- Is Microsoft preparing us to move beyond Vista?
- Why Google wanted to lose wireless spectrum auction
- iPhone shortage fuels rumors of imminent 3G phone
- XP for cheap PCs: a second crack in the wall
- Darts into data: Leveraging random action to competitive advantage
- Most iPhone buyers are existing Apple customers
- AT&T's so-called open network principles
- Mono dev tool offered
- ActiveState upgrades IDE
- Serena plans SaaS products
July 23, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Is Salesforce.com just a one product wonder?
Salesforce.com continues to ramp up its software as a service capabilities as exhibited this week with the introduction of their Summer O4 release.
The company's business model rests on its ability to have many customers reside on one instance of the database, called multi-tenancy, while creating virtual secure environments for each.
Up until now, Salesforce had hit a brick wall in terms of the number of
customers, individual users and data sets it could support with the multi-tenant architecture. This week's announcement is all about overcoming that hurdle.
Now, according to Salesforce.com execs they are able to target much larger
organizaions, announcing recent wins of Corporate Express with 2,000 subscribers and ADP with 3,000 subscribers as proof.
The question for me is, is Salesforce.com a one-off phenomenon or just the tip of the iceberg of what's to come? Is software as we know it really going to go away big time?
Interestingly enough, Salesforce has one big ally in its just say no to software campaign.
Despite the fact that IBM recently partnered up with rival Siebel for Siebel On-Demand, CRM as a service, it appears to me IBM is betting that Salesforce.com is not a one product wonder.
Big Blue's message, if you listen closely, is that software is irrelevant. It's the middleware, WebSphere Whatever, that connects anything to anything, seamlessly, transparently, easily, etc., etc.
Is Siebel sowing the seeds of its own demise by supporting an on-demand
service? Is Siebel OnDemand killing off the branding the company spent so much time and money on creating?
The company's entire business model is built around a suite of packaged applications that of course can be customized. Now, along comes Siebel OnDemand, and users don't even see the package, or the CD. Don't discount the psychological effect of that as well.
The software market is definitely changing but it is still a bit too early to tell where it will come to rest.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on July 23, 2004 10:00 AM
RATE THIS ARTICLE:
-
- COMMENTS
TOP STORIES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Do you have the power to resolve technical issues with one call?
- Take control of your content- leverage Microsoft SharePoint
- Keeping the E-Mail Flowing
- Class of Service: Myths and Misconceptions
- Factors to consider when comparing DSL or Cable
- Best Practices for VMware ESX Server
