Anything which is not in Salesforce, does not exist

In this world of cut throat competition, having a CRM alone would not solve the purpose. In fact it should be bundled with other features to take care of your complete Business. Salesforce pay as you go service gives you wide range of options to customize it to suit your business needs. You need to just concentrate on your operational logic while backup, upgrades, security etc is taken care by Salesforce itself.

The best part is there is nothing to install, you just need a device with Internet connection and all the team members can have access to real time data. Many publications have always pointed at the failure of many organizations to generate significant returns on their investments in technology and CRM. Sales and Marketing reps do recognize the value of creating proposals, email communication and pre research but they find it tedious in recording the notes into their CRM.

In real it has been approx 26 years now since some of the tech savvy companies especially in pharmaceutical sector started using CRM for automating their business process and they still boast of that decision they took long ago which really helped these companies to attain good heights. In some cases these companies experienced even ten folds growth in all the spheres they were part of.

For more information on features and pricing , please refer:

http://www.salesforce.com/in/crm/editions-pricing.jsp

Deploy your business to Cloud

So, you have heard of the Cloud Revolution and like every other business you are looking to get Salesforce.com CRM Implemented for your Organization. Hmmm, Sounds Great! But what next?

You need a Salesforce consultant to implement it properly, because it is just a tool and lack of Focus and poor customization can have adverse effects on your Business as well.

Going through a lot of data can be difficult and time consuming while missing key facts can be devastating.  In every sphere of Business, the most critical choices we make relate to Vendor and being a good judge of them is really difficult. So, the big question is how we get good at sizing first impression.

Here we provide those key points which you should look for in your Salesforce consulting partner:

1.     How many projects, for how many clients?

2.     Industry Verticals worked for

3.     Check if they are really listening to you.

4.     What type of project planning and documentation they do.

5.     Ask for reference and check for recommendations.

6.     Expensive are not always the best.

As with great power comes great responsibility so Salesforce.com understands its role and asks people to get certified on every new release which ensures that they are abreast with the latest development.

Force.com certified developers, Salesforce certified Administrators, Technical Architect, Cloud consultants and knowledge experts in the consultant team ensures that they have demonstrative ability to meet the challenges of a successful Salesforce Implementation and make the Salesforce consulting process a smooth one.

Running a business requires you to travel through the highs and lows and taking those swings and roundabout at every few meters. During times of trouble, it is best to bring in your trusted team of experts and listen to their Insights.

You are excited and you are enthusiastic. The vision of how Salesforce CRM would revive the way you do business keeps you motivated. It’s a good idea to plan to the days before you consider implementing Salesforce. Salesforce can help you accumulate, administer, and scrutinize enormous amounts of consumer data that can be used in a variety of different ways but the data is of no use if its not organized or incomplete. Instead of being a boon to you it can become pain and soon all of your employees will start complaining about how perilous it has become to use Salesforce.

Proper education and training of you staff will help you a lot in the long run. So make sure that you have discussed this with your consultant before you sign that big cheque.

The challenge is when your consultant does not ask right questions or doesn’t take the time to fully understand your business process. However, the goal should always remain to get your consulting partner transfer their knowledge to your employees. You may or may not require a full time Admin, which depends on number of user licenses you have.

Last but not the least, try to be Agile and stay under budget.

Salesforce knocks off SAP

Salesforce has moved ahead of SAP as the leading vendor is the world market for customer relationship management (CRM) software, according to a new report by IT analyst Gartner.

It says the overall market went up by 12.5% to $18 billion (£11.6 billion) in 2012, with Salesforce accounting for 14% of the total against SAP's 12.9%. Oracle was the only other company with a double digit share at 11.1%

Joanne Correira, VP at Gartner, said the market growth rate was three times the average for all enterprise software, as CRM is "at the eye of the Nexus of Forces storm".

"With corporate cash at all-time highs, many vendors are willing to pay high premiums to acquire specific technologies and expertise in an increasingly dynamic and competitive CRM market environment," she said.

Software-as-a-service CRM is becoming increasingly important, accounting for nearly 40% of the total business, while the growth has also been fuelled by vendors offering new features and functions in they systems.

Salesforce has announced a clutch of initiatives to speed up the development of specialised mobcompile apps using its cloud service Salesforce Platform.

They include an open source framework and tools, Salesforce Mobile SDK 2.0, to help enterprise developers connect data to any mobile app on any iOS or Android device. It also supports apps based on HTML5, and provides libraries for requirements such as authentication and secure offline storage.

This is joined by Developer Mobile packs, which can be used in building HTML5 or hybrid mobile apps to access real time data on Salesforce.

Salesforce has also set up a Mobile Accelerator Progamme, providing companies with access to its system integrators to help develop their ideas for apps.

Mike Rosenbaum, Executive Vice President of Salesforce Platform, said: "With these new mobile services, CIOs can immediately accelerate every mobile app development project in their backlog."

The enterprise software company, which is best known for its customer relationship management system, claims that more than 1 million developers and business analysts use the cloud platform to build apps for a range of devices.

The new initiatives suggest that customers get more value from the platform when it gives them the flexibility to build their own applications to meet specific requirements.

Salesforce has increased its emphasis on the virtues of "social intelligence" with two new tools for its Chatter enterprise social network.

Chatter Topics and Expertise will make it possible to analyse and categorise structured and unstructured information within the Salesforce platform. Details of experts, files, groups and other information can be compiled on a single topic page, which is then automatically curated through the Salesforce algorithms.

Salesforce claims they will help users discover insights, identify experts and find resources based on topics of interest. It is emphasising how this can help new employees to quickly find information that can help in the job.

The move follows the development of other social intelligence tools in Chatter, including Recommendations, Influence and Similar Files.

Salesforce cites Vanessa Thompson, Research Manager for IDC's Enterprise Social Networks and Collaborative Technologies, as commenting: "As social software grows into enterprise social networks, solution functionality like profiles, activity streams and blogs have quickly become assumed. Social intelligence will only make enterprise social networks more pervasive by adding context to the funnel of data available and providing insight into past, current and future actions."

The company claims there are more than 195,000 active social networks around the world built on Chatter, and that it is used for more than 200 million recommendations each month.