Tag: Salesforce.com
Productizing Customer Success in the Cloud – Guest Commentary in Sandhill.com
2nd June
A pivotal principle that sets Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apart from the on-premises, legacy applications of the past is the shift of the vendors’ priorities so they better align with their customers. Rather than placing the burden of deploying and managing the software on the customer, SaaS vendors have to ensure customer satisfaction, minimize churn and maximize the lifetime value of their customers.
Achieving this objective requires the right combination of staff skills, business processes and support systems. Although every successful SaaS company has been committed to the idea of customer success, capturing the right data to gain a holistic view of the customer to better serve their needs has been a significant challenge.
Click here to read why, how the Pulse2013 conference hosted by Gainsight brought attention to this issue, and how THINKstrategies sees a new generation of Cloud-based ’Customer Success Management’ solutions is addressing … Read More »
Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP/Sybase, Iron Mountain & CallidusCloud Latest Sponsors of Cloud Channel Summit
4th September
Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP/Sybase, Iron Mountain and CallidusCloud are the latest companies to become sponsors of the second annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 5, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, hosted by THINKstrategies, the Cloud Computing Showplace, and Rising Tide Media.
These companies join IBM, Alteva, AppDirect, Aryaka, Corent Technology, CorSource, GoodData, SoftServe and TechData as sponsors of the Summit.
The Cloud Channel Summit provides an intimate, peer-to-peer networking forum for industry executives to share perspectives, best practices and insights about how to build successful partnerships in the Cloud.
Stacy Nethercoat, VP of Software Product Marketing at Tech Data, will be the kickoff keynote speaker at the Summit. Stephen Cho, Director of Software Partner Business Development for Google Enterprise, is also returning as a keynote speaker at this year’s event.
The following executives have also agreed to speak at the Summit:
David Hoff, CTO and Co-founder, Cloud Sherpas
Nick Pegley, VP Marketing, All Covered
Joe Panettieri, Editorial Director of the … Read More »
Salesforce.com Profitability Sparks Renewed Debate About SaaS Sustainability
28th August
Despite the accelerating growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and growing interest in all things Cloud, skeptics are still seeing dark shadows which they think indicate fundamental flaws in the long-term prospects of on-demand services.
The most recent example was the controversy created by Salesforce.com’s most recent quarterly financial results. While the company’s revenues grew 34% and deferred revenues increased 43% on a year-over-year basis, the company still reported a second quarter (Q2) GAAP net loss per share of $0.07.
Although I tend to look at the world through ‘Cloud-colored’ glasses, I don’t think I’m being naive because I see these numbers as a outgrowth of a prudent strategic decision by Salesforce.com’s management to aggressively invest in winning a greater share of the high growth SaaS/Cloud market. In fact, Marc Benioff made the same point during a recent interview on Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” show.
Like Benioff, SuccessFactors’ … Read More »
Jive Software Results Prove Enterprises Are Going Social
8th August
Long before it became a popular idea, I started to suggest that social networking would take hold within organizations of all sizes to help them better coordinate their increasingly dispersed workers and geographically spread customers and partners.
In the same way that business people have become accustom to instant messaging and texting as a part of their everyday habits, they are increasingly adopting social networking tools and techniques to support their day-to-day activities.
The latest measure of this growing trend is Jive Software’s latest quarterly results.
The company went public last December and reported very impressive second quarter results yesterday. Billings grew 41% yr/yr and subscription revenue grew 59%, while its consulting revenue as a % of total revenue declined as its solutions have become easier to adopt.
The company’s rapid growth is a reflection of the rising demand for Cloud-based ‘engagement’ apps, such as social CRM and internal productivity tools, offered … Read More »
Cloud Sherpas/GlobalOne Merger Illustrates Growing Opportunity for New Generation of Cloud Service Providers
5th March
Today’s news of the merger of Cloud Sherpas and GlobalOne not only adds a major new player to the rapidly growing Cloud consulting world, but also shows that there are plenty of new business opportunities for consulting and other value-added service providers in the Cloud.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Cloud Sherpas, it is one the largest consultancies focused exclusively on helping organizations adopt Google Apps and was recently named the Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year. (Disclosure: I did a webinar in 2011 on behalf of Exoprise in conjunction with Cloud Sherpas.) GlobalOne has been quietly building a multinational consulting practice focused on salesforce.com, and is a salesforce.com platinum consulting partner.
The newly merged companies will adopt the Cloud Sherpas name, and will boast nearly 300 employees in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific (APAC) region working out of … Read More »
The 2011 Cloud Market in Review
18th December
A year ago, I published a series of 10 predictions regarding how the Cloud Computing marketplace would evolve in 2011 in E-Commerce Times. Here’s a recap and assessment of my predictions:
The Cloud Computing market will grow more rapidly than analyst firms forecast as organizations move from asking “what is Cloud and why is it important” to “where and how can I capitalize on the Cloud today.”
I think I did ok on this one, although there remain plenty of organizations who are still trying to define the Cloud and determine why they should seriously consider employing it.
This accelerated growth will occur despite a major cloud computing service disruptions and/or significant security infractions, which will heighten customer concerns but won’t discourage wider adoption.
This certainly was the case as we watched Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) crash, jeopardizing numerous start-ups and other companies dependent on its Cloud … Read More »
Salesforce.com, Dell-Boomi, Progress Software and Birst Latest Companies to Participate in Cloud Channel Summit
11th October
Salesforce.com, Dell-Boomi, Progress Software and Birst are the latest Cloud companies sponsoring and speaking at the Cloud Channel Summit, on Monday, November 7, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
These Cloud companies join a growing number of sponsors, partners and speakers participating in the one-day executive forum which will bring together senior executives from leading Cloud vendors and their channel company counterparts to share industry best practices and innovative ideas for building profitable and successful channel partnerships in the Cloud.
Click here for more information.
Perspectives on Dreamforce 2011
11th September
In case you missed it, I published a couple of commentaries and participated in a three videos over the past two weeks discussing the industry implications of the major announcements at Salesforce.com’s annual customer/partner extravaganza, Dreamforce 2011.
Here are the two recent commentaries:
E-Commerce Times: Dreamforce Takeaway – It Is All About Cloud Channel Strategies, 09/09/11
Datamation: Are You Ready for the Social Enterprise? 09/06/11
And, here are the recent videos,
The Pulse Network: ITEC This Week, 09/09/11
DreamSimplicity: At Dreamforce, 09/05/11
TechTarget: Is Salesforce.com’s DRO the First Step to a Private Option? 09/01/11
The Pulse Network also gave me an opportunity to promote our upcoming Cloud Channel Summit. Check it out here.
Stay tuned for more perspectives regarding the business implications of Salesforce.com’s latest initiatives and announcements.
Microsoft Moves to the Clouds
28th June
Today’s official launch of Microsoft Office 365 squarely positions the company as the latest major contender seeking to win a share of the rapidly growing Cloud Computing marketplace.
Although Microsoft has been saying that it is “All In” and funding a TV ad campaign which has made the catchphrase “To the Cloud” popular, Microsoft 365 represents the company’s boldest offering to date. The company has been watching its Office suite suffer attacks from Google Apps for years. In fact, Google Apps are quickly becoming the basic productivity suite of choice for most new college graduates entering the workforce.
Many of these new entrants to the workforce are forgoing email altogether by relying more on Facebook, Twitter and text to communicate. In response to these trends, Salesforce.com is pushing its Facebook-like Chatter communications platform as a dramatic switch from traditional email.
IBM is also attacking the … Read More »
Intuit Takes Different Data Integration Tact in the Cloud
8th June
One of the most vexing challenges facing today’s IT and business decision-makers is how to integrate critical corporate data across a widening array of on-premise and on-demand systems and applications.
Many believe that the age-old data integration issues of the past have only been compounded by today’s rapidly expanding assortment of Cloud-based solutions which raise the expectation of easy end-user access from anywhere at any time.
While there are a growing number of application program interfaces (APIs), Web-based connectors and Cloud-oriented systems integrators that are reducing the difficulty of overcoming this integration issue, it still represents an important impediment that many organizations are reluctant to face.
Intuit announced a new program yesterday aimed at addressing the data integration issue. The Intuit Anywhere program promises to give software developers a new method of extracting QuickBooks data directly into their third-party applications, including web and mobile.
This new data export and integration capability … Read More »
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