We Blog CRM

Following the underwhelming news of an expected grandiose mega-collaboration between Salesforce.com Inc. and Google Inc. to take down Microsoft Corp. reduced to an agreement for Salesforce.com’s 32,300 customers to distribute online ads through Google.

The more formal press release announcement came later with all the expected spin.

Calling the agreement instead “a strategic global alliance to help millions of businesses leverage the internet to achieve success,” pointing to the first product resulting from said alliance, Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords. Salesforce.com lays claim to status as the first on-demand company to resell the Google AdWords platform, acting as an official distribution channel for the Google AdWords product.

The Salesforce.com/Google alliance covers 43 countries and encompasses distribution, technology and co-marketing efforts. As for promotion, Google is offering Salesforce.com customers $50 in advertising credit. Salesforce.com is currently promoting a deal wherein subscribers pay just $600 for every five users annually, down from $995 per five users annually.

The list price of the solution is $1,200 per year, and AppExchange applications may require an additional fee.

The big news everyone expected coming out of the hush-hush Salesforce.com/talks was slightly underwhelming.

Instead of a grandiose mega-collaboration between Salesforce.com Inc. and Google Inc. to take down Microsoft Corp., the agreement was reduced to an arrangement whereby Salesforce.com’s 32,300 customers can distribute online ads through Google.

While future deals may be forthcoming or Salesforce.com is simply happy to lie back awhile and chip away at potential Microsoft customers, Salesforce.com CEO Benioff continues to believe that his company and Google “We have a shared vision that the Internet is the new computing platform.”

As for promotion, Google is offering Salesforce.com customers $50 in advertising credit. Salesforce.com is currently promoting a deal wherein subscribers pay just $600 for every five users annually, down from $995 per five users annually.

As rumors of the reduced story began to break on yesterday, Salesforce.com shares shed 82 cents to $47.06. Google shares gained $6.67 Monday to hit $507.07.

What may already be considered the biggest story in the CRM sphere for 2007 is about to get even huger.

PC World online, among others, is reporting that a press conference has been called by Salesforce.com for Tuesday, 11am Greenwich Meridian Time. Salesforce Europe/Middle East/Africa region co-president Lindsey Armstrong will be making a “strategic announcement.”

Naturally, everyone figures said announcement will be all about the proposed Google/Salesforce linkup designed to help exterminate Microsoft from the SaaS sphere; in case of doubt, PC World’s got a knowledgeable sounding classic “source” that implies such.

A bit later in the day, Salesforce.com chairman and CEO Marc Benioff will host a customer, media and analyst luncheon at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco at noon Pacific Standard Time. An audio webcast of Benioff’s presentation will be available on the salesforce.com website thereafter.

Though none too many specifics have been released regarding the Google discussions with Salesforce since the whispers began in late May, taken for granted is the reality that it’s all about designing some sort of alliance against mutual foe, the biggest of them all, Microsoft.

The story appears to have been broken by the Wall Street Journal just about two weeks ago under the headline “Google, Salesforce.com Weigh Alliance to Battle Microsoft.” Reported in the piece was that some results from the discussions will be revealed “within the next few weeks.”

The WSJ article went on to hint at what “could be a Web-based offering that integrates some of Google’s online services such as email and instant-messaging with those of Salesforce.com, whose customer-relationship management tools help salespeople track their accounts.”

We’ll see in a couple of days, eh?

Today’s big deal of big deals: Dow Jones & Company and Salesforce.com have announced the availability of Dow Jones Wealth Manager for the salesforce.com AppExchange.

Dow Jones Wealth Manager is touted for its “Client News Match” capabilities, which map Dow Jones information to custom client profiles in an effort to spur personalized client communication.

Built using the Salesforce platform, Dow Jones Wealth Manager is available for test drive and deployment from the Financial Services category on the AppExchange.

Go ahead, Google it.

You did, didn’t you?

No wonder one story dominated any remotely connected industry media today.

In the spirit of “My enemy’s enemy is my friend,” the breathtaking whispers say that Google is currently in discussions with Salesforce.com to design some sort of alliance against mutual foe, the biggest of them all, Microsoft.

The story appears to have been broken by the Wall Street Journal under the headline “Google, Salesforce.com Weigh Alliance to Battle Microsoft.” Reported in the piece was that some results from the discussions will be revealed “within the next few weeks.” (Tentative, ain’t it?)

The WSJ article went on to hint at what “could be a Web-based offering that integrates some of Google’s online services such as email and instant-messaging with those of Salesforce.com, whose customer-relationship management tools help salespeople track their accounts.”

Salesforce’s share prices rose by 5 percent, or $2.14, to $47.94 following the breaking of the story.

…Salesforce.com!

Probably the prize with the coolest name, the Steppin’ Out Awards are presented by internationally acknowledged “CRM guru” Paul Greenberg and usually quickly reported on by industry writers who obligatorily mention the 1980s pop hit. (The You Tubeheads out there even link you to the video.)

Salesforce.com took the prize this year over Microsoft, Neighborhood America, NetSuite, Microsoft, Rearden Commerce and Zoho “not only because they are able to dominate a market, but can create markets at extraordinary speed.”

The Steppin’ Out Award is given for “the combination of excellent customer engagement and experiences with market impact that goes beyond any single customer. In order to win the award, the victor has to show not only an ability to make an impact, but to sustain the impact through the years.”

Salesforce.com yesterday announced the inaugural Salesforce Developer Conference, designed to “foster the next generation of on-demand applications and businesses.”

The Salesforce Developer Conference will be held May 21 at the Santa Clara Marriott. The conference will provide developers the opportunity to get hands-on with the Salesforce platform and the Apex programming language, as well as to meet with the development teams behind them.

Tracks and sessions will be given on how to build a global business with on-demand applications. An audio webcast of irrepressible CEO Marc Benioff’s keynote will be available on the Salesforce.com website.

The PR for the event ran with headlines like “Now every company in China can use the CRM solution trusted by global leaders Sprint Nextel…” Normally, CRMchump’d probably riff on the overmegasuperhyperbolizing of the statement, but on this one, it’s hard to exaggerate.

Truth be told, straight out of Hong Kong comes the news that Salesforce.com has released Salesforce China Edition, chock full of customer relationship management application goodies tailored specifically for that whopping 1 billion-plus (and growing in number and wealth!) Chinese market comprised of some 10 million-plus (and growing in number and wealth!) SMEs.

Salesforce China Edition is promised at a lower price and employs simplified Chinese as language.

Along with the announcement, salesforce.com reminded that since its Asia business was launched in 2005, Chinese companies including Metlife China, Digital China, Forex Capital Markets Asia and Protime Consulting, have employed salesforce product. Salesforce opened its first Chinese office in Hong Kong in October.

Salesforce.com chairman/CEO Marc Benioff gave it his best shot at making it all sound significant and big: “Salesforce China Edition is uniquely positioned to be a catalyst for growth for the emerging generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.”

And Salesforce is making the longer-term sound good, too, with China Edition figures to “[open] Hong Kong and mainland China to the 35,000 innovators of the Apex Developers Network.” Meanwhile, “the large numbers (sic) of developers in Hong Kong and mainland China can now tap into an international ecosystem of 29,800 salesforce.com customers in need of tailored applications and solutions.”

Salesforce China Edition is available at $576 for a five-user version or $1152 for ten users. A free trial is available at the Salesforce.com website.

(Hey, it’s a great way to practice your Chinese. Even if it is only the “simplified” version…)

Salesforce.com had a news-making week this week, with the requisite sales wins, deals, and releases.

On Wednesday, the firm announced that it will deliver its on-demand CRM applications to Japan Post. Not merely a postal service, Japan Post also functions as a savings bank and financial product provider. Ol’ JP is said to be the largest financial institution in the world in terms of asset holdings. Interestingly enough, Japan Post will begin a ten-year privatization process beginning in October.

The Salesforce implementation will be undertaken by Japanese software development and systems integration firm NTT Data. The system will be designed for use by over 5,000 Japan Post sales agents.

Salesforce.com Japan president/CEO Eiji Uda spun the sale as a stereotype smasher: “Conventional wisdom has it that Japan is very conservative and closed. On this occasion, however, the Japanese government selected a new technology and service from a foreign firm based on an open and fair evaluation of our product.”

Presumably in town to ink the deal, Salesforce chairman/CEO Marc Benioff delivered the keynote presentation at salesforce.com Japan’s “Year of the Platform” conference on Thursday in Tokyo. The audio webcast is available on the investors’ bit of the Salesforce page.

In the auto world, the purposefully named Cars.com announced that the website had deployed Centive Compel via the AppExchange. Centive will be used in enterprise sales compensation management. The Cars.com decision makes the lucky 13th sale for Centive via the AppExchange.

Cars.com boasts over 13,000 local advertising clients. Cars.com currently lists more than 2 million vehicles from 13,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is in turned owned by a consortium of media companies, including Belo, Gannett Co., Inc., The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company.

Thanks to the ingenuity of eBayer Meg Whitman and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign staff, Salesforce.com was able to introduce Campaignforce, Salesforce Political Campaigns Edition, “the first on-demand application to provide campaign and advocacy groups the ability to strategically manage constituent and donor relations with ease and efficiency.”

Via the AppExchange, Campaignforce uses software such as Netfile in campaign finance management and Federal Election Committee reporting, and TubeMogul when “web buzz tracking,” i.e. tracking YouTube video viewings and Google searches.

Paul Greenberg, author of “CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century,” and president of The 56 Group said he was “glad to see that salesforce.com has taken a market-leading position again by providing Salesforce Political Campaign Edition,” going on to declare that “As far as I see, it’s the first donor relations management tool from any CRM vendor – and not only is it first, but it’s good.”

Salesforce Political Campaigns Edition is currently scheduled for general release in the second quarter of 2007, by which time Hillary Clinton is certain to be named Democratic party nominee for Our Lady Prez. Salesforce Political Campaigns Edition is currently scheduled to cost $65 per user per month for the Professional Edition and $125 per user per month for the Enterprise Edition.

Finally, the Salesforcers even announced their plans for Earth Day. The Salesforce.com Foundation runs what it calls a “1/1/1/1 model,” signifying the delivery of 1 percent time, 1 percent equity, 1 percent percent product and – get this – “oneness with the Earth.”

The company recently undertook the Earthforce initiative, which launched a global team of over thirty Salesforce.com employees to assist in designing future salesforce.com environmental programs and practices, the introduction of a biodiesel employee shuttle, technology support for environmental organizations and Earth-friendly volunteer activities across the globe.

And to its credit, the foundation does some good work. Company numbers show that, in fiscal year 2007, salesforce.com employees donated over 20,000 volunteer hours. Salesforce.com employees in San Francisco are currently participation in restoration projects at Crissy Field, the Presidio, Ocean Beach and Alcatraz. Internationally, employees volunteer with organizations such as the Plant a Tree Foundation in Thailand, Clean-up the Broadmeadow Estuary in Ireland, and Conservation Volunteers in the UK.

Although Suzanne DiBianca, executive director of the Salesforce.com Foundation, states that “we strive to make every day Earth Day in Salesforce.com’s offices around the world,” one has to wonder how exactly the company is “tapping into our valuable salesforce.com employees to examine all of our business practices to determine how we can reduce our carbon footprint as a company” while certain CEOs are burning tons of airplane fuel to jet off to the world’s other side for one-hour speeches…

At first, on-demand CRM software looks like a can’t-miss opportunity in terms of rapidly upgrading lots of customer service really quickly under one base price of, say, $75 per user for marketing, sales force or service automation modules or $125 for all three suites.

At first.

Just as surely as time is money, however, hidden costs may be tucked away, despite promises of “this low price” or that.

Need proof? Check out the cautionary tale provided by appliance and automotive equipment provider Sterling PCU. Salesforce.com met all the company’s needs until a second database back-up. “That’s when,” a Sterling spokesperson said, “salesforce.com started to charge us an arm and leg for backing up our own data. It’s just not acceptable.” Today, Sterling claims their new CRM system saves them $18,000 annually.

A few tips, then, to help you ensnare some of those revenue-eating traps follow. We can’t guarantee savings of $18,000, but consider the following and you may well get what you pay for (and vice versa).

• Beware complexity. There is little that can be done, it seems, about the headaches certain to appear when faced with integrating data between on-premise and hosted software. Work stoppage may happen, shutdowns of some or all parts of your network may be necessary: All represent drains on resources and thus revenue.

• Think about consultants. Because of certain complexity in implementation, you will be hiring a consultant. iServiceGlobe SAP consultant Srini Katta, a specialist in e-business and CRM implementation was quoted at CRMblogger and SearchSAP.com as estimating that, “at a minimum, a company may need to bring in a business analyst to determine what data is needed and should go beyond a company firewall.”

Choose your consulting partner carefully; understanding exactly what’s in the consulting contract will help keep potential hidden costs within the potential hidden costs to a minimum.

• Consider storage space (but probably not too much). Much is made of “bloatware,” much of it colorful. One CRM world blogger writes of “the notoriously contagious ‘bloatware’ malaise that often affects ageing software – adding features for the sake of it,” describing the phenomenon as “like mutton dressed as lamb – full of superfluous features the developers have decided you need.”

This can mean having to buy further storage space either in that hardware the would-be CRM buyer was hoping to avoid or from the hosting service. Companies like SAP and Salesforce.com offer additional space as well, should you need it, but at an extra cost, naturally.

For an opposing viewpoint set to debunk all the myths about the ever-discussable bloatware, check out this entry by blogging software developer Joel Spolsky entitled Strategy Letter IV: Bloatware and the 80/20 Myth.

By the “80/20 Myth,” Spolsky is referring to a common rule of thought employed by software developers that goes as so: “80 percent of the people use 20 percent of the features. So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20 percent of the features, and you can still sell 80 percent as many copies.”

But, Spolsky argues, that 20 percent of features is different from user to user; one of the beauties of web-based CRM is the pick-and-choose options most offer. The 20 percent your business needs can be yours at minimal cost. If you choose correctly.

As for the cost of hardware, Spolsky presents an eye-opening statistic: In 1993, Microsoft Excel 5.0 took up about $36 worth of hard drive space; in 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000 took up about $1.03 in hard drive space. That price you’re paying for extra space? Accept it; it could be much worse.

• And then there’s shelfware. Just because you’re not buying anything that can go on the shelf doesn’t mean you’re not paying for something that is utterly useless.

Shelfware is an already classic 21st-century phobia, programs that simply sit on the shelves after purchase due to one problem or another. In a Network World piece by Denise Dubie entitled “Net execs struggle to rid their shops of shelfware,” Dubie presents five cases of business had by (typically) CRM product that was too much, not enough, or just plain didn’t work.

Though the piece is focused on traditional hardware for IT companies, the lessons learned are the same, and the moral is simple: Do not buy that which you do not need.

• Know what you need to know. A guideline for costs in a CRM system deployment has been nicely summarized at CRM Lowdown. It looks like this: needs analysis and site preparation; software purchases and license support; implementation and deployment costs; ongoing operational support; and strategic development costs. Happy calculating!

• Finally, there’s the apocalypse. Back in early 2006, Salesforce.com suffered from a couple of power outages that took them – and subsequently their customers – off-line for hours. In light of the development, TMCNet posted a decent pros-and-cons list of hosted vs. in-house CRM software.

Reacting to the near-catastrophic power failure, contributing editor David Sims opined then that hosted CRM was still too immature to meet long-term business needs.

To be fair, nothing like the large-scale event Salesforcers suffered almost a year-and-a-half ago has occurred again. However, certain suppositions of early 2006 still hold: Hosted CRMs can be limited in custom features, carry untold hidden costs in the medium term, and cost companies extra when waiting for the subcontracted service.

Ultimately, Sims gives a warning of “caveat emptor” in recommending the avoidance of long-term contracts.

Some may attempt to convince the prospective CRM system purchaser that he/she is buying basically foolproof stuff with a no-nonsense billing structure. Just recall what they say about that which sounds too good to be true. And caveat emptor.