Thoughts on Saleforce

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

...com Platform and AppExchange Force.com is the only proven Platform as a Service for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM applic...

2. Salesforce.com today announced Summer '09

...ll of salesforce.com’s 55,400 customers can leverage the latest cloud computing innovations to grow their business. "The power of salesforce.com's real time cloud infrastructure is that it lets ...

3. Cloud Computing Savings - Real or Imaginary?

...chandani), but we also don't think this really answers the question about what cloud platforms can do for a business. Cloud platforms exist at three levels At the lowest level, infrastructure-a...

4. Salesforce and Google App Engine

...consumer and traditional Web applications, while Force.com has primarily focused on Salesforce CRM-attached business apps. "This partnership brings the best of both worlds together," Salesforce VP of ...

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

...nd understanding legacy on-premise vendors have for their customers, and how poorly suited they are to help businesses address today's challenges. Is this really how traditional software executives vi...

6. Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce Summer '08

...nd Google announced their second joint product, Salesforce for Google Apps. This new solution is a way for business professionals to communicate, collaborate and work together in real time over the W...

7. Salesforce and Google Apps

...bsence means that even corporate users who want access to Google Apps may face opposition from IT and their business managers. Records management is an important issue to enterprises who always ha...

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

Platform as a Service Force.com delivers Platform-as-a-Service, a new way to create and deploy business apps that makes companies and developers successful by letting them focus on what thei

9. Danger Will Robinson! Beware of TEAM Edition

...ossed my email inbox that made me 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...

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

If you are a small business owner that 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 l

11. Is SalesForce.com TRUSTWORTHY, Redux?

... code illegally might result in an opportunity lost cost, the overall cost to the company is rarely if ever business threatening[2]. On the other hand, if Saleforce.com decides that an AppExchange ven...

12. Announcing Atlanta Salesforce.com Admin and Developer Meetup Group!

...consultants, and local AppExchange vendors to discuss both technical aspects of Salesforce.com and relevant business concerns. And all of this without being hounded by ever-present Salesforce.com type...

13. European Customers vs. US Subpoenas?

...nking transactions!) to the U.S. without warning these customers. Handling of personal and confidential business data is viewed very differently in the U.S. and in Europe, and this problem is a co...

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

Stuck on the Apex? Photo by hangdog I understand from Investor's Business Daily via SalesforceWatch that Salesforce.com's new secret sauce is a programming language called "Apex."  M

15. Is SalesForce.com TRUSTWORTHY?

...Is Salesforce.com TRUSTWORTHY? Now I don't mean "Can you trust Salesforce.com to actually run their business well enough to stay online so you can use their system when you need it?" like...

16. New Rules for the New Economy

This is my favorite business book: New Rules for the New Economy Published in 1998, based on an article of the same name authored by founding executive editor of Wired Magazine Kevin Kelley in the Sep

17. The (Un)wisdom of Wall Street

...ith short-term thinking! The sad thing is that adding subscribers is one of the key things an annuity-based business really needs to do and it is incredible short-sighted of Wall Street not to see tha...

18. Effects of the "No Downsizing" Clause

...om customers will recommend avoiding SaleForce.com to prospective customers, and (at worse) will cause many businesses to switch to other providers when their contract expires.  If nothing else, ...

19. Comparing cost of SaaS to software w/SysAdmin can be Disingenuous

...solution that goes seasonally unused. Yes my post referenced a hypothetical 100 user scenario, but in small business scenario such as 10 users or less there is rarely going to be a Sys Admin even for ...

20. Stupid Contracts Eliminate Potential Customers

...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. ...

21. One-sided Contracts make for Unhappy Customers

...l "gatherer" customer service and/or marketing person.  The hunter is focused on finding new business and closing the sale, not on making sure that customers are happy, and not in makin...

22. SalesForce buying Borland's IDE Tools Business?

I think SalesForce.com would be a perfect buyer for Borland IDE Tools business, don't you?  Click the link to read more.

23. Comment by Fred on What other company charges you for a test environment?

... an monthly overhead expense." This is exactly the type of short sighted attitude that plagues the small business world, and exactly why most of them sink. Yes a shrink wrapped package might cost l...

24. Comment by Dominic Ng on "Salesforce.com is good BECAUSE it's SaaS"

...out upgrade costs. With SaaS you get these advancements by default. This alone should provide enough of a business case to consider moving to SaaS....

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

...utions tend to have higher customer satisfaction results than on-premise software vendors (OPSV). The OPSV business model is driven largely by new sales. In an SaaS business model, however, new cust...

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

...he cost of Professional. Professional edition is NOT inexpensive compared to most other solutions for small business (do I really need to list them?) And my point was not whether Professional editio...

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

Salesforce.com User: what's your name? Anyway, Saleforce.com is in the business of keeping customer data safe but that doesn't mean they couldn't have a system crash. I've used and been responsible f

28. Comment by Salesforce.com User on They'll Nickel & Dime you to Death

...mer. It is in case the customer does something to delete / damage their own data. Salesforce.com is in the business of keeping customer data safe - otherwise who would buy it???...

29. Comment by Ron Harris on Small Business Owners; Beware the $695 Offer!

Small businesses will find themselves with very few options once they start down the Salesforce.com road other than to pay the higher prices. It is very unfortunate that there are not more people wil

30. Comment by Mike Schinkel on Is SalesForce.com TRUSTWORTHY, Redux?

...f high start up costs (You are not going to try to tell me Salesforce.com has high start up costs for small business customers are you? If they are, someone on the inside is being incompetent) or beca...