Author Solutions all-in Force.com
May 30, 2008
Well, I got this gem while trolling PR Newswire so it’s a little overloaded with jargon and market-speak, but if you consider the whole over the sum of it’s parts you can get a pretty clear understanding of what’s just happened here.
Author Solutions in tandem with Appirio have worked to completely salesforcenize their business. Author Solutions publishes books and now every step in that process has a touch of Force.com in it. They’ve linked every application in their production line through Force.com, enabling Author Solutions to do what they were successful at anyway only now they can publish faster, better, stronger, and probably for less than $6-million in 1974.
This is a company who has revamped the foundations of their software/production to include Force.com and from the looks of this press release it’s going very well for them. I’m not surprised, are you?
The release at PR Newswire is here and behind their names you can find Appirio and Author Solutions.
Opinion from Dreamforce Europe: Link
May 29, 2008
So it’s a bit of a slow news day though thankfully even when there’s not much corporate or app news out for Salesforce there’s always someone somewhere blogging about something interesting enough to warrant your attention!
I’d like to point you over to Tim Anderson. He’s one of the throng of Web 2.0 people recently returned from Dreamforce Europe and he has an opinion or two about the future of the cloud and Salesforce.com. Raises some interesting questions and it makes me wonder what SF has in store to deal with them.
Boomi brings another piece of Salesforce to Europe
May 28, 2008
Alliance Boots, part of the massive European Boots pharmacy chain has chosen Sino Services International Technologies (SNS) and Boomi as the victors in a tight bidding race for a lucrative contract.
The Alliance Boots health and beauty group comprises approximately 3,000 retail outlets, including associates, of which approximately 2,700 have a pharmacy. There’s also a wholesale network of over 380 depots, including associates, for over 125,000 outlets.
This massive network is going to take some doing, and the sweet, sweet coupling of Boomi On Demand with SNS’s infrastructure and Boots’ existing Oracle gear is going to require a lot of Salesforce Wizardry.
Good luck to SNS and Boomi, this’ll be a big job!
Story’s here, Boomi’s here, Boots, and SNS.
New at the AppExchange: Centive Compel
May 26, 2008
Centive has joined the party with it’s Compel suite, an application that allows a fantastic depth and breadth of information to be displayed on customizable dashboards to the ends of assisting salespeople view and manage their commissions.
Okay, so maybe that’s not innovation 2008, but I think there’s something to be said for Centive attempting to even build an application like this, and on the whole about developers integrating concepts of business transparency into their applications.
Is it just me, or does it seem that ten years ago the idea of having every salesperson in the company able to see exactly how their commissions are being calculated and then to stack their numbers live against internal competitors (other salespeople) is just something that bosses weren’t willing to do?
Maybe they’re finally catching on that salespeople are motivated by numbers, they’re motivated by knowing the truth and being able to watch that week’s pay check balloon, live as they outperform themselves and get to show Jim in the office across the hall just how great they are.
Centive is selling the rod and the string, now all you’ve got to do is tie on the carrot.
I like where this is going.
Have a look at the product demo, and the site that set me on to it’s over here.
Salesforce’s big day out, Q1 earnings/2009 plans
May 23, 2008
Coming off yesterday’s earnings webcast/press release/zoo with a net income of $9.6 million up from 730k the same quarter last year, Salesforce’s dividends are up to 8 cents a share from 1 cent a share. (yeah, you don’t really need a calculator, that’s a 700% increase) CRM is defying market and seasonal trends.
Hitting half a dozen winners lists for Thursday, CRM has drew a lot of attention yesterday. Investment houses that have ignored Salesforce’s stock since adjusting targets to 50$ (a price CRM met at the end of September 2007) have been forced to give it another look.
The most optimistic yesterday would have to be Citi Investment Research’s Brent Thill bumping CRM up to an 80$ target and setting it to a BUY rating, following just behind in optimism was Jefferies & Co. moving their target up to $77 however neither of these two increases match megabank UBS’ target of 82$, set Monday. Early adopters, I like that.
Couple that showing of confidence with Salesforce’s brand new international data center plans and, well, let’s say CRM isn’t going anywhere for a good long while.
But you all knew that.
Here are a bunch of links to just a handful of sites. Lastly, the site that read the most interesting to me, is here.
Salesforce announces Asia data center
May 22, 2008
Salesforce.com has announced that will be establishing its first international data center in
In addition to the new data center Salesforce.com also announced plans to establish a network operations center in
Salesforce.com’s CEO, Marc Benioff, had this to say about the announcement:
“The decision to build our first data center outside of the U.S. is clear evidence that companies globally are abandoning the failed client-server software model and are looking for a new model that allows them to focus on innovation as opposed to infrastructure.”
The announcement was smartly delivered the same day Salesforce released its Q1 and Fiscal 2009 Financials helping to create an upward lift on the company’s shares and is a big step toward Salesforce.com’s continued growth in Europe and Asia.
Salesforce.com prediction rings true: stock up on Q1 financial report
May 22, 2008
On May the 12th, the day Salesforce.com announced when it would release its Q1 financial results, I predicted the stock would take a jump based on the company’s positive momentum and the media attention it’s been receiving of late.
This morning, right on cue, NYSE:CRM took a jump and at the time this article was written (8:07 PST) was sitting up 5.33% at 66.00 even.
What I didn’t predict (and will next time!) was that Salesforce also made an announcement about their expansion plans in Asia, at about the same time as their Q1 results were broadcast. This most likely added to this morning’s momentum.
Santa Clara User Group Meeting: June 17th
May 21, 2008
I just noticed the Santa Clara User Group will be having our friends from Lucid Era in to present as well as a great guy you should all get to know name Sean Whitely from Salesforce. Sean was the man who created the Google Adwords integration and later sold his company to Salesforce.com. Last time I saw him was at Dreamforce 2007 at the Google after party, telling stories about his former boss…fun times..
Networking and CRM Essentials
May 21, 2008
June is host to two Salesforce.com Networking and CRM Essentials events including one in Calgary Alberta, Canada, and another in Mexico. I’ve just been asked to speak at the event in Calgary so see you on the 6th!
The links are not posting correctly for some reason so visit Salesforce.com’s event section here to see the dates. The dates show on the left hand nav bar.
Upcoming CRM Success Tour Dates
May 21, 2008
Update: I had to remove the original links as they were not posting properly. As much as I love Wordpress it still throws a curve ball from time to time.
Visit the Success Tour page on the main SFDC website to see about six locations and dates for success tour stops in the US and Europe. The links on the right hand side of the page will allow you to view details and register for an event close to you.
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