The Evolution and Revolution of CRM Software and Cloud Computing
Posted by Sid Lejfer on Wed, Dec 02, 2009
One evening over dinner, my son Ben had talked about the impact Bill Gates has had on the entire world. He was the architect of the evolution of personal computers and the resulting revolution in the mainframe and mini computer industry. The wealth he generated for himself and his shareholders is staggering. His foundation is doing wonderful work in providing healthcare to third world countries and has made significant contributions in education.
Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, is responsible for the evolution and revolution in the CRM software industry, and the significant impact he has had on CRM and cloud computing.
As some of you know, Jay Rivard, our Salesforce.com Practice Director, Cathy Boudreau, our Marekting Administrator, and myself worked together at Success Automation. Success Automaion was a nationally recognized mid-market CRM consulting and training firm. The firm was sold in April of 2000 to an application service provider who was trying to provide hosted CRM software to the marketplace.
We learned a lesson about being ahead of the marketplace. The concept was great but unfortunately, the technology lagged behind the idea. The leading mid-market CRM software products at that time were not designed around multi-tenancy architechture. Each instance required its' own server, making the hosted CRM solution cost prohibitive.
Along comes Marc Benioff and Salesforce.com, providing a CRM solution in a software as a service model. The pricing is reasonable, excellent reliability, easy to use, and providing functionality and control to the end-user that was not available before. This was the beginning of the evolution of SaaS CRM.
The revolution. If it can be done for CRM, it can be done for any application. And if you are already providing the infrastructure, you can also provide a development environment for the development of any application. You now see offerings of Force.com, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, providing the end user with a complete development environment.
In the book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, he writes about people who are born at the right time with the right idea like Rockerfeller, Vanderbilt, and Gates. It will be interesting to see over time if Marc Benioff and Cloud computing will have as big an impact.
Harvest Solutions
We understand the importance of quality customer relationship management. We can perform a needs assessment for your business, followed by planning, customization, implementation and data integration services of your next CRM system. Our continued training and support ensures your business successfully implements the plan we create together. Request a consultation from Harvest Solutions today. Then, stay up-to-date by finding us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Learn more industry insights by subscribing to our YouTube channel and following our blog. Also, please give us a call now to schedule your free consultation! (877) 683-3313