Talk of the Web
There’s been a lot of activity on the Web and in our industry in the last week and I thought it might be fun to try and tie at least some of it together. Much of it in one way or another involves Facebook—or FB as the proposed ticker symbol suggests. Part of an email [...]
Lithium’s Eye-Popping $53.4 Million
Last week Lithium Technologies announced completion of its D round of financing valued at $53.4 million. You can read the press release to get the details but the big question I have is what’s going on in the industry? Lithium is not the only company in the last six months to pull in sizable sums [...]
The Social Revolution Has Just Begun
Depending on whom you ask, 2011 was either the year of the iPad or the year of social. The truth is that they were and are equally weighted because they are catalysts for each other, and while each can exist without the other, imagining such a thing is like trying to imagine a world where [...]
Coming in 2012 or Not, Predictions for the New Year
There was an interesting article in the January 2012 edition of Vanity Fair a magazine I’ve come to enjoy though for many years regarded as another of those things my wife would like more than me. But VF carries an interesting blend of current events and politics as well as the glossy pictures and stories [...]
Salesforce’s Pragmatism
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, has often said that tactics drive strategy at his company. That’s the opposite of what we think of regarding how decisions should be made especially in big companies. The image is often of high-level decisions being refined into finer grained activities until you have tactics. Much of this is encoded [...]
Is Salesforce Slowing Down?
I am not a financial analyst and I don’t even play one on TV. Of course, judging by the last five years’ performance of those in the financial sector I’d say there is a serious dearth of such talent. Of course, that doesn’t stop the sector from issuing reports and guidance about individual companies. Heck, [...]
2011 Say Bye-bye!
Every year around this time I write two columns one on the year that was and another on what I expect the new year to bring. There is no methodology for this process and I believe this lack of method is important. I take a blank screen and fill it up with what has been [...]
Cloudforce New York and the Rise of the Social Enterprise
I was sitting in the “blogpound” at Cloudforce New York, the seating area where Salesforce.com considerately places press, analysts and bloggers along with tables, power and Wi-Fi, when it dawned on me. Despite all the articles, blogs and books (and Paul Greenberg’s ceaseless public speaking) dedicated to the social media phenomenon in CRM, we may [...]
Beyond Legacy ERP
There was a guest post on the Forbes Magazine blog last month that I can’t get out of my head: “For Enterprise IT, Time to Move Beyond SAP.” For the record, I am an ERP dilatant — I know about it but don’t follow it with the same passion that I follow CRM. And as far as SAP (NYSE: SAP) [...]
How Do You Do.com?
We’re just a day past announcing the CRM Idol winner (GetSatisfaction) and I’m already involved in a beta for a new product, Do.com. I can already tell you that it won’t make it into next year’s CRM Idol because the sponsoring company, Salesforce.com, won’t make last year’s emerging company revenue cut of $14 million. Something [...]
