Salesforce1 is pitching at everything

Let’s be fair. When it comes to the application of hyperbole, Salesforce.com’s chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, is the industry’s current undisputed champion. Speaking at the launch of Salesforce1 at the company’s annual San Francisco Dreamforce conference, he is quoted as saying: “Salesforce1 is not a new version of Salesforce, it is a new vision for the industry.”  

The company is claiming it to be the first CRM platform for developers, ISVs, end users, admins and customers moving to the new social, mobile and connected cloud. It is likely, however, other vendors might be willing to argue this point. Much of this positioning was being talked about, and demonstrated, by Tibco over a year ago, and indeed by Microsoft, which started offering social media connection to its Dynamics CRM system some two and half years ago.

To be sure, both technology and user acceptance of the key ideas behind this – namely that building tools to manage all aspects of `Customer Experience’ is now the important goal – have moved forward a good bit. So the timing of this announcement is certainly well-judged by the company.

Salesforce1is a cloud customer platform designed specifically for social, mobile services.The company's aim is to help users transform their existing sales, service and marketing apps as well as develop new ones.

It has been specifically designed as a CRM platform for developers, ISVs, end users, admins and customers moving to the new social, mobile and connected cloud. Major ISVs, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Kenandy and LinkedIn, are now on the Salesforce1 Customer Platform, and Salesforce customers are automatically upgraded, enabling leading companies to run their business on the new platform.

The context in which Salesforce is placing Salesforce1 has a strong bias towards the Internet of Things (IoT) where the world is becoming increasingly connected. Every day millions of new products, apps and devices are connecting to the Internet. It makes reference to the widely used prediction that, by 2020, there will be more than 50 billion connected things, from smartphones and wearable smart devices to jet engines and cars.

There are a number of provisos which then stem from this position, not least being the question of how many businesses are utilising the necessary IPv6 connectivity to address such devices, or plan to in the near future. Also, the majority of those 50 billion devices will not fall into the bracket of 'customer' though, as the company rightly observes, behind every product, every app and every device there is likely to be a customer with which businesses may be able to connect.

This is what Salesforce is now calling the Internet of Customers, where every company can connect every app, employee, partner, product and device with their customer using the power of social, mobile and cloud. This is where it sees Salesforce1 Customer Platform playing a major role.

The Question then becomes how much influence will any business be able to apply to potential customers over a purchasing decision, as one of the cornerstones of IoT is that many of these processes become automated. In addition, many of the devices involved will be small, low cost consumables where specific brands are rarely noticed.

Take the example of the lightbulbthat publishes an IP address. It has sufficient intelligence to detect imminent failure and to inform a gateway system. This, in turn, locates a person responsible (householder or facilities manager) via their mobile phone, identifies the nearest local lightbulb stockist and directs said person to that shop to buy a replacement bulb. So there is some scope for influence available at the stockist-brand level, especially if the person has a choice of several nearby stockists.

But in fact the most scope for purchasing influence is more likely at the product level. And that influence can be – and should be if the manufacturers have any wit about them – pre-ordained. That message of imminent-failure/buy-a-replacement will, of course, be a message to buy an exact, like-for-like, branded replacement. And if the job is being done properly. The stockist’s stock control system will have pre-selected said branded lightbulb ready for collection.

It is possible, therefore, that the level of influence available to businesses, down at the IoT level will still stop at the current, business-to-business level already well serviced by existing Salesforce capabilities.

Where there will be more scope for influence at the lightbulb-buying, end user level is in tracking and logging social media interactions concerning their reactions to lightbulb-related `issues’. But then again, this is exactly what the likes of Tibco and Microsoft have been offering for a while.

Salesforce1has a strong developer-orientation, having been built API-first. With 10 times more APIs and services, developers can now build the next generation of social and mobile apps for employees, products and customers that create personalised experiences by connecting smartphones or wearable smart devices to customer information.

The ISV community is therefore an important target market for Salesforce. Companies such as Evernote and Kenandy are building mobile-ready apps on the platform and leveraging the Salesforce1 AppExchange to market and sell these apps.

End users will be able to use these mobile apps to access and experience Salesforce everywhere on any form factor. It also means that the investments companies have made in custom apps, CRM and partner apps from the AppExchange are available in a unified mobile experience. Administrators will be able to make all of their existing Salesforce apps mobile, social and future-proof.

Visualforce pages and custom actions are also mobile-enabled using the new Visualforce1. Admins can combine fields, objects and even other services into pages, components and apps that run within Salesforce1, making it simple to build and distribute apps through a single mobile platform.

It will also give companies a new way to connect with their customers. They can now build and deploy thriving communities to connect customers, partners and products using Salesforce1 Communities. The new Heroku1 enables companies to build and deliver next-generation, customer-centric apps, while with ExactTarget Fuel, companies can now offer their customers 1:1 engagements at scale through custom automated marketing campaigns. 

Salesforce has also introduced the new Salesforce1 Admin App, claiming it to be the world’s first mobile app built for Salesforce CRM administrators that allows them to manage and assist from anywhere. Built on Salesforce1, the Admin App gives admins the tools needed to manage Salesforce from any device. Admins can nowget instant  updates from users and remotely reset passwords, freeze or deactivate users from any device; and access Salesforce maintenance and upgrade schedules directly inside the app.