Brent's CRM Blog

Talking SaaS wth Tien Tzuo

For an upcoming show on Technology For Business Sake, I recently had an interesting conversation with Tien Tzuo, ceo of Zuora - an on-demand billing and subscription service. I'm checking out the service and will do a post on my thoughts shortly. In the meantime you may want to check out what the folks at Techcrunch had to say about Zuora.

Before heading to Zuora at the end of last year, Tien was Salesforce.com's chief strategy officer. Having spent nine years at Salesforce.com, and now heading up another SaaS company, Tien definitely knows the SaaS industry and what it takes to be successful with the business model. If you're looking to build a successful SaaS business check out a few good minutes with Tien explaining what you'll need to put in place:

I'll post the link to the full conversation when it's up. You'll want to hear what Marc Benioff had to say to Tien about his moving to Zuora.

Technorati : saas, salesforce.com, tien tzuo, webex, zuora
Del.icio.us : saas, salesforce.com, tien tzuo, webex, zuora

Tales in Blogger Relationship Management - GoogleForce is in Full Effect

Kingsley Joseph over at Salesforce.com sent out an email this morning with links to a special blogger's page with information on the new Salesforce for Google Apps product that integrates features of Google Apps with features of SFDC. Now anyone who has read this blog over the years knows that I've been predicting GoogleForce for since late 2006, and then again when I was interviewed for CRM magazine at the end of last year. So I'm not going to dwell on the obvious - on how I think this combination makes entirely too much sense. I am planning to do check out the integrations this week, but in the mean time you may want to check out the following video that comes from the blogger's resource page:

I'll do a post on what I actually think of the integration lather this week. But this is another great lesson in BRM (Blogger Relationship Management). Here are a few of the key points:

• Setting up the special blogger's page with links to important information
• Emailing us with the heads up of the announcement
• including the movies in there
• offering to answer any questions we may have
• suggesting tags if we were to blog about the news
• recommendations for twittering and live blogging the webcast taking place this this afternoon

Coming off the heals of the second blogger call by Oracle last week, this is another sign that CRM vendors understand the value of communicating to the bloggers there customers and prospects check out.

Speaking of Oracle, maybe the rumor that they may buy Salesforce is just that, and that I may still have a shot at being right about GoogleForce.

Technorati : crm, google, productivity tools, salesforce
Del.icio.us : crm, google, productivity tools, salesforce

Conspiracy Theory Redux - I Like Mike...Arrington

As a short follow-up to the post on how Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison, with the rumor of Oracle interested in buying Salesforce.com, are trying to ruin my predictions of 2008 being the year small businesses fully embrace CRM, and that Google will buy Salesforce.com. No need to go over old ground, but I did first post that GoogleForce prediction back at the end of 2006.

Anyway just when I was thinking these predictions were totally off base, Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch wrote a post on Microsoft's Innovator's Dilemma which included these two sentences:

"In the middle of this sits Salesforce, the king of software on demand. At some point Google or Microsoft will make a serious move to acquire them, and at that point the other will respond with a counter. "

Now it goes without saying that I agree with Arrington's take on this, as it would make sense for either Microsoft or Google to be interested in Salesforce.com. But with Microsoft engaging in what appears to be a hostile takeover attempt of Yahoo!, and getting ready to roll out it's long awaited Live CRM service, I still have to go with GoogleForce. Mainly because I'd still be able to call 2008 the year of small business CRM. So I like that one more than the Oracle-Salesforce combo. If for no other reason than the name....OraForce....that's just too close to orifice for my liking.

Technorati : crm, google, microsoft, salesforce.com

Are Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison Conspiring Against Me?

Earlier this month I turned in my latest article for Inc. magazine's technology site. It's on why I think 2008 will be the year small businesses will fully embrace CRM. I laid out a few reasons why I think this will happen for the REAL small business crowd - 100 employees or fewer.

UPDATE - I forgot to include the link to my Inc.com article, so here it is:

Small Business Should Embrace CRM in 2008

I talk about how Salesforce.com has led the way in making CRM and SaaS available to the masses, creating an unbelievable amount of attention and, along with NetSuite and RightNow, keeping it alive in the dark days of the dot com bust. So now, with a growing number of companies creating great, affordable, accessible, full-functioned CRM services, it really looks like the time for small businesses to take the plunge. And you have to take your hat off to Marc Benioff for being the industry's ring leader.

And I was feeling real good about that prediction until I started hearing these rumors about Oracle potentially buying Salesforce.com. Now this is bad (for me that is) for two main reasons:

1. I had predicted two straight years that Google would buy Salesforce.com
2. If Oracle does end up buying Salesfoce.com, I think that seriously jeopardizes my prediction that 2008 becomes the year small business dives head-first into CRM

The first point is bad (for me that is) because it really would have been cool to have predicted that one. After all I even got that prediction included in CRM magazine, so I really would have been cool. But the second point is the more important one. After all Oracle, as good as a company as it is, is not known for having a strong relationship with the SmB community - meaning companies under 100 employees. And I think Oracle gobbling up Salesforce.com would scare many of the small Salesforce.com customers off. With Salesforce already swimming upstream concentrating more heavily on enterprise deals, you'd have to believe that even more emphasis will be on battling SAP and Microsoft for more enterprise deals. And while there are many other up and coming CRM providers who will gladly step into a void (if any is created) should Salesforce get swallowed up and focus on small customers begins to evaporate, it would slow the pace of adoption dramatically, in my opinion. Uncertainty and doubt will basically dampen much of the enthusiasm in the space.

But my prediction still has a chance because I don't know if this marriage is really going to take place. And many of the folks I've talked to about the rumor seem to think it's just that - a rumor. But in this world anything is possible, except one of my predictions coming true.  Thanks a lot Marc...you too Larry.

Technorati : crm, oracle, salesforce.com, small business
Del.icio.us : crm, oracle, salesforce.com, small business

Marc Benioff Speaks...Again

Chris Bucholtz over at InsideCRM recently played 10 questions with Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff. You should check out the Q&A when you get a chance. Benioff is often quoted and is not shy about offering his take on his company and the industry. And truth be told he's absolutely earned the right to talk as much "yang" as he wants. But he usually saves his best barbs for his competitors. Like when Chris asked him about the impending release of Microsoft Live CRM and how it will impact the industry. Benioff said:

"Microsoft will do for SaaS what the Zune has done for MP3 players."

Now, as we used to say back in the day, that's cold, dog. But enough said on that one.

There's some other eye-catchers mixed into the interview but the biggest thing standing out for me was the question Chris asked about how does SFDC still go about serving the SMB community, while swimming upstream going after enterprise deals. Benioff's answer to that was pretty much a boiler plate response about having to stay aligned with customer goals. Nobody can deny the importance of that statement, but when you have customers like Japan Post with 45,000 licenses, and more and more thousand seat deals in the works, which customer goals are you really going to be focused on? The 45,000 seat Ultimate Edition customer or the little guys using Group Edition. And that's not a slap at Group Edition as I think it's a solid product. But SmBs (emphasis on the S on purpose) need more than a product, they need a relationship with vendors. And because I work with "real" small businesses (not the thousand employee definitions of small businesses by some vendors) I have heard more grumblings from small SFDC customers about service not meeting expectations. That's why companies like Microsoft, Intuit and Sage have built strong followings with small businesses, because they've built strong partner channels who work face to face with small business folks. And these local vendors are who small businesses typically turn to when they are in need of help.

It will be interesting to see how connected SFDC will be able (and willing) to be to real small businesses as more and more competition is coming at the low end. Especially since they're going big game hunting, and creating platforms. So check the interview out and don't miss the backhanded slap Benioff gives his old buddy Tom Siebel (just let it go Cuz, let it GO!). And why you're at it check out the article on the 50 Social Sites Every Business Needs a Presence On. That's a great read as well.

Technorati : crm, insidecrm.com, live crm, marc benioff, microsoft, salesforce.com

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Us....Again!!!

I was all set to do a nice "Happy New Year's" post full of positivity and promise as we begin 2008. It really was going to be uplifting and inspirational and motivational, and all of that. I mean I am REALLY excited about this year and what it has in store, even with oil hitting the $100/ barrel mark. That wasn't enough to dampen my enthusiasm as I prepared to write my first post of the new year.

Then as I was checking out the BlackEnterprise.com to see if my latest weekly article had hit the homepage, all that positivity, pie-in-the-sky optimism got JACKED. I felt like I had the wrong holiday or something. Instead of it being New Year's I really was hoping I had slept all the way through to April Fool's day. Not because my article wasn't posted. It was there (notice how nicely I slid that in there...). But what put me in a total stat of chaos and disorder (pun intended for all of my fellow Prince fans) was a headline for the most read article on the site:

MC HAMMER'S Next Act - Technology Entrepreneur

Folks, I'm not kidding. This article is legit....now I could say here 2 legit 2 quit, along with the hand signs and images of Jeri curl juice shooting everywhere, but I don't need to stoop to that....

Hey look I'm all for people making a buck. And to be honest with you I'm for anything that keeps Stanley (Hammer's real name is Stanley Burrell) away from a microphone. I will freely admit to liking his first couple of songs, Pump it Up and Let's Get It Started. I even liked Turn This Mutha Out some. And yeah I did like Can't Touch This, but only because of the Rick James bite. But then he went too far and bit When Doves Cry with his song Pray and that was it for me. Some people you just don't bite (slipping into the vernacular of the time...sorry). Then all he could ever do was bite other people's hit songs. Not just sample a piece, he took the whole damn thing. Add to that "discovering" timeless artists like 3-5-7 and B-Angie-B, the cast of millions in his traveling dance troupe, and those Thief-of-Baghdad pants he used to sport was totally too much for a guy like me to take. That's why all my buddies referred to him as MC Mallet, or just Stanley. And thank goodness his reign of terror was over in the early '90s. But I still get a kick out of those old In Living Color skits with Tommy Davidson wearing those baggy pants and crazy glasses falling off the stage.

I will never get tired of that. OK....I'm back now. Sorry for going off on that tangent. And I'm not mad at Stan (anymore), really I'm not. He actually did a lot of good things in the community, but dude just couldn't rap. So I'm glad he's not in that game anymore. But dude is now considered a technologist? In fact he is the co-founder and chief strategy of DanceJam.com, the upcoming site the wants to dethrone YouTube when it comes to streaming dance videos to the masses. OK STOP LAUGHING. OK, I'LL STOP IF YOU WILL.....ON THREE.....

He's even quoted in the article as saying:

"There is no high-tech lingo or business strategy that you can talk that is above my head," Hammer boasted during an interview. "I breathe this stuff."

Look, I left the rap game in the late '80s to pursue a career in technology (ok I couldn't rap either, and also couldn't dance) and I would NEVER say what Stanley said. But I will give it to him when it comes to marketing himself and hustling. He did create a lot of wealth back in the day, before losing it all. And he and his partners did raise $1M in funding to get this off the ground, which is no laughing matter. And the article actually quoted Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com (and thus the tie in to this blog) as saying :

"We really learned a lot from Hammer. He is the most entrepreneurial individual I have ever met."

Now Mr. Benioff isn't a stranger to hyperbole. And would anyone really consider Stanley to be more of an entrepreneur than Benioff's former billionaire boss Larry Ellison, or another former Oracle colleague Tom Siebel? And speaking of hyperbole, check out what Ron Conway, one of the investors, had to say about the importance of Stanley's technological savvy:

"his involvement in DanceJam has more to do with his technological savvy than his celebrity. I expect him to integrate all his knowledge into this Web site."

Now do you believe that? I know some of the smartest, most technologically savvy individuals around, who have been trying to get funding for their ideas, and I don't see them getting money based on their tech savvy. So I'd be willing to bet that whatever celebrity Stan has left, they will be exploiting to the max to get this thing on the radar. I mean would anybody be spending any time even reading about this if Stanley's celebrity wasn't attached to it?

Alright.....I've got this all out of my system. I've cleansed myself. I'm ready to move on into 2008 with all the promise, positivity and good thoughts now back in my head. In fact I wish Stanley all the best with his new venture.  Anything to keep him away from the mic, and out of those trousers, is as positive as anything could possibly be.

Technorati : dancejam.com, marc benioff, mc hammer, unbelievable

Google vs. Microsoft: Battling In The Clouds and On Demand, But Will CRM Be The Deciding Factor?

I just got my copy of this week's Businessweek and had to read the cover story on Google's Next Big Dream. It's about how a 27 yr. old software engineer is leading their charge into cloud computing, where computing is done by a "cloud" of computers rather than by individual PCs or servers. Google is not alone in investing in this, as companies like Yahoo!, Amazon and IBM are all have their heads in the clouds. In fact Google and IBM are working together on this one, probably because of the other company investing heavily in cloud computing....Microsoft. You should check this article out when you have a minute as it looks like all of our futures are going to be a bit cloudy at some point.

Another article you should check out is in today's New York Times - Google Gets Ready to Rumble with Microsoft. I became aware of this one after reading Anita Campbell's post over at Small Business Trends. The cloud theme is carried over into this article, as Google's CEO Eric Schmidt believes that as high speed internet access proliferates and gets increasingly faster, and internet software gets better, more and more people will welcome using software over the web, instead of installing it on personal computers many people still feel are too complex to maintain. That's why Google is cranking out new apps all over the place, like GMail, Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Talk, and many, many others. And of course Google Apps for Domains which is Google's stripped down answer to Microsoft Office. Now in all actuality the feature-rich Office has way more functionality than any of the Google counterparts, and a better comparison at this time would be with Microsoft's Office Live. But you gotta believe that the goal here is to build feature-rich internet software that competes with installed stuff, so the end game has to be to deliver as much functionality as possible, which means installed Office. And I'd be willing to bet Microsoft will be adding more Office functionality to Office Live, which does present some issues as Office Live is a lot cheaper than regular Office.

So Google is going after Microsoft with frontal attack of SaaS. But one thing Microsoft has is the one thing Google doesn't as of yet. And when you think of SaaS or On Demand or whatever you want to call it, you think of CRM, because CRM has literally been the poster child for this movement, particularly when it comes to "the business web". In fact Salesforce.com, the poster child of on-demand CRM, proves this out. In a recent article, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff noted that it took them seven years to reach 500,000 paid subscribers, but only 16 months to get the next 500,000. And Microsoft is rolling out Dynamics Live CRM, the SaaS version of its CRM application. Now I haven't seen it as of yet (I will be getting a briefing and demo shortly and will report on it) but folks I trust have told me it really looks good, and should get serious consideration by companies looking to implement CRM.

Now Google does have a great deal of momentum going for them, but I think this could be a big omission by Google, not having a CRM answer in their duel with Microsoft. More and more, businesses are turning to CRM to help automate lead generation and qualification, as well as streamline the sales process to turn qualified leads into cash money as quickly as possible. And with CRM vendors beginning to integrate Web 2.0 components into their services, CRM is really about to hit the mainstream. Just think the business network Salesforce.com is beginning to unleash with Salesforce-to-Salesforce. Concursive (formerly CentricCRM) is also doing this. And to be sure this is just the beginning as Web/CRM service integration is a perfect match which businesses of all sizes need as soon as possible.

This is shaping up to be an awesome battle. So I think it only makes sense for Google to fully arm themselves in this fight for the ages. It's not too late to for them to change this. Last year about this time I predicted that Google would by a CRM company. They didn't but they did cozy up with Salesforce.com to allow folks to manage AdWords campaigns from within the CRM app, as they did with NetSuite. But it makes even more sense to pull the trigger this year, especially with Microsoft getting their act together with Live CRM. So maybe I was just a bit early with my prediction. Maybe they were just waiting for Salesforce.com to nail down that one-millionth paid customer to prove that SaaS is here to stay in the business world. If this were to go down, the fight would REALLY be on!

Technorati : cloud computing, crm, google, microsoft, saas

Salesforce-to-Salesforce: Community Comes to CRM, But Not To The Small Business Customer

Back in October when I was interviewed by Marshall Lager for the CRM magazine story on what's coming in 2008, I said:

"Social networking will continue to be big. It is absolutely critical for CRM vendors to reach out and roll their own social network and trackbacks, or to work with Facebook, LinkedIn, and the rest."

I can't believe I just lifted a my own quote. But hey, why not - after all I did say it. Anyways it really didn't take Negrodamus, to figure that one out. (SIDEBAR: that was the last time you will ever hear me refer to myself as the Negrodamus of CRM).

Well this week Salesforce.com announced Salesforce-to-Salesforce, a service that allows Salesforce.com customers to share information like leads and other data in social network. Once again Salesforce remains a few steps ahead of the CRM pack, issuing in the Social CRM era. Needless to say I think this is a good move. I would have said it to be a great move, except for one thing - the $1,200 annual price tag it comes with. Not to mention that you have to be at the Enterprise, Unlimited or Platinum edition to even be able to fork your $1,200 over. Which I think will effectively limit the adoption of this to mid-size and enterprise level companies. I echo ZD Net's Phil Wainewright when he asks "has everyone at Salesforce.com forgotten about network effects? Or is it just the mechanics of viral adoption that they don't get?"

Hey Salesforce, what about the little guys? We need social crm just as much as the big guys do...actually we need it more. So it's a real shame that we won't be getting it from you, at least not right now. But hey this is an easy fix if you just make it more accessible to the masses. At least it's not a big social misstep like Facebook Beacon.

Technorati : crm, facebook, salesforce.com, social crm, social networking