The Official Salesforce Blog
The Official Salesforce Blog - In the News
-
Announcing Force.com Checkout: Buy AppExchange Apps in Clicks
Dec 13, 2008(From The AppExchange Blog)
Exciting news! Starting this week, customers and partners can buy and sell AppExchange apps online anytime, anywhere, from a browser.
On Monday, we officially launched Force.com Checkout to a standing-room only audience at our Cloudforce Event in New York. With Checkout, it is easier than ever for customers to do business with salesforce.com and our partners. Customers now have a "one stop shop" where you can trial, pay for, start using, and manage subscriptions of Salesforce CRM and some of your favorite AppExchange partner apps.
Here is what CRM Buyer had to say:
“On Monday, Salesforce.com announced some of the remaining pieces of the grand puzzle when it introduced Checkout…a necessary component that, though its focus is financial rather than technical, enables the technology to fully function. It appears to me that with Checkout, Salesforce now has deployed a new closed-loop business process for cloud computing that starts with development, moves through distribution and sales, and culminates in the transaction and payment….This is cool stuff.”
All Checkout partner applications are natively built and run on Force.com, which means you can rest assured they have the same security, reliability, and performance of applications from salesforce.com. And it's not just CRM applications. The majority of Checkout apps and new AppExchange apps are extending the SaaS model beyond just your sales, marketing, and customer service functions to other important areas in your company: human resources, IT, finance, operations, you name it. Here is the full list:
- Financials and accounting ERP from CODA
- Non-profit constituent relationship management from Convio
- Fleet management solutions from Datasul
- Order management ERP solutions from Glovia, a subsidiary of Fujitsu
- Staffing solutions from Jobscience
- Mobile expense reporting from Model Metrics
- Recruiting from Riptide
- Real estate management from Riptide
- Customer reference tracking from Riptide
- Risk management from StakeWare
- Financial relationship management from StraightThrough
- Productivity tools from Appirio
- Compensation management from Callidus
- Salesforce CRM administrator tools from DrivEnable
Existing customers, you can start using Checkout today from your dropdown menu inside the app. Everyone else, learn more here.
-
Looking in the rear view mirror
Nov 18, 2008I started my recruiting programs gig at salesforce.com in Summer 2005. Five years prior I had ridden a similar wave at Clarify where we were always looking in the rear view mirror at Siebel. In Fall 2005, Oracle acquired Siebel and in typical salesforce.com fashion, it was "game on". We launched a “Siebel Survivor” recruitment campaign targeting Siebel employees and hired more than 30 employees worldwide. 2 weeks ago, after we all drank more of the Dreamforce user community kool-aid, one of our Technology leaders sent me an email asking about doing it again. With all the gloom in today’s media and tech in general, it’s clear that we are in a unique position as a growing company and hiring “A-players”—in Technology, Sales, and more. What better way to let the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Tech Community know?
Starting Monday 11/17, we launched a mobile billboard campaign from San Francisco to San Jose Download RouteOverviewmap.pdf promoting “life changing careers; game-changing technology” and on Friday, November 21 we’ll have it in downtown San Francisco at our 1 Market Street headquarters during the lunch hour passing out recruiting swag and ice cream. I feel very fortunate to be a part of a company that sees this economic time as a tipping point in our favor (much like in 2001) and recruiting top talent as a competitive advantage.
-
Now Your Other Computer is a Data Center
Aug 1, 2008
Marc Benioff's guest blog post on what Web 3.0 is was just published on TechCrunch IT. Marc expands on the idea that while Web 1.0 was about distributed transactions, and Web 2.0 is about distributed participation, Web 3.0 will be about democratizing the power to innovate. It's a very important and insightful essay, so I highly recommend that you check it out. -
Join the Salesforce Professional Network on LinkedIn
Apr 25, 2008
Salesforce.com now has a LinkedIn group with nearly 1,000 members! Join the Salesforce Professional Network today by visiting this web page.The Salesforce.com Professional Network connects former and present salesforce.com users, administrators and employees, allowing them to expand their professional development, exchange ideas, network and continue to be a part of the Salesforce.com community.
As a group member, you'll have the option to make your profile available to other group members. You'll also have a Salesforce Professional Network badge on your LinkedIn profile.
-
Salesforce.com Receives Intelligent Enterprise 2008 Editors’ Choice Award
Feb 7, 2008We’re thrilled to announce that Intelligent Enterprise Magazine has given salesforce.com a 2008 Editors’ Choice Award and named it to the “Intelligent Enterprise Dozen”.
In naming its Award recipients, Intelligent Enterprise described salesforce.com as
the David in an IT industry full of Goliaths
and went on to say the company had
given rise to the SaaS market almost single-handedly, whacking SAP and Oracle with a few rocks in the process.
The publication also remarked that salesforce.com “is showing the IT world what SaaS can and should be, and the entire industry has taken notice."
This marks the third year in a row salesforce.com has received the the Editors' Choice Award, which recognizes companies for exceptional vision, technology innovation and customer leadership in attaining strategic objectives.
The full article can be found here.
-
Spring '08 Release Update
Jan 16, 2008
Salesforce.com's Spring '08 release is just around the corner, so we wanted to highlight some of the exciting new features you can expect from our force.com platform and SaaS applications. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out the Spring '08 preview and the feature detail pages. And if you're curious about when you'll see these changes in your org, keep checking trust.salesforce.com for the latest release schedule. -
Winter '08 Release Update
Oct 18, 2007The long-anticipated Winter '08 release is just around the corner! Winter '08 is our 24th generation release and comes with some pretty exciting announcements. First, we've renamed our platform to Force.com to represent all of the new advancements we've made, the most exciting of which is Visualforce, our new user-interface as a service! In addition to the new platform features, we'll also release two brand new applications: Salesforce Content and Salesforce Ideas. Finally, we have (of course) made many exciting enhancements to all of our CRM applications.
Those of you who attended Dreamforce have already seen an impressive preview of all the new features we've delivered since the summer release in August -- but for a closer look, be sure to check out the Feature Detail Pages.
In the mean time, here are the top features I'd like to highlight in the Winter '08 release:- Visualforce: Visualforce lets you create any application, with any user interface, for any device, all running on demand on salesforce.com's servers. This new functionality is incredibly powerful for all the developers and partners who want to build exciting new applications. And for end users, it means that there are endless possibilities now for more customized applications that look and work exactly as you want them to. And since these new applications are being built on the Force.com platform, they will integrate with your existing Salesforce applications and come with all the benefits of our multi-tenant infrastructure.
- Tagging and Inline Editing : Both of these two web 2.0 features leverage the force.com platform and make all your Salesforce applications even easier to use -- which means you'll see increases in adoption, data quality, and productivity.
- Content: One of the newest additions to the Salesforce suite of applications, Salesforce Content helps you share and manage documents, presentations, multi-media files and other business content by harnessing popular Web 2.0 functionality like tagging, rating, subscriptions and full-text search. No more calling and emailing around the office looking for the latest presentation -- Salesforce Content will place those important documents right at your fingertips.
- Ideas: Another brand-new application, Salesforce Ideas helps you get connected to your communities by providing an interactive, online community delivered as a service. As with every Salesforce application, there's no software or hardware to manage. Great ideas can come from anywhere, and Salesforce Ideas lets your communities post and vote on ideas so that the best ideas get bubbled to the top. Start collecting innovative ideas, holding discussions and watching the best ideas from your communities shape your business.
- Campaign Hierarchies: Marketers often employ multiple tactics to generate demand for a particular product or program--SEM, Direct Mail, Events, etc--with Campaign Hierarchies, you can easily associate these tactical campaigns to a parent campaign, up to five levels deep, and see roll-up performance metrics. This feature gets my vote for most exciting--for us marketers here at salesforce.com, it's been nothing less than life-changing.
- Salesforce to Salesforce: Collaborating with your partners reaches new heights with Salesforce to Salesforce. If your partners also use Salesforce, you can now directly and securely exchange data such as leads, opportunities, and custom objects through Salesforce. Improve efficiency and be assured that your data--and your partner's data--is always up to date.
Winter '08 is one of our biggest releases yet and delivers way more features than I can cover here. Be sure to check out the Admin Preview for an overview of all the great new functionality you've come to expect from our releases. Be sure to keep checking this blog for more resources, including the release schedule, the Winter '08 Video tour and the Release notes. Finally, our pre-release program is now available so sign up to try out the new features in your own test environment.
-
Summer '07 Release Update
Jul 16, 2007In Australia today, we announced the Salesforce Summer ’07 release. We’re very proud of this release not just because it is the 23rd generation of Salesforce and is our 3rd major release this year, but also because it is a big leap forward for IT-ready platform-as-a-service. Check out the new features… it’s full of goodness for CRM and platform customers alike!
Some of the top features I’d like to highlight are:
- Apex Code – This long-anticipated functionality is now available to Unlimited customers! With Apex Code, you can use the power of programming without the burdens of software.
- Intelligent Workflow –Now you can model and enforce any business process you wish with more dynamic workflow, including the use of formulas in workflow and approval rules.
- Multiple Sandboxes – Summer ’07 allows you to have multiple test environments running at the same time… create a sandbox for developers, testers, training, and more.
- Customer Portal – The Customer Portal is generally available! You now have a platform to collaborate with your customers - personalize the portal for different users segments, and share any custom application or mash-ups with your customers.
Summer ‘07 delivers a ton more popularly requested features that you can learn more about in our Admin Preview, or our Summer ’07 Release Tour. To prepare yourself for the release, browse our Top Five Ways to Prepare for Summer 07 post. If you’re ready to get hands-on, you can sign up for our pre-release program.
-
Top Five Things to Do to Get Ready for Winter '07
Dec 28, 2006What better way to start off the New Year than with the excitement of salesforce.com’s Winter ’07 release! As with all of salesforce.com's releases, the upgrade path is seamless. When you log in on Monday morning all the popularly requested features of Winter '07 will be right there at your fingertips.
Make sure your organization is ready for the new release with our prep list:
1. Educate yourself on the new features and functionality in the Winter '07 release
- Watch the Winter '07 Release Video Tour for a walk through of the new features
- Visit the Feature Detail pages on Successforce.com for an overview of what’s new
- Dig into the Release Notes for more detail on new features
- Consider a New Feature Workshop
2. Identify which features your company should consider adopting and pitch them to the appropriate executives.
- Potential features might include Salesforce Console, Popup reminders, or Embedded Mashups
- Learn from customer experts how to turn change management into a reality and successfully manage salesforce.com releases
- Get ahead of the curve and learn tools to drive adoption across your user base
3. Highlight two or three new features which will help make your reps more productive and find ways to drive adoption
- Potential features might include Lotus Notes, Enhanced Activity Management, or the new UI customization.
- To introduce these exciting features to your team you might refer to the best practice post on creating a monthly newsletter as well as the post on sending mass emails to your users from within Salesforce.
4. Check out the Winter ’07 Apex Platform and the new features it enables
- The Salesforce Console enables a Business Web Desktop for higher productivity—check out our Tip Sheet on using the Salesforce Console
- Apex allows for Mashups— Mashups use features of other web applications combined with your Salesforce application. You can now embed mashups in dashboards and your detail page layouts such as Accounts or Contacts. Find out more on custom s-controls with this tutorial and check out some great examples from Dreamforce ‘06 in Business Mashups: Best of the Web
- Work Flow and approvals can help you automate even more business processes. Read Getting Started with the Approvals Process and view useful approval process examples
5. Browse the AppExchange directory for additional on-demand apps you might want to install
- Potential AppExchange apps might include SalesSleuth, Diamond Data, Net Documents and Shipping 2.0 for partners who are taking advantage of new Winter ’07 functionality
- Watch the overview on how to install new applications into your Salesforce account.
-
Winter ’07 Upgrade Schedule
Dec 28, 2006Over the first two weekends in January, salesforce.com will be rolling out the exciting new Winter ’07 release. In order to ensure the highest performance with the release, we’ll be upgrading our servers on a rolling basis. Want to know when you’ll get your hands on all the popularly requested features? Follow these steps:
1. Log in to Salesforce.com as you normally do.
2. Look at the address bar—your server name is located in the area circled in red.
3. Next, visit http://trust.salesforce.com to view the upgrade schedule for your server.
Bookmark
