Thoughts on Saleforce

1. Salesforce.com today announced Summer '09

...nies will be able to generate more leads by creating these sophisticated marketing campaigns. •Deal Team Management: Colleagues that sales reps bring in to assist in closing a deal will now have a...

2. "Salesforce.com is good BECAUSE it's SaaS"

...at doesn't. They can even launch two versions of a feature to see which works better. Their development teams can fix problems instantly, without having to issue patches or service packs. In reality, ...

3. Is Salesforce.com getting it right with Force.com?

...any kind of business app, simple or sophisticated - and automatically deploy them as a service to small teams or entire enterprises. The Force.com platform gives customers the power to run multiple ap...

4. Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...e feel like I needed to mention it again. Yesterday I mentioned how small business owners considering Team Edition are being baited, and if "caught" will be forced to switch to Professiona...

5. Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

...is considering the use of Saleforce.com, don't get seduced by their $695 for five (5) users per year on Team Edition; it is simply a bait and switch tactic like a crack dealer to get you hooked and un...

6. URL Structure

...ce.com's URL structure because Salesforce.com in their infinte wisdom has decided that Professional and Team customers are second class and don't need access to the API because we are just not sophist...

7. What other company charges you for a test environment?

...orce.com's other policies, and that Sandbox is only available for Enterprise edition customers, not for Team edition or Professional edition customers. Of course Universal edition customers get for fr...

8. The (Un)wisdom of Wall Street

.... Anyway, this blog post is actually in praise of Salesforce.com for the special offer of 50% their Team Edition and how that unforunately had Wall Street go off on a tissy.  That offer saw S...

9. Integration *is* the killer app for SaaS

...  That is why is infuriates me so much that Marc Benioff and friends don't allow Professional (and Team) Edition customers to use the API except in very limited indirect cases. ...

10. Does Benioff believe his own Propaganda?

...would know that limiting the API to only Enterprise Edition customers is leaving their Professional and Team Edition customers out in the cold.  Let me guess Marc?  Professional and Team ...

11. They hate Professional and Team Edition Customers

... provacative. And no, I don't actually think SalesForce.com actually hates its Professional Edition and Team Edition customers. But I do think they treat Professional and Team as second class customer...

12. Comment by Rob H on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

...d, lots of options and you really have to do your research before diving into any CRM initiative. SFDC Team edition was made purely to get people into their higher editions, not as a long term viable...

13. Comment by Paul Midgley on One-sided Contracts make for Unhappy Customers

... half of what we were paying and have pretty much the same features, what we really like is that our IT team were able to integrate our website, accounts, outlook, phone system and more. the wonder of...

14. Comment by Dennis M on One-sided Contracts make for Unhappy Customers

...n we got the free trial as we were exploring software options. As soon as we had customers and a sales team, we purchased the service. Sharks - that is correct. Stay Away from salesforce.com...

15. Comment by Tom Greenberg on They hate Professional and Team Edition Customers

The Team Edition is totally useless and is a loss leader. The Professional Edition is good enough for most companies, but you almost always end up upgrading, and the Unlimited Edition is a scam!

16. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

VS: Thanks for commenting. WOW, I knew how Salesforce.com treated Team and Professional members badly but didn't realize that they were mistreating Enterprise customers too. $100k+ Ouch. It's becomin

17. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...ers don't like to be viewed as fresh meat ready for the kill. Actually, the fact that Professional and Team don't have access to the API is *why* I started this blog, though I still haven't found tim...

18. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

Greg: Given my rant I hate to be taking up for Salesforce.com related to their Team Edition, but Team Edition DOES in fact have custom fields. OTOH, it's many other limitations don't make up for that

19. Comment by Greg Goldberg on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

Not having custom fields in any CRM system renders it obsolete, and Salesforce team edition has no custom fields. Almost all other rivals including Salesboom.com and Netsuite.com offer custom fields i

20. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...Y available in Enterprise and Unlimited Editions[1]. The irony is that your comment made my point about TEAM (and even Professional) Edition being a trap better than I could make it. Why on earth Sal...

21. Comment by nicko on Predatory SaaS licensing isn't okay just because it's better than purchased software

...e cost effective software service. If you feel that using salesforce.com is too expensive for your salesteam. Why are you using them in the first place? And spending so much time complaining again and...

22. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...d to list them?) And my point was not whether Professional edition was inexpensive or not, it was the TEAM edition does not have features legitimately needed by small business and, as Professional i...

23. Comment by John Kaja on Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

I think that Team Edition is great for a pilot for a small company to see if they will use salesforce without too much of a financial commitment, just like you have different price levels for auto's,

24. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

...next week. Glenn, your second comment hit the nail on the head. Enterprise customers get all the love; Team and Professional customers are not given the tools they reasonably and legitimately need to...

25. Comment by Glenn Weinstein on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

...let me answer my own question before someone else beats me to it. :) Data Loader is not available for Team or Professional Edition. My work has been with customers that have Enterprise or Unlimited...

26. Comment by Mike Schinkel on They'll Nickel & Dime you to Death

...ng. But that's entirely beside the point; why is something as fundamental as a backup *not* offered to Team Edition customers, and without extra fee? It certainly wouldn't add any significant extra c...

27. Comment by Mike Schinkel on URL Structure

...ore 7.) Has Saleforce.com considered offering a REST/RSS/Atom based API and offering to everyone, even Team edition customers? If not, you might find this post of interest: http://www.mikeschinkel.c...

28. Comment by Jager McConnell on What other company charges you for a test environment?

... Salesforce Sandbox may be too expensive for some of our customers. Just like some people find even our Team Edition pricing too expensive even though they need the features in Enterprise Edition. Ag...

29. Comment by Tom Stefano on An Achille's Heel for Competitors to Strike

...way 7% loss of Salesforce.com market cap is more than $170 million dollars lost when they announced the Team Edition offer! Tell me they will still run it again! :) ...

30. Comment by Tom Stefano on An Achille's Heel for Competitors to Strike

Yes indeed you are right about the Salesforce.com offer to the Team Edition customers, but just remember it is an offer, and when they announced it a month or so ago, their stock price dropped by 7% i