Salesforce took a bold step toward a more fully integrated cloud platform by announcing VMForce, an exciting collaboration with VMware.

Both VMware and Salesforce are leaders in cloud computing. VMware is known for virtualization, while Salesforce for software-as-a-service via the Force.com platform.

VMforce is significant because it opens the Force.com platform to 6+ million java developers worldwide, allowing any company with Java developers to easily develop Java apps locally and deploy them to the cloud. Because all Java apps on VMforce are elastic, you don’t have to worry about scaling up app servers, databases, or infrastructure. You also inherit rich Force.com functionality like reporting and dashboards, full text search, calendaring, contact management and workflow.

We anticipate this will accelerate adoption of the cloud. Everyone at Myriad Minds is excited to see what innovative Java applications will soon be hosted on the Force.com platform.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the registration of the .com domain, VeriSign and the 25 Years of .com Honorees Committee has nominated 25 online companies which have helped shape the internet as we know it today and Salesforce.com has been nominated in a category that includes industry giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook.

Salesforce.com was also recently named one of web’s most innovative companies by Fast Company for its enterprise cloud computing and overall Software As A Service innovation.

Salesforce CRM > AppExchange > SF Mobile > Force.com/Sites > Chatter…the innovation continues.

IDC announced their top ten predictions for the Australian IT Services market in 2010 and cloud computing was a recurring theme.

“Cloud computing represents a new dawn in enterprise computing and business leaders are beginning to ready their companies for the big changes that lie ahead,” said Matthew Oostveen, IDC research manager and analyst. “Facilitating this change will be services organisations from consultants to systems integrators.”

IDC feels cloud computing has reached the tipping point for widespread adoption of cloud services in 2010. And they’re not the only ones (ZDNet, ComputerWorld, Application Development Magazine and Cloudcast)

How is your company harnessing the game-changing power of cloud computing in 2010 and beyond?

In a recent ComputerWorld article, Kwok Suk-wah, CIO of AON Hong Kong, discusses fear of data security, a common obstacle to cloud adoption.

“People think that if you outsource, you lose control of your data and assets,” she said. “I’ve been using this home-cleaning analogy to explain to others how we should approach cloud computing. Say that you’re considering whether to hire a cleaning lady to clean your windows or to do it yourself. You’ll soon realize that the cleaning lady can do the job five times faster and better than you do. But then you also worry about your valuables might be stolen. Like hiring a cleaning lady, there are many privacy and security concerns of adopting cloud computing, and yet these third-parties do the job much cheaper and cleaner than if you do it yourself. Don’t discard the idea—instead, take necessary precautions,” concluded Kwok.”

Thankfully, Salesforce / Force.com security is extremely rigorous. Reduced cost, less worry – hell, it could even help you sleep a little better.

In Gartner’s global annual CIO survey of 1,600 IT leaders, cloud computing technologies shot up from the 16th slot to the No. 2 priority for CIOs. This is higher than web 2.0 technologies, networking, voice and data communications, business intelligence, security and data/document management.

Agility and flexibility are the main drivers of this shift in priorities. “These technologies, implemented properly, create the opportunity for IT to change its role, and the operational performance of the enterprise,” reads a Gartner presentation on the CIO survey findings. “Asymmetric technologies like virtualization, cloud and Web 2.0 enable companies to get out from under a front-loaded heavy investment model that limits IT’s agility and flexibility.

We’d like to hear from you. What are your company’s top priorities for 2010? How have they changed over the past several years? Let’s discuss.

Data Export lets you prepare a copy of all your Salesforce data. You can generate backup files manually once every six days or schedule them to generate automatically at weekly or monthly intervals. When an export is ready for download you will receive an email containing a link that allows you to download the file(s).

Below are the directions to schedule a backup.

1) Click Setup | Data Management | Data Export and Export Now or Schedule Export. The Export Now option prepares your files for export immediately. This option is only available if a week has passed since your last export. The Schedule Export option allows you to schedule the export process for weekly or monthly intervals.

2) Select the desired encoding for your export file.

3) Select Include attachments… if you want your export data to include attachments.

4) Select Replace carriage returns with spaces if you want your export files to have spaces instead of carriage returns or line breaks. This may be useful if you plan to use your export files for importing or other integrations.

5) If you are scheduling your export, select the frequency, start and end dates, and time of day for your scheduled export.

6) Select the types of data to include in your export. If desired, you can include all data in your export file. We recommend that you include all data if you are not familiar with the terminology used for some of the types of data.

I’ve personally seen this feature save many companies time, money and embarrassment, so setup this free feature today.

Increasingly, customers prefer to receive service through the internet. According to Gartner, by 2012, 65% of all support conversations will happen over the internet. How is your company adapting?

Here at Myriad Minds, this trend has created strong demand for Salesforce Customer Portal and it’s helping our clients deliver faster, anytime service while lowering customer service costs. In fact, Gartner studies have shown the average cost of a customer interactive via phone is $7.50, while the same interaction via a self-service portal is only 50 cents. The value of customer portal is even greater now that Salesforce Content is free.

Using customer portal, your company can deliver a tailored web experience by selectively exposing internal processes to your customers. Because customer portal is built on the Force.com platform, custom portals can be rolled out in weeks, not months. A basic portal can be setup in a few days.

Some of the more common uses of customer portal include:

• Knowledge Base/Service/Cases: Provide easy self-service, 24×7
• Help & Training: Deliver rich content in an engaging experience
• Ideas: Let customers post ideas or questions, vote on the answers of their peers, and add their own comments
• Reporting: Allow customers to create reports and track their service

If you want to learn more, below is a recorded webinar that provides a comprehensive overview.

As Eric notes, RFPs simply don’t work when it comes to purchasing design services. He goes on to say, “The challenge with creative work, however, is that the solution is often informed by the process, and as such is difficult to postulate prior to beginning. Consider a client who requests a website, but in fact would be better served by a low-cost brochure. Boilerplate RFPs don’t generally allow flexibility for such opportunities.”

At Myriad Minds, we develop a proactive, creative and honest relationship with our clients – something that isn’t typically established through an RFP process.

So, what do you think? As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

I find myself discussing user adoption with clients, prospects and the CRM user community more and more often. The standard advice on this topic is often centred on broad concepts such as ensuring management buy-in, engaging users and implementing change management. These are worthy (if slightly bland) recommendations, but how about some more specific suggestions?

Here are 4 tangible tips that are certain to drive CRM user adoption in your business. (With thanks to Ingrid Elgar of Articulate for her recent contribution on this topic at the Sydney Salesforce User Group):

1. Get your KPI metrics out of Excel and into your CRM: The message from your management team must be that staff performance will be measured on metrics that are in the CRM, not hidden away in a management-eyes-only spreadsheet. If the sales team has a target of 50 deals for the month, then show that number in a big, colourful dashboard component as soon as a sales user logs in. If marketing must hit a 25% lead conversion rate this quarter, then let’s see a funnel graph displaying that number front and centre in the CRM.
2. Close the visibility gap between sales targets and actuals: I see this time and time again. Sales guys can view their deal targets, but the actuals to measure against them are held somewhere else. Too often the opportunity pipeline is in the CRM, but the financials on won deals are in the billing system, and the sales team can’t compare the two until the end of the month. There is no greater motivator for a salesperson than to be able to look at their 6-month pipeline and know that it’s worth $173,465.89; or to see clearly that they’ve achieved $35,650 of their $50,000 sales target for the month. Better still, with a little effort you can calculate sales commissions in your CRM in real time, such that a salesperson knows that closing that killer deal before Christmas is worth $1,275 to their pay packet in January. This may take a little development or integration to pull off, but the impact is massive.
3. Run your team through a performance dashboard: This one’s easy, but too often its value is undermined by indecisiveness and management tinkering. Keep it very simple and just do this:
   • Agree a performance dashboard that contains your key metrics.
   • Announce it at your 10am Tuesday morning sales/marketing/customer service team meeting (I hate Monday mornings, so Tuesday morning it is).
   • Have a scheduled process that emails the dashboard to everyone for 9am every Tuesday morning, for discussion at the meeting.
   • Don’t change the dashboard. For a while, at least. No-one will trust the score if the goalposts keep moving. When the dashboard does need refinement, don’t just tinker with it. Follow the first three steps again methodically.
4. Streamline the user experience: In most offices, management look to ensure each staff member is comfortable. An ergonomic chair, an eye-height low-glare monitor, plenty of natural light … we look to create a pleasant work environment. But then we provide a CRM (where users spend hours each day) where creating a sales opportunity for a new prospect is an 11 step process involving 7 screens, 43 clicks and the customer’s name typed 3 times. It’s an incongruous situation. Instead, take the budget allocated for the new eggplant & cerise paint scheme and spend it on customising the day-to-day user experience of your CRM. Consider three key improvements:
   • Reduce clicks: create shortcuts and rationalise screen layouts. For example, allow a salesperson to create an account, contact, opportunity and task record all on one screen, with one Save at the end.
   • Automate repetitive tasks: if it’s repetitive and manual, then you can be sure it’s annoying and error-prone. Automating repetitive tasks shows that you value your staff to do the work that machines can’t. Email confirmations, status updates and data exports are prime candidates for automation.
   • Make it fun: For the social networking generation, leading-edge technology is actually fun to use. Steal design tips from the web and from devices like the iPhone, that is, the technology people use by choice every day. If you can make your CRM approach a Facebook level of interactivity, your staff will actually want to use it. Be creative.

Everything mobile is HOT. Mobile advertising, mobile video and mobile CRM are just three mobile trends that will continue to flourish over the next several years.

As mobile adoption increases, mobile CRM will move from being seen as a competitive advantage to “the way we work”. It’s not a question whether should you go mobile, but when.

Companies who use Salesforce find the mobile app to be a great tool. Why? Well, it enables reps to stay connected even when they’re on the move. With instant access from a mobile device, reps can log calls, respond to leads, update opportunities, access key account information and view dashboards, whether they’re in a customer’s lobby or the back of a cab.

And yet, like any successful technology implementation, a well defined process and strategy will go a long way.

Bill Kalma of Model Metrics suggests asking 5 key questions before implementing SF mobile to help “separate fact from fiction and apply a mobile strategy that fits your organization and your users so you can realize success.”

What are they?

1.    Who are your users?
2.    How mature are your processes?
3.    What do users need to do to get their job done?
4.    What device suits your needs?
5.    How will security be maintained?

SF Mobile is available for Black Berry, iPhone and Windows Mobile device users. It’s free on Unlimited edition while Enterprise and Professional edition users can either pay extra for the full feature solution or use Mobile Lite, a free scaled down version.

Increase Salesforce adoption. Increase sales rep productivity. Go mobile today.