If you don’t follow salesforce.com closely, it’s probably because you’re not currently a user. That will probably change pretty soon. Investors in old technologies are getting worried, with Kaufman Brothers issuing a "Sell" rating on Accenture for that very reason. Cloud computing and SaaS (salesforce.com especially) are taking a significant bite out of the old giants.

On June 22 out in San Jose, salesforce.com is hosting a huge event called Cloudforce (which we’re sponsoring), where they will be unveiling the next nail in old-technology’s coffin: Salesforce Chatter. So why mention the investment worry over the old world of technology players?

Simple: the old guys just don’t get it.

There is an enormous revolution going on, and pretty much every person is taking part in it. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. The social connections between individuals have exploded, and mobile access to these systems lets us plug in to those connections anywhere.

With Chatter, salesforce.com is now making the enterprise social. Everything you know and love about social media is now coming to your company, but only if you’re a salesforce.com user. Nobody else is doing this, and investors are paying attention and putting their money where their mouth is.

Salesforce has been on an absolute rocket ride, and that is showing no signs of changing any time soon. Maybe it’s about time you join the social revolution too.

CRM Kicks SaaS!!!
Why CRM Optimization Is Your Future

Optimization, Optimization, Optimization!!! I am amazed at the number of optimization projects that we are being retained to perform these days. Amazed and very impressed with what our clients are targeting as their objectives. They are taking CRM way beyond the borders of sales, marketing and customer support by using salesforce.com to transform their whole approach to business systems, collaboration, corporate strategy, and IT.

Companies coming to Model Metrics for optimization services have done so because they started to fully recognize the power of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based CRM model, also known as Cloud Computing. And they are they are asking us to create and implement exciting and diverse new functionality to extend the capabilities of salesforce.com. That’s why I’m declaring today that “CRM Kicks SaaS!”

How did we get here? There are some common themes that our optimization clients have shared with us, both bad and good, that can help explain:

The Bad
• Firms that have self-implemented found themselves guessing on how to architect their salesforce.com configurations as well as the how to leverage the appropriate feature sets. Often times sub-optimal decision were made. After all, it is hard to always pick the right path if this is one’s first time on the trail.
• Many companies don’t put enough emphasis on effectively training their users, sometimes relying on the “field of dreams” approach of build it and they will come. This is especially true when it comes to training senior and mid-level management on the skills they need to be successful with CRM. CRM has a huge human factor. Training, curriculum, and ongoing support are the steps for addressing this fact.
• Some firms did not leverage reports and dashboards that transform data into actionable knowledge. This resulted in a lack of value for managers, preventing them from reinforcing the importance of CRM adoption and preventing them from taking ownership of salesforce.com as the way the company operates.

I could go on and on here, but let me highlight where “CRM kicked some major SaaS” as I transition to the good.

The Good
• All of these companies got value and ROI even though they were not hitting on all cylinders because their first phases enabled them to be far more organized than ever before.
• These firms established salesforce.com as their central database for sales, marketing and/or customer support, making it their primary source of customer knowledge.
• Deploying salesforce.com was the easiest business system deployment ever for these companies because of how salesforce.com is delivered in a browser, requiring no software installation/maintenance, and very little if any IT involvement. This represented freedom and speed-to-value for business managers requiring infrastructure to support their strategies.
• Salesforce.com gave these companies a practical understanding of how SaaS business systems have the power to quickly transform processes and results, empowering companies of all sizes, industries, and business models with truly leading edge technology and capabilities.
• With their CRM foundation in place, the Force.com platform and Salesforce.com’s ever and rapidly evolving feature set (salesforce.com Sites is just around the corner) is making possible “optimizations” to existing processes as well as new processes and strategies. Because of this, many of our optimization clients are optimizing their salesforce.com solutions to implement strategies to support and expand their web strategies.

Bottom line – “CRM kicks SaaS!” If your company uses salesforce.com and you are still in your first phase of implementation, it is time to raise the bar and look to phase 2 - optimization. It is incumbent upon you to leverage the investment and accomplishments that you have made and act on plans for the future, regardless of whatever challenges were posed in phase 1. Look to the future because that is where the opportunities are going to be to achieve ongoing success.