
Platform Native
The idea of an omnipotent software platform and the evolution of Customer Science go hand in hand. Customer Science is the upshot of my idea that we’re in the process of converting from random acts of CRM in the front office to a more structured, efficient, and predictable approach to conducting front office business. Platforms […]

Platform Native
A number of Salesforce AppExchange partners including Apttus, Kenandy and ServiceMax formed an alliance called the Force United Consortium back in April but I hadn’t had the chance to talk to anyone about it. It’s a cool idea and a way to differentiate a partner that makes good use of the Salesforce1 Platform. I got […]

News Analysis: Understanding The Microsoft and Salesforce Partnership From The Customers POV
Microsoft’s Platform DNA and Salesforce.com Quest For User Productivity Drive The Strategic Partnership On May 29th, 2014, the Redmond based mega vendor Microsoft and the San Francisco based Cloud pioneer salesforce announced a partnership. From the teleconference call with CEOs Satya Nadella and Marc Benioff; and in conversations with over 50 key executives, partners, and […]

Dreamforce Wrap-up
Dreamforce Wrap-up Ok, we survived Dreamforce and that has enabled us to limp home exhausted from all of the information we accumulated and the parties we attended just in time for the holidays. I have a lot of thoughts about the show and if I try to share most of them the result will be […]

The Class of ‘14
The story of this year’s Dreamforce might best be told through the partner community and AppExchange and that makes it a story about the platform. Appropriately enough, Salesforce teed up the platform topic in Chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff’s keynote and the press conference immediately following it on Tuesday in which he announced Salesforce 1. […]

Dreamforecast
For many years I have written a piece that attempts to forecast the major themes of Dreamforce. I believe I am not always right but the exercise is fun and helps me orient toward what should be happening industry-wide even if it’s not. This year is no exception. With no briefing yet from the company, […]

No Fault Divorce?
How many euphemisms are there for divorce? We’re still good friends. It was mutual. Time to move on. Whatever. It happens all the time. In business, relationships form and dissolve faster than last week’s nuptials in Vegas. Companies do what’s best for them and their shareholders and that’s the way it is. But we don’t […]

nCino — Loan Origination on Salesforce Platform, Gets the Records Right
This post is part of an occasional series on the AppExchange as Salesforce.com celebrates the seventh anniversary of its launch. The series will focus on some of the most interesting AppExchange applications of the last year. The arc of nCino’s brief existence provides a good description of the power of application development on the Force.com […]

Let’s Hear It for the Ecosystems!
Could we have a moment of sustained loud noise for all of the companies that form the various ecosystems around major product lines? I mean it. The ecosystem, and maybe not even social, is the story of the last five years. While many of us have been running around like Chicken Little talking up the […]

AppExchange Seven Years On
The AppExchange is undoubtedly a significant portion of what makes salesforce.com unique. Pre-integrated solutions dramatically reduce the cost to the customer to extend the capabilities of Salesforce and the fact that it has already gone through growing pains means it will take other providers years to mimic its capability and impact. ~Narinder Singh, co-founder and CSO, Appirio […]