Thoughts on Saleforce

1. DemandResults Launches New Force.com Application to Enhance CRM Data Completion

...s like those from CODA and Fujitsu, and more than 85,000 custom applications used by Salesforce.com's 47,700 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel. Force.com is the...

2. Salesforce.com today announced Summer '09

...rce.com to deliver approximately three major releases a year, ensuring that all of salesforce.com’s 55,400 customers can leverage the latest cloud computing innovations to grow their business. "...

3. Cloud Computing Savings - Real or Imaginary?

...rtual as in the Amazon case) or maintain infrastructure software (database and app servers). Within our 150+ customers, we see savings of over 30% on operating costs and 2-3x improvements in time-to-m...

4. Salesforce has a record quarter

...ket software purchases just don't make sense." Salesforce.com officials also said the amount of net paying customers the company has rose approximately 3,600 during the fourth quarter and approximat...

5. Salesforce and Google App Engine

...e App Engine and Salesforce: a large-scale consumer Web application that offers personalized experiences for customers, and an online marketing app that "generates leads directly." The new deal ram...

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

...r disruption. Debes' remarks show how little care and understanding legacy on-premise vendors have for their customers, and how poorly suited they are to help businesses address today's challenges. Is...

7. Dreamfactory offers a new set of utlities for Salesforce users

...ets. Create as many views as you want and selectively share these views with other departments, partners and customers The Salesforce Education department has licensed SnapShot and DreamFactory Util...

8. Salesforce.com Further Integrates with Google Apps

...overall partnership has been seen as helping give Google a new sales channel to reach prospective enterprise customers. IT departments have been trying to understand how Google Apps could fit into the...

9. Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce Summer '08

Salesforce.com has announced that Salesforce Summer ’08 is live to all 43,600 salesforce.com customers. This solution represents the company’s 26th release in nine years and delivers the power of

10. Appirio Cloud Storage for Salesforce.com

...pirio that combine capabilities from today's leading SaaS applications and cloud computing platforms to help customers lower operational costs, improve user productivity and get more return from their...

11. Salesforce and Google Apps

...e," Creese said, the Salesforce for Google Apps deal is "an installed base play-non-Salesforce.com customers won't be touched by this initiative." Click here to read more about the ...

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

...nd automatically deploy them as a service to small teams or entire enterprises. The Force.com platform gives customers the power to run multiple applications within the same Salesforce instance, allow...

13. Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...s a corporate ethic of "Do good"  Explain to me how their strategy with Team Edition trapping customers data with an entry price of 1/5th of their Professional Edition is "doing go...

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

...leforce is trying to position itself as a leader. Leaders don't implement strategies designed to trick their customers. Instead, leaders focus on meeting their customer's needs at a price that is fair...

15. They'll Nickel & Dime you to Death

... One of my biggest complaints with Salesforce.com is how they seem focused on ways to nickel and dime their customers. I was just reading one of their help files[1] and found the following example (e...

16. Is SalesForce.com TRUSTWORTHY, Redux?

...t blogged about how code running on Apex "is safe" from prying eyes because you never install at a customers site. However, he then goes on to say: The only third party that could possibly a...

17. European Customers vs. US Subpoenas?

...other day "Rup" posed a question that should be of significant concern to current and prospective customers of Salesforce.com in Europe and beyond: Hi, Can we trust salesforce.com ...

18. Why APEX, and why not Java, C#, VB.NET, PHP, Ruby, etc. etc.?

... this, I'll probably still learn Apex. Assuming they don't limit it to just Enterprise and Universal edition customers, DOH! ...

19. 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...

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

...d form and just plain short sighted when a software company's pricing policy places features out of reach of customers that can benefit merely as a means to get the more well-heeled customers to incre...

21. Effects of the "No Downsizing" Clause

... of the number you currently need. Let's consider what effect that will have on prospective SalesForce.com customers over time. The billing person I spoke to when I wanted to downsize told me she fr...

22. Predatory SaaS licensing isn't okay just because it's better than purchased software

Mike@msn commented on my earlier post suggesting that SalesForce.com customers should be very careful when adding licenses by saying that: It's definitely a risk reward proposition, but at least the

23. Stupid Contracts Eliminate Potential Customers

...void SalesForce.com like the plague! So SalesForce.com leaves the money on the table for smart prospective customers with seasonal business, and they screw the rest. Stupid, stupid, stupid. ...

24. One-sided Contracts make for Unhappy Customers

...ng person.  The hunter is focused on finding new business and closing the sale, not on making sure that customers are happy, and not in making sure that even those customers who want to downsize ...

25. Integration *is* the killer app for SaaS

J.Ja comments on "Benioff: Customers want integration, customization" by saying (emphasis mine): How can any CEO seriously consider adding a single new feature when the core product is a bro

26. Does Benioff believe his own Propaganda?

I just read Phil Wainewright's blog post about SalesForce entitled "Benioff: Customers want integration, customization" where Marc Benioff boasts: "Well, you know, it's very customer dr

27. They hate Professional and Team Edition Customers

...tive. 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 customers whose ...

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

There are lots of alternatives out there ... our customers are finding alot of the same issues that you are encountering as well. Many of them have doubts. SFDC - Bait and Switch Tactics Entelliu

29. Comment by Bill Cloward on "Salesforce.com is good BECAUSE it's SaaS"

... SaaS business model, however, new customer acquisition costs make retaining and penetrating within existing customers a more profitable activity. So SaaS vendors have a greater incentive to not just...

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

...). We were a start-up when 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 ...