Rob Bois
Rob Bois
business context costs customers delivered expectation flip match people setup switch system training
Some customers have the expectation that you flip a switch and you're done. But there are setup costs and training costs and ramp-up costs. There's getting the system customized to match the business context and then getting people to use the system. CRM implementations are still complex, even if they're delivered in an on-demand fashion.
budget business companies large lets quickly raid segment small
The small to midsize business segment is a very large part of the hosted market, ... Software-as-service lets companies get CRM in place quickly without having to raid the I.T. budget to do it.
ability advantage best business businesses companies customers easily either gives larger meet model quickly roll scale selling seriously small starting taken
Salesforce.com is selling an on-demand model that gives customers the ability to roll out a CRM deployment quickly and easily and then scale that deployment either up or down to meet their business needs. So far, small and midsize businesses have taken the best advantage of that, but we are starting to see larger companies that are seriously evaluating an on-demand model.
ambassador critical delivery mass people reached space start
Salesforce.com is an ambassador for this space because it reached critical mass first. So when Salesforce.com has a problem, people start questioning the whole delivery model.
company degrees methods standards supporting
But each company has varying degrees of adherence to Web-services standards and varying methods of supporting those systems.
appealing companies involving meet quickly revenue running top
Revenue has become a top priority, and companies have to get something in place quickly to meet that need. Hosted has become very appealing to get up and running quickly with CRM -- without involving I.T. budgets.
generation hurdles mobile past reflected technical
We're past the first generation of mobile devices. Many technical hurdles have been eliminated, and that will be reflected in the market.
business eager evaluate knew large segment small surprised
We knew that the small and midsize business segment would be a large part of this market, but we were a little surprised at how many large enterprises were eager to evaluate the software-as-service option.
branch creating drivers interest larger market office players several surprise
There are several drivers in this market. One surprise has been larger enterprises that want CRM for a branch office or a department. Also, there are so many big players in the market now that it's been creating interest in hosted services.
effective integrate microsoft provides within
The use of Microsoft's .NET also has Web-services implications within an organization because it provides an effective way to integrate Microsoft applications together.
automatic build business buy customers demands dollar entire fewer full functions meet piece processing rather reflected selling specific together trying
The vendors are selling fewer full suite deals, multimillion dollar soup-to-nuts implementations, and we see that reflected in how they are trying to build services-oriented architectures, so they can deploy modules rather than big-bang implementations. This allows customers to piece together the business functions they need -- even modules from different vendors -- to meet the specific demands of automatic processing rather than having to buy an entire suite at the outset.
clearly communication deal felt issue oracle precedent press release uncommon year
It's a little uncommon to see a press release like that. The only precedent is the Oracle/PeopleSoft deal from a year ago, when PeopleSoft felt Oracle was being unresponsive. Clearly there's a communication issue here.
act balancing bit message single unified
It's a little bit of a balancing act on Oracle's part. For now, it's kind of antithetical to their traditional message of a single unified suite.
amount broader contact expected given might nine
They've been hinting at this for nine months. Given that amount of time, you might have expected a broader offering. This is not even full-blown SFA. It's really just contact management.