by Jason Stewart
Just a very quick report, from the "trenches" as it were, about the announcements revealed yesterday morning at the Dreamforce 2009 keynote speech, delivered to 10,000 people in Moscone center. Seriously, there were a lot of people there. Biggest Dreamforce ever, highlighted with some very well received improvements that will have significant impact on how the power users are doing their jobs every day.
Usability improvements were the key, as upgraded (and rebranded) sales and service functionality were unveiled as Service Cloud 2 and Sales Cloud 2. Cloud Scheduler (cross-platform calendering), one-screen report building (which is a departure from the multi-screen report wizard) and the official introduction of Salesforce for Twitter were all greeted with enthusiasm. On the service side there was also some knowledgebase and "crowdsourcing" functionality to help reps answer questions (or help your customers find answers themselves online) ... think Yahoo Answers managed out of your Salesforce.com instance, with the ability to create solutions for your knowledgebase from solutions provided by your customers.
These announcements were very well received, and Salesforce for Twitter really seems to be gaining some ground. For example, Marketo announced an integration with Salesforce for Twitter on November 16th looking to capitalize on information gathered from Tweets about your company (or even just the fact that you'll know which prospects are active in Social Media) as triggers for marketing campaigns. Maria Pergolino from Marketo (blog.marketo.com) even suggested attaching known Twitter users to a campaign dedicated to recording which of your prospects and customers are active in social media, and using tools like the "Campaign Influence Report" in Salesforce.com to see how many of your selling opportunities may have been influenced by Social Media. Good stuff!
The next BIG announcement was actually met with more of a luke-warm reception than the simple improvements to the usability of the product (or a super brief sneak peak into the new UI coming out next year)...after much hoopla and chest thumping we learned that the next big CLOUD would be the "Collaboration Cloud." Salesforce.com Chatter is here, a social networking tool for businesses, borne from the fact that we typically know more about the movie that our third cousin saw last night than we do about what our co-workers are doing. Real-time updates about what your co-workers are doing, alerts when content is updated or changed, alerts from your Apps and vendors if there are updates or changes to software you have installed, all powered for your company by Salesforce.com and the Force.com platform.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out, as the "Chatter" pulse on the floor of the event is actually quite subdued. One customer I spoke to expressed concerns about a "Chatter" feed getting so bogged down with noise that it could ultimately become distracting, while others were genuinely excited about the collaborative (and secure) potential of the product.
Another announcement coming today from a few Salesforce.com partners revolves around the missing link in the "Cloud" equation .. the Marketing Cloud. From the press release ... "Leading marketing-oriented technology companies today announced the formation of the Marketing Cloud™, a set of open, interoperable and secure services that make internal marketing operations more efficient and external marketing programs more effective. Founded as an alliance between Alfresco, Demandbase, Hoovers (a D&B company), Marketo, Jigsaw, ON24 and PivotLink, the Marketing Cloud delivers the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way for marketers to integrate data silos, automate processes, foster collaboration and develop actionable marketing insights."
The really exciting thing about the Marketing Cloud is that it is aspiring to be more than just an alliance of complementary Cloud-based marketing solutions, but also a community of like-minded B2B marketing professionals focused on sharing best practices and improving their craft. Check it out at www.marketing-cloud.com.
