Salesforce CRM Thoughts

Ramping up for Dreamforce - Overview of Winter '11

2010-11-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been absent so long, it's been crazy getting ready for Dreamforce.

My app has cleared the security review and is now on sale in the AppExchange. We're seeing a ton of customer interest, and we're planning on making a ton of new friends at Dreamforce in a couple weeks.

One thing that has kept me busy is exploring and planning app features to take advantage of the great stuff that Salesforce is rolling out in their Winter 11 release. One of my favorites is the Chatter integration being taken to data objects...now users can follow the feeds generated by any object theyre interested in, in addition to people.

Here's a video webinar from Salesforce.com going through all of the good stuff in Winter '11 release.

Dreamforce 2010 - Top Five Things To Be Excited About

2010-10-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Like most Salesforce.com users, I am pumped for Dreamforce. Dreamforce is the annual Salesforce.com user and developer conference, and it's being held Dec 6-9 in San Francisco this year. Why is it in the deadzone between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Good question...my guess is that with 20,000 expected attendees this was only time that Salesforce.com could reserve the entire Moscone center to host it.

Regardless, of the less than optimal timing, there's plenty to be psyched about at Dreamforce 2010. After the jump, the top five things I am looking forward to.

5) AppQuest 2010 Winner Announcement

AppQuest is an app contest that Salesforce.com is running for developers on the Force.com platform. Top prize is $100,000, marketing exposure during Dreamforce, and a Dreamforce pass. The competitors will be judged by an impressive panel of VCs, including Mayfield, Bessemer and Sequoia. Given the awesome potential of the Force.com platform for making really cool applications, not to mention the Salesforce AppExchange for distribution to Salesforce customers, I'm excited to see what innovative stuff emerges (assuming the devs can get their apps through the security review)

4) Drinking some of the Salesforce kool-aid

For all of Salesforce's cool technology products, their real skill is in marketing. I think it's fair to say that their founder and CEO, Marc Benioff, is a marketing genius. And nowhere is that genius more on display than during Dreamforce. Imagine getting your customers to pay hundreds of dollars to attend a rally to tell them how awesome your product is...Salesforce does it every year and attendees are PSYCHED about it. This sort of energy is infectious.

3) President Bill Clinton keynote

Yep, that's the sort of power and money that Salesforce throws around...President Bill Clinton will be giving one of the keynote addresses. If nothing else, this should be interesting.

2) Surprise Product Announcements

As a Salesforce geek, I am always excited to see what new and cool stuff gets unveiled at Dreamforce. Last year, it was all about Chatter, Salesforce's social enterprise collaboration product. This year, I expect advancements in Chatter, mobile, and hopefully some awesome surprises!

And the #1 reason to be psyched about Dreamforce this year.....

Stevie Wonder!

See you there!

The AppExchange Security Review Process Is An Opaque Mess

2010-10-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

As a developer working on the Force.com platform, I've eagerly anticipated submitting my paid application to AppExchange and selling it to customers. I've recently completed the product, packaged it up as an AppExchange application, and now I'm ready to go right?

Before being listed as a paid app, I need to complete the AppExchange security review process. This is a ~~relatively new~~ roughly 3 year old process, implemented by Salesforce to prevent malicious applications from entering the AppExchange. Last fall they started charging $5000 for the review, so it was probably also a profit maker for SFDC, but in spring 2010 they reduced the price to $300 which is obviously much more palatable.

I fill out a questionnaire with obvious risk vector questions (do I load material from servers outside of force.com? do I store user credentials outside of force.com?) and hit submit. Then I get this long-winded, overwritten explanation of how they have put my package through a heuristic threat detector, and a report about everything it found wrong. And they also say they'll be in touch within 2 days.

So have I failed the review? Can I appeal what the automated heuristics (notorious for false positive results) reported? What happens in 2 days?

How about telling me what I need to do next Salesforce?

(edited 18 Oct 2010 with clarification re: age of process)

Winter '11 Release Coming Soon!

2010-10-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

These awesome videos preview what's coming in Winter Release '11!

Part 1

Part 2

I'm particularly excited about the Chatter features in this release, including Chatter Mobile for iPad!

Welcome to Salesforce CRM Thoughts

2010-10-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Salesforce CRM, and the power of CRM systems in general, to superpower the sales and marketing efforts of companies of all sizes. I'm such a fan, I thought I'd start a blog collecting my thoughts.

One of the big innovations that Salesforce has leveraged for CRM is its delivery of Software as a Service (or SaaS). This means that the functionality of the CRM system runs on Salesforce servers, and is accessed through a web interface...essentially the "software" is provided as a "service" through the Internet, rather than as a product that is installed, run and maintained on a customer's own servers.

Salesforce.com makes a big deal of their "no software" model, and for good reason. Rather than making a large up-front purchase of CRM software, servers and integration, I can "subscribe" to the Saas product and pay a much smaller monthly fee. I get the benefits of Salesforce.com operating the servers, maintaining the software, and continually pushing new updates (the next one coming is the Winter '11 Release), without having to pay for my own IT staff or my own servers, and without having to worry about upgrading computers every few years. Plus, as my sales team grows or shrink, I can scale the number of Salesforce.com licenses up and down, essentially tailoring the solution to fit my needs. This is a HUGE reduction in cost!

Yep, Salesforce.com is basically awesome! Stay tuned for more.