This year I had the opportunity to attend the SalesForce.com conference DreamForce 2010. It was an amazing conference and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am not “drinking the SalesForce Kool-Aid” so to speak but I think it is a very good application and a very cool platform that it runs on. There were a few things that annoyed me about the conference, some things that made me laugh and some things that really piqued my interest. The best part of the conference had nothing to do with the platform. I loved the Stevie Wonder concert and after party DJ’d by will.i.am.
I enjoyed the keynote speeches and there were some cool new offerings that they announces though there were a few things that really annoyed me. One of the cool offerings that I hope to play with soon is the new database.com. This is an incredible idea. There has been a hole in the needs of small businesses and individuals when it comes to web site. That hole has been in that most of these persons have their websites hosted by hosting companies and many of those companies do not have good or cheap database services available. This platform opens an avenue to be able to have a website and a database hosted that the developer can guarantee that they will work together. The things that annoyed me…..First off I am glad that Mark Benioff and his company do so much charity work though my impression, others may have had a different impression, is that they were showing those things as a “look how great I am” and you should be like me. Also when former President Clinton talked he mentioned that there is an issue in the country where only 9% of the US make up 80% of the income and that there is a disparity of classes that needs to be resolved. The thing that was a little annoying about that is that everyone on that stage is part of that 9%. Yes they are doing many good things though it is a hard thing to swallow someone that makes millions of dollars in one speaking engagement telling someone who makes less than 100,000 a year that they need to do more. I agree that we all need to do more though it is still hard to take.
The second thing that annoyed me was their marketing spin and BS that they preach to discourage their customers from working with certain other companies. It is no secret that there is no happy feelings between SalesForce, Microsoft and Oracle though some of their marketing is a bit silly and misleading in how they discourage people to work with these other vendors. My first point is their “No Software” mantra. To me this is a really annoying aspect because there is always software. I understand the point that they are trying to make in saying that their customers do not have to install their own software, though there is still software involved and many of the “issues” associated to software still exist. The biggest difference is where the software is installed, who is doing the development and who supports it. Whether the software is installed in-house or externally it is still there and is still being supported. So instead of paying internal resources and hosting your own hardware you are now paying someone else to do it for you. Yes some of those costs are minimized because the costs are somewhat shared between multiple parties though the costs are still there as you can tell by the high licensing costs. I have not done any analysis of long-term costs between on-premise platforms vs. hosted platforms. I have seen articles that go both ways and depending upon a companies requirements it is impossible to know which solution is the cheapest solution without knowing the requirements so do not be fooled by generic comparisons. If you are evaluating multiple platforms make sure you have good requirements and evaluate the platforms based upon these. In many instances SalesForce would be the best and cheapest solution though in many instances it is not as well. Do what is right for your organization and do not let the marketing spin delude you into making an uninformed decision.
The next thing that annoyed me was discussions about what is cloud computing and what is now. One of their marketing niche is that cloud computing is the way of the future and they are the only cloud platform for CRM. I agree that cloud computing is the way that the world is moving and it is a wonderful way to architect solutions. What I do not like is their definition of what cloud computing is. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a good definition of what cloud computing is on their website (http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/cloud-def-v15.pdf). This definition has five main characteristics; on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service (if you want a description of these terms check out the link previously provided). The definition also has three service models, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Lastly, the definition has four delivery models; Private cloud, Community Cloud, Public cloud and Hybrid cloud. SalesForce would have you believe that “Cloud Computing” only includes the public cloud delivery model, or at least when it is trying to explain why their competitors are not true cloud computing providers. I know that many of their competitors have a SaaS offering similar to SalesForce. These companies also push on-premise installs because they make more money that way. An on-premise install can still be cloud computing though it would fall under the “Private cloud” designation. I am a firm believer that there are good reasons to have software installed and managed in-premise though there are also times where a public cloud application is appropriate. So saying carte-blanch that a specific delivery model is always bad that makes me nervous. One of my mantras with technology is that we should not select technology solutions because they come from a specific company or exist in a certain platform and so forth. We should select technical solutions because they are the best solution to further the business that we support.
The last annoyance was continuously hearing SalesForce telling us how great they are. I normally follow the thought process that if someone needs to tell you how great they are then that may be something to be concerned about. The platform should speak for itself. I am not saying that this solution is deficient in anyway, I am just saying that I tend to lose a little respect for someone or something if they feel the need to tell me how great they are.
When it comes down to it all the major CRM platforms have the same or similar features. The biggest considerations come into whether the processes for those features match your internal processes, how you want the platform to be managed, integration requirements, and cost.
Now that I am done ranting, there were a couple of things that made me laugh. I have never been to a conference before where I have seen a competitor trying to hard to interact with the attendees. I’ll be honest in saying that Microsoft’s actions were a bit hilarious and made them look a little stupid. This goes back to my previous comment, if they have to tell you how much better they are then someone else then they should take a step back to see what is wrong with their application or sales process that is causing people to not see that they are better. Personally I think that the biggest issue is not the platform itself but is in the sales process and that the expense to implement the platform is so high that people tend to try to do it on their own and not do it right so they ditch it and then go with someone like SalesForce where the platform is already setup (with the exception of integration elements). Microsoft typically uses partners for their sales process and I have met with many of them on many different projects and have come away with the same feeling every time. They come in with the attitude that they have already won the evaluation and are completely inflexible in their presentations to the point that they get lost if someone asks a question that is not planned for. They are impersonal and are terrible presenters. SalesForce on the other hand, my experience with them was fabulous. I will not go into particulars but they were the best presenters for a technical solution I have come across.
There are a lot of things that I really like about the platform. I think that the Force platform is pretty cool and is really flexible in allowing third party application developers to integrate to SalesForce. I had already mentioned the database.com platform which is a great idea and there are a lot of other additions to the platform that I am new to that I would like to learn more about. Needless to say I am doing a lot of learning about this platform that I hope to blog more about here later.
No comments:
Post a Comment