Tag: Salesforce.com


Why Salesforce’s Latest Big Gamble Is On APIs – A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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26th March

Anyone who has attempted to adopt Salesforce cloud solutions in an enterprise environment knows that it may not be as easy as expected because of the additional effort typically required to integrate various data sources.

This is a common problem that has plagued the enterprise application industry since its inception. In fact, it spawned an entire subsegment of data integration solution vendors and systems integration service providers that have prospered by helping organizations overcome their data integration challenges.

However, by spearheading a new generation of cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) alternatives, Salesforce gained control of the enterprise application marketplace. The SaaS model promised to rectify the age-old data integration issue so that organizations could accelerate the software adoption process.

The lingering data integration challenge has prompted Salesforce to make it’s biggest acquisition to date – the purchase of Mulesoft for approximately $6.5 billion.

Click … Read More »



Why Salesforce Is Making Its Biggest Bet on APIs and Data Integration

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22nd March

Salesforce.com’s definitive agreement to acquire MuleSoft for approximately $6.5 billion represents the company’s biggest acquisition yet and a calculated move to consolidate it’s position as the leading enterprise software company in the Cloud.

The move also illustrates that the real power in the market is quickly shifting to those vendors that can facilitate the most cost-effective flow of data across applications in an increasingly connected and complex world.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ analysis in Datamation of the key market drivers that have led Salesforce to make this strategic move and what it means for the rest of the enterprise software industry.



Recreating ERP in the Cloud – A Guest Commentary in Datamation

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17th January

Now that moving to the Cloud has become mainstream, it’s time for organizations to confront their biggest enterprise application challenge in the era of digital disruption – revamping their enterprise resource management (ERP) systems to keep up with the times.

A clear indication of the shifting tides in the ERP market is the growing number of organizations that are replacing their installed systems with a new Cloud-based solution.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ views in Datamation about the forces that are reshaping the ERP software business and the competitive landscape of this market.



Cloud Training to Boost Competitive Advantage Strategies – A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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12th January

One of the biggest challenges facing organizations of all sizes trying to move to the cloud is finding and retaining the skilled workers necessary to implement today’s rapidly expanding assortment of on-demand services.

This skills gap cost companies more than $250 million in lost business opportunities in just one year, according to a recent survey conducted by the London School of Economics and sponsored by Rackspace.

In order to close this gap and accelerate the customer adoption process, Salesforce.com decided to rethink its training program and radically change how it delivered customer support. The company’s relatively new Trailhead program relies on peer-to-peer, end-user training techniques fortified by gamification tactics that recognize and reward Salesforce customers who help others.

Click here to read our latest commentary in E-Commerce Times regarding how the Trailhead program is not only solving Salesforce’s customer training and adoption … Read More »



Driving Digital Transformation by Making Citizen Developers Heroes – A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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11th November

Corporate executives know that if they don’t transform their companies into digital enterprises they are going to be at a significant competitive disadvantage going forward.

Yet, many corporate leaders have been unable to make significant progress transforming their organizations. These executives have found that changing their corporate cultures is a lot harder than adopting the new generation of cloud-based applications and services that make the digital enterprise possible.

No company has done more to advocate for this digital transformation process — so it can sell more of the cloud solutions to power new age businesses — than Salesforce.com. And no company is more at risk if a growing number of organizations fail to pursue their own digital transformation initiatives.

Now Salesforce is shifting its attention dramatically — away from solely selling CXOs on the virtues of leading the digitization process, and toward … Read More »



Salesforce Reshuffles SaaS, PaaS and APIs in the Internet of Things and AI

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14th October

It can be a full-time job trying to keep up with Salesforce’s latest cloud offerings and messaging. However, it is always worth the effort, because the company’s pronouncements are often early bellwethers of the future direction of the software industry.

This has become particularly true with respect to the company’s evolving efforts to penetrate and gain a prominent position in the artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) markets. Salesforce’s most recent moves, in anticipation of its annual Dreamforce conference, also could be a key indicator of the rapidly changing competitive landscape.

Salesforce has been in the vanguard of promoting Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and, more broadly, the value of the cloud. As it has gained success with its widening array of SaaS/cloud offerings, it also has borrowed a strategy from the traditional software industry playbook: adding a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) development layer … Read More »



Is SaaS Slipping Into the Legacy App Abyss? A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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7th July

Everywhere you look, organizations are shifting their software acquisition preferences and policies away from traditional, on-premises legacy applications to a new generation of on-demand, Software as a Service, or SaaS, solutions.

Although I was an early advocate of SaaS for the unprecedented, business advantages it offers, I’m becoming concerned that many leading SaaS vendors and their enterprise customers are taking actions that significantly compromise the fundamental value of SaaS.

As the old adage goes, “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”

In the case of SaaS, a growing number of vendors and customers are demonstrating that they can’t get away from their old software habits and biases.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ latest perspectives in E-Commerce Times about how the SaaS industry could face a serious backlash if it lets this trend continue.

You can also click here to read our views … Read More »



Seeding the Next Generation of Consultancies – A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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7th June

There’s been a lot written recently about how artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation are going to displace millions of workers. However, these powerful new technologies already have spawned a surge in demand for a new wave of highly skilled consultants to help organizations capitalize on the added business opportunities resulting from the latest innovations.

Although the potential business benefits that can be derived from AI, ML and automation are obvious, attaining these benefits requires highly specialized skills that most organizations currently lack. Salesforce sees the demand for this unique set of consulting skills rising and has launched a new US$50 million SI (system integrator) Trailblazer Fund and SI Trailblazer Alliance Initiative to fill the void.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ latest perspectives in E-Commerce Times on the industry implications of the new Salesforce campaign and how it could spawn a … Read More »



Reinventing Online Marketplaces in the Cloud – A Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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5th May

One of the cornerstones of a successful software business has been to build as big a partner ecosystem as possible. In the world of the cloud, showcasing the partner ecosystem in an online marketplace also has become an imperative.

Salesforce.com has been in the vanguard of this trend. Since its inception in 2005, the AppExchange has grown to include more than 3,000 partner solutions that augment Salesforce’s growing portfolio of cloud services. AppExchange has strengthened significantly Salesforce’s position in the marketplace by cataloging the company’s rapidly expanding ecosystem of independent software vendor and consulting partners.

However, the tremendous success of the AppExchange has made it a bit overwhelming for customers to find and easily implement the right third-party solutions to best meet their needs.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ latest commentary in E-Commerce Times about how Salesforce’s new AppExchange Partner Program is seeking … Read More »



Is Salesforce Getting Serious About the Back Office? – Guest Commentary in E-Commerce Times

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9th February

Even as Salesforce.com aggressively seeks to consolidate its position as the leader of cloud-based front-office applications via a series of acquisitions, it is possible that 2017 could be the year the company uses some of the same purchases to make a strategic move. Salesforce soon may become a major player in the back-office financial management and enterprise resource planning market as well.

Speculation that Salesforce might expand its offerings to address the back-office needs of its corporate customers has been plentiful for a long time. Salesforce’s success in reinventing the nature of front-office applications via the cloud has convinced CFOs that the time has come to adopt Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to solve their back-office requirements.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspectives in E-Commerce Times regarding how some of the recent Salesforce acquisitions include functional capabilities that cross over into the realm of back-office … Read More »






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