The AppExchange Blog - June 2007

• Analytics webinar this Thursday, June 21

  Jun 19, 2007

  

  There's been some confusion regarding the upcoming analytics webinar. It is taking place live this Thursday, June 21 (not Wednesday) at 10am PDT. Click here to register now.

  Get a sneak peek into new Summer '07 analytics features that will help you maximize visibility and make better mission-critical business decisions. You'll also get to hear tips and tricks directly from one of our customers, Heald College.

  Comments | Bookmark

• Find the Apps What You Want

  Jun 12, 2007

  With over 600 on-demand applications on AppExchange and more being added every day, how are you supposed to find the right apps for you?

  Here are a few time-saving tips and tricks (in order of easiest to most advanced):

  1. Essentials. If you're new to AppExchange and/or want to hit the ground running with several apps at once, you might want to start with the AppExchange Essentials, which are my "short lists" of favorites for different departments and objectives. The "Essentials for Free" list in particular has been a popular one for getting started and testing the AppExchange waters. If I remember high school algebra correctly, the ROI of something free is infinity. Not bad! 
     
     
  2. Browse. For a more comprehensive survey of what apps are available, I would suggest browsing through the categories and subcategories on the left-hand side of the home page. Many customers are pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of solutions. Did you know, for example, that we have apps for IT Management and Compliance?  Or that there are targeted solutions for thirteen industry verticals, from education and manufacturing to health care and retail? 
     
     
  3. Search. If you come in knowing exactly what you want, I would suggest searching, either by partner or application name, general genre, or keywords. You have the choice of narrowing down by category.
     
     
  4. Filter. Last but not least, don't forget to use the handy search/browse filters available on the right side of the home page screen. You can set your edition (very important, for example, since some AppExchange apps work with only EE and higher), or specify free, mobile, certified, Salesforce.com apps, and/or compatibility with the new lower-cost non-CRM Salesforce Platform License. 
     
     

  Now you can be on your way to navigating the hundreds of apps on the AppExchange!

  Comments | Bookmark

• Upcoming Webinar - Make Your Data Work Harder with Salesforce Analytics

  Jun 11, 2007

  Join us next Thursday, June 21 for the next free, live webinar in our monthly AppExchange best practices series on Salesforce Analytics. You can register here.

  Two of our in-house analytics experts and a customer will share tips and tricks, and provide an overview of AppExchange analytics solutions to help you gain deeper insight and intelligence from your customer data.

  • Learn how to create better reports and improved dashboards with Summer ’07 
  • See demos of top AppExchange analytics solutions that will dramatically improve your business decision-making 
  • Increase your adoption and business performance through cutting-edge use of analytics
  Comments | Bookmark

• Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords: acquire new customers and make your business more efficient

  Jun 5, 2007

  At a private event in San Francisco this afternoon, Marc Benioff and Sheryl Sandberg (who runs Google's AdWords business) formally announced a global strategic alliance between Salesforce and Google. The alliance encompasses five critical areas of partnership and shared values:

  1. Technology. A new product was announced today: Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords replaces our best-selling Team Edition product and offers seamless integration with Google AdWords. Not only can you create and manage AdWords campaigns from within Salesforce, but you now get free AdWords just for signing up for the Salesforce product, as well as instant access to lead management, dashboards, and links to related Google apps. The two companies have worked closely together to create a breakthrough new product that makes it easier than ever before for small businesses to take advantage of the Internet to scale quickly and efficiently. And there is tremendous opportunity here - Sheryl cited the statistic that even in the US, over 50% of small businesses do not have a website and are not taking advantage of the tremendous efficiencies possible with the Internet. The number presumably is much higher elsewhere.
  2. Distribution. Salesforce is now an official reseller of the Google AdWords platform. We believe it's an ideal fit for existing customers, and a compelling differentiator for prospects.
  3. Business Model. Salesforce and Google pioneered the B2B Internet selling model. Instead of requiring customers to pay upfront for software licenses or ads before they demonstrate value, the "pay as you go" model both companies have always embraced aligns our customers very fundamentally with customers' best interest, since we are continually working to win repeat business.
  4. Community. Both companies have become successful over the years thanks to the passion and engagement of their user and developer communities. On the developer front, both companies plan to further build out their APIs to enable even more creativity and mash-up innovation on the AppExchange, eg Appirio's Google Gadgets for Salesforce.
  5. Philanthropy. Just before their IPO in 2004, Google adopted the "1-1-1" model of philanthropy introduced by Marc in his first book, Compassionate Capitalism, in which 1% of equity, 1% of product (donations to nonprofit organizations), and 1% of employees' time are set aside for charity. Marc and Sheryl also made history today in announcing that this joint product will be given away for free to registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits!

  Now, any business can establish an online presence, market to larger audiences, and measure ROI with just a few clicks and a few hundred dollars. We are all very excited about these developments and welcome your ideas on future potential integration areas!

  Comments | Bookmark

• Web recording now available for 5/21 Salesforce Developer Conference keynote

  Jun 5, 2007

  I've received quite a few requests for this. The video recording of the Salesforce Developer Conference keynote presentations is now available here.

  

  Comments | Bookmark

• Latest from the AppExchange Incubator: Cool new Google Gadgets from Appirio!

  Jun 1, 2007

  Kudos to Appirio for four new, very cool (and free!) gadgets on the AppExchange which enable you to access important real-time Salesforce data from your iGoogle personal home page.

  Check it out- I just installed Sales Sleuth and Case Watcher (I love the AppExchange - it took me less than 1 minute to install both). Sales Sleuth lets you quickly look up any account, contact, opportunity, case or task. Case Watcher shows you the top two open cases in your org.

  

  There's also Opportunity Knocks and Task Watcher. And, Appirio just joined the Googe Enterprise Program.

  Good stuff, Narinder and Chris. Keep it coming!

  Comments | Bookmark

• Salesforce, Facebook, and a completely new way of doing business

  Jun 1, 2007

  It's been a big week for web services! Salesforce unveiled our platform vision and Salesforce SOA at our developer conference last Monday. Facebook followed suit two days later, launching its f8 platform at an event in San Francisco. Google followed up with their developer conference yesterday.

  The Facebook launch was quite a show. Mark Zuckerberg went through a dozen or so Macworld-looking slides. His pitch? Develop on the f8 platform for 1. deep integration into Facebook, 2. distribution across its user base, and 3. opportunity to build new businesses. Sound familiar? I thought so too.

  The expo floor was home to all the action. It reminded me of AppExchange Incubator Day, actually. My favorite f8 apps are iLike (a music app that finally fills Facebook's music gap and brings it to parity with MySpace) and Slideshows, created by my friend Max Levchin's company Slide. I also installed a fun Fortune Cookie app that makes my profile feel a bit more customized in the MySpace-kind of way.

  

  Marc Benioff has talked for years about this trend of applications becoming platforms. In fact, he has been the visionary for making that happen in the enterprise and for IT. IT News refers to it as redefining the function of a website:

  Web companies want to morph into something far more ambitious: vast software ecosystems where thousands of outside developers write applications that tie into their wares. Salesforce.com is applying the model pioneered by Amazon.com and eBay to its software services. Now, it's Google's turn.

  This latest move by Facebook cements the fact that web platforms are here to stay.

  What does this mean for your business? A few important things, actually.

  1. A Unique Opportunity to Make Your Organization More Efficient. The greatest business (and personal) benefit in platforms comes from seamless, automated processes. An open platform enables eBay buyers to make one-click payments to sellers via PayPal. The Salesforce platform enables sales reps to get Mapquest directions for all of their CRM contacts. The f8 platform allows Facebook users to try and buy songs tagged as favorites with iLike on friends' profiles.

  A platform enables you to mash-up, integrate, and create new processes to match your exact business needs and company policies... and save your employees a lot of time. The AppExchange is full of other meaningful integrations that make life easier - one-click calling, one-click dashboard views so you can make better business decisions, autopopulating CRM records with your email campaign data, and 597 more. Or, you can build your own!

  2. A New Way to Market Your Products. Facebook flyers are a marketer's dream. First, users log in A LOT. More than half of registered users log in every day! Once logged-in, they are engaged on the page. Photos, videos, wall posts, feeds, events and announcements - the in-color flyers generally get at least a few seconds of attention. Also, you can buy flyers to a precise target segment. Currently, this is done at the granularity of networks, such as schools or employers. But so many users have other information such as job title or industry and university major that the segmentation can become much more sophisticated. We used this very successfully to promote our developer conference to students.

  3. A New Way to Recruit and Retain Employees. Not only can you promote your products and services, but also your company as a place to work. I've seen a number of employers (mostly startups) recruiting with flyers and events on Facebook. For existing employees, Facebook groups and employer networks are a great way to offer an online sense of community, build loyalty and a sense of belonging, and encourage employees to learn about one another outside the context of work. Privacy setting options such as the "limited profile" gives individual users control over whom and which networks have visibility into what parts of their profiles.

  In short, platforms are here for good, and that's a good thing for your company!

  Comments | Bookmark