the execs and leads to a buying decision. With SaaS applications you should be able to “try before you buy” on your company’s data. Set up should take hours or days, not the months (or in some cases years) we’ve seen with traditional on-premise tools and data warehouse projects.
- Simple to use. You don’t need advanced training courses to use websites like NetFlix. Why should software vendors not be held to the same standard? SaaS vendors have the advantage of being able to monitor and measure user adoption and they can intervene and assist if usage is low. Some even go so far as to say that the future of SaaS is all about the data because of this unique capability.
- Simple to buy. Studies have shown that the pay as you go (and “pay-as-you-grow”) model reduces capital and operating costs by an estimated 10-30%. The subscription model itself is a huge simplification compared to the historical approaches of BI vendors, who have always counted on million dollar deals, annual maintenance fees, and a heck of a lot of shelfware.
2) Analytic Application Focus
When IDC’s Henry Morris coined the term years ago, he stated that ”an analytic application must do more than just provide information. They must guide the decision making process, leading to actions that improve business performance.” (See this article as well as his comments to this post for more details.) While the on-premise BI vendors tried to move towards analytic applications, their DNA as tools vendors made it very difficult to make the leap to becoming higher-value solution providers. The challenges associated with on-premise customization and the required built-in domain expertise also proved to be difficult to overcome. SaaS business intelligence applications should focus on analyzing and optimizing specific business processes, such as lead to cash, instead of simply being tools for IT and advanced business analysts.
3) Platform Power
The real benefit of business intelligence delivered as an on-demand service is that you don’t need to build an on-premise nuclear reactor when all you want is power. The “heavy lifting” of traditional on-premise business intelligence is managed behind the scenes so you can focus on getting the information you need to succeed in your role. Yes, the analytic power and performance have to be part of the underlying SaaS business intelligence platform, but this should be fairly transparent to the business users. This means that the sales cycle is no longer all about how to connect, combine, cleanse, aggregate and deliver data from multiple sources. Instead it’s about:
- What metrics do you want to measure?
- How can the analytic application help you improve the velocity of your sales pipeline?
- Are you interested in measuring sales rep performance or historical customer acquisition trends by product line?
This is a refreshing change from the speeds and feeds discussions of traditional BI sales cycles and it should help organizations deliver on the promise of operational business intelligence.
4) Customer Success
As Byron Deeter outlined in his “Laws of Being SaaS-y” sandhill.com article:
“The top performing SaaS companies typically achieve annual renewals on a customer count basis above 90%, and over 100% renewals on a dollar value basis due to up-sells into this installed base.”
With the SaaS model, customer success must be at the forefront of everything the vendor does. Adoption must be high and the customer must see real, measurable value from the application. This is another refreshing change for the business intelligence market and perhaps the most exciting aspect of business analytics being delivered as an on-demand service.
It’s going to be interesting to watch this market evolve over the next few years as business process improvement and business intelligence applications continue to be the top business and IT priorities.
CEO of LucidEra interviewed
April 25, 2008
Thanks to Darren for pointing this one out: Ken Rudin of LucidEra (Salesforce.com AppEx partner) was recently interviewed by InsideCRM.
I enjoyed the interview as it further explains the value of BI (business intelligence) and why it makes so much sense for those with a CRM to implement. It was also interesting to learn more about how the company got its start: another example of former Salesforce.com / Siebel staff leaving to found start their own empires.
See the full interview here.
Piper Jaffray initiates coverage on NYSE:CRM
April 25, 2008
Between November of 2006 and October 2007 Salesforce’s stock, CRM, saw half a dozen downgrades from major investment banks like Lehman Bros. and Canaccord Adams.
Post fall 2007 however, CRM has been seeing a lot of positive coverage and drawing a few new eyes, even “largest manager of private wealth assets” UBS has upgraded Salesforce from neutral to outperform in 2008. Everyone in the Salesforce know knows what SFDC is up to ,what the plans are and what the future holds and what the potential is for the little CRM that could (and did). Now apparently after a winter of discontent the big money is giving Salesforce another once over and in a more positive light.
Piper Jaffray, UBS, and the original post that put me on to this is over at Street Insider.
Visual Force hype news!
April 23, 2008
“And that’s a good thing…”
The marketing machine is running full tilt for Visual Force, as an announcement about a release date makes its way onto the web today sparking up a bit of chatter among news sites and bloggers. The user interface development toolset designed to allow those clever devs to control the look, feel, and ergonomic side of their software while at the same time updates to The Force and Salesforce bring new functionality and interconnectivity.
It may just be an announcement of a non-specific date, and that’s not a lot to go on, but Visual Force is going to be a great tool for bringing a new aesthetic edge to all of Salesforce’s offpsring programs, rounding out SF’s roster of ease-of-use, ease-of-modification, and based-on-your-imagination expandability with the power to make it visually pleasing. Visual Force will most likely aid in user-friendliness with new tools and gadgets for getting the paying customers the most out of their Salesforce.
ChannelWeb’s got a bit of a blurb here and the Visual Force webinar is right there.
Coda to go to be launched on the Force.com Platform
April 23, 2008
Coda, the financial management software and services company, is will be announcing their latest product, Coda 2 Go at Dreamforce Europe.
A few interesting points about their latest offering include:
- Full integration with salesforce.com
- The biggest development project undertaken on the Force.com to date
- First traditional software developer to launch SaaS offering run on salesforce.com
To view the presentation and for more details register for the coda force.com webinar here.
Salesforce.com integration webinar: CODA Financials
April 23, 2008
Hear from CODA Financials and salesforce.com about CODA 2go, the new on-demand accounting application, and how they plan to break SaaS into the finance department.
At Dreamforce Europe on May 7th, international finance system specialist CODA Financials, and salesforce.com are launching the first on-demand enterprise accounting system built entirely on Force.com. Jeremy Roche, CEO of CODA and Polly Sumner, salesforce.com president of platform, alliances, and services are giving a preview presentation to demonstrate the product and to discuss its go to market strategy and the future of SaaS.
May 6th @ 9:00 am PT/12:00 p m ET.
The preview webinar will last approximately 40 minutes plus Q&A and will consist of:
· Introduction and demonstration of the new software
· CODA’s experiences developing on Force.com
· CODA 2go features and benefits
We believe CODA 2go will be the most functionally advanced on-demand accounting application available:
- Built and run entirely on Force.com, the salesforce.com Platform as a Service.
- Fully integrated with salesforce.com’s CRM suite
- The biggest development project undertaken on the Force.com to date
- First traditional software developer to launch SaaS offering run on salesforce.com
- CODA has developed functionality in months that would have taken years if built from scratch
- Industry-leading performance and availability, global scale, multi-tenancy and security
CODA believes CODA 2go is more advanced than any on-demand financial apps currently available and that it can do for finance what salesforce.com has done for CRM.
Please register your attendance at the webinar (Editor’s note - I had disable the link as it was not working properly - I will update this post as soon as the I get a hold of the correct link.) and you will be sent joining details in advance.
Microsoft Dynamic CRM Online wants YOU!
April 22, 2008
To stop using Salesforce so damn much…
For years now, Salesforce has been without any real staunch opposition to its wildfire-like global expansion, some mere mortals have attempted to challenge the Benioff-fueled titan to no avail. Now a big name like Microsoft steps into the thunderdome and we all have to ask ourselves if Salesforce can compete with that. It can sure seem intimidating but Salesforce is by no means a sinking ship, its slick marketing has continued to push it ahead of newer competitors like Zoho at a steady pace but it still probably wouldn’t be wise to balk at Microsoft.
But I’d do it.
Besides, have any of you ever used Vista? Microsoft Dynamics will probably autodial all of your clients somehow with recordings of the Pope’s Vatican mass’ playing in reverse, and that’ll be a feature!
ZDNet’s got more on it over here and Microsoft’s page for the new CRM is here.
New destination management app for Salesforce.com
April 21, 2008
Buan Consulting has developed a destination management add-on for Salesforce.com to help cities and counties use software to more efficiently interact with the travel and meetings industry. The module has already been deployed in Arlington County, Virginia.
Announcements like these have been trickling out weekly for some time now. Consulting firms and software firms, see the power of the Salesforce.com platform and are often in a good position to spot opportunities to develop systems for their industry niche. I expect that in the next 1-2 years we’re going to continue to see an ever increasing number of custom solutions launched via the AppExchange and built on the force.com platform. Of course for those of you who have been following Salesforce for the past several years now as I have, this will not be new news.
From the official release:
The module helps officials with economic development agencies and convention and visitor bureaus to court and manage their audience of meeting planners, co-op partners, hotels and restaurants, and special attractions. Users can track leads, produce bid proposals, monitor membership status, assign a value to relationships, measure performance by the return on investment, and issue reports that include economic impact. It integrates with common desktop programs such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook.
“While customizing Arlington County’s saleforce.com implementation, we saw an opening in the market for municipalities to simplify the way they connect with destination management professionals,” says Dan Buan, CEO of Buan Consulting. “Using SaaS, these organizations get significantly improved functionality for a much lower cost than traditional software deployments, so they don’t have to go through the capital budgeting process or worry about maintenance issues.”
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