Anybody who is even mildly tech savvy probably has an account in one of the popular networking sites. The fact that you're reading this blog proves it as I've only posted it on Facebook. Such is their popularity that these sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) have become the ideal platform to share messages, photos, videos and comments with family and friends. Best of all, they are cloud operated platforms requiring no aplication downloads on your own PC.
But for big business, what is the value of a social network?
Social networks are the natural evolution of the first collaboration productivity tools. Initially, these consisted of email and instant messaging. Later on, wikis, user forums and developer communities appeared on the scene allowing a greater level of interaction. Subsequently, these different productivity tools made their way into social networking sites offering all-in-one functionality.
One of the greatest benefits to end users of this evolution is the concept known as crowd sourcing - user forums or communities that share experiences on specific subjects. Nowadays, we no longer rely on sales hype to determine the cost-benefit of a product or service. We go online to see what type of experiences other users have had with the product and base our decisions on these personal assessments. It's the equivalent of customer testimonials on a massive scale.
Until now big business has not really known how to profit from or take advantage of social networks as these sites are available to anyone free of charge. Site revenues come mostly from advertisers wanting to maximize demographic reach. Facebook, for example, has 350 million registered users.
That is, until now.
Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, is the world leader in cloud computing CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions. CRM is an automated system that traces the life-cycle of sales, from lead generation to post sales service and maintenance. Residing in the cloud as Software as a Service (SaaS), Salesforce.com's CRM solutions require no downloads on the client's PC and is OS agnostic. Because of the flexibility of its CRM solution (highly configurable and secure modules), Salesforce.com pricing model is just as flexible (subscription or per-user basis). Since its incorporation, Salesforce.com has steadily grown and refined its product and service portfolio. Today, they have more than 50,000 customers and over 100,000 contributing developers.
In 2007, Salesforce.com launched Force.com, a new concept in cloud computing known as Platform as a Service extending the capabilities of CRM's SaaS model with the incorporation of collaboration tools in an integrated, flexible and secure suite of services. As with their CRM solutions, Force.com's mashable aplications offer a high level of user customization and configuration.
Peter Coffee, Salesforce.com's Director of Platform Research, states that Force.com has experienced impressive growth in the emerging markets of India, Brazil and Australia where there is a large concentration of outsourcing companies and developer communities. Companies like Infosys and Tata, for example, have had such a great success with Force.com that they have actually been able to export their processes to the US. In other words, the high level of efficiency (read cost minimization) these companies have achieved through the use of the Force.com platform has permitted them to export the whole process (sales, service, help desk)to countries where costs are considered to be prohibitive.
Force.com consists of four basic components: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Custom Cloud and Chatter. These components are available as independent modules as well.
Sales Cloud - offers the main benefits of Salesforce.com CRM including mobile communications and real time updates including collaboration tools and analytics.
Service Cloud - is centered on client's technical support. Aside from consisting of its own knowledge base for the Help Desk, Service Cloud also incorporates user's experiences (crowd sourcing). The advantages are clear. Different regions offer variations of the same product. For example, A Honda Accord in the US may have very little in common with a European Honda Accord. This means that the propietary knowledge base does not have to be exported to different data centers all over the world. Only the commonalities are exported as each region develops its own unique set of events. The result is a leaner, more agile base freeing up valuable compute resources.
Custom Coud - is the application database created by the developer community. Custom Cloud not only offers all types of applications for use in client's systems, it serves as a direct link with developers to facilitate the modification or customization of Force.com applications.
Chatter - is the latest component of Force.com and is slated for release in the Spring of 2010. On Chatter's release, it will allow the integration of social networking sites into the company's realm. According to Coffee, "Chatter will provide real business value to the whole phenomenon of social networking. It will be the integration of partners, manufacturers, suppliers, customers, service and maintenance techs using existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the networks will also provide professional tools such as forecasting and analytics. Everyone involved in the company's process will be connected at all times regardless of location providing instant feedback and results."
If your Help Desk or outsourcing partner is turning out to be a black hole of ever increasing costs and poor customer satisfaction, perhaps it's time to look into more viable alternatives. Specifically, Force.com.
For more information visit www.salesforce.com.
