Salesforce: force.com custom objects case study

These videos collectively represent a Motorola case study. These very short videos confirm that custom objects is the modus operandi for professional services and the power of using force.com for human systems.

Motorola use force.com to configure custom objects to build most of their solutions. See short video.
http://tiny.cc/08bp5/

Motorola use force.com as one human systems database supporting a universal sign-on. See short video. http://tiny.cc/k4lyv

Motorola uses force.com as one human system to find data and knowledge quickly for fast response to emergent needs. See short video. http://tiny.cc/lrkzz 

Force.com demo uses 5GL to configure Custom Objects

Salesforce Force.com uses 5GL to create Custom Objects (data and functions). 

Creating Custom Objects is easy because of the unique 5GL capabilities within Force.com developed by Salesforce over the past 10 years or more.  What is important is the design of Custom Objects,  Corporate Data Dictionary, Measurement, Reusability across the Enterprise etc.

To demonstrate the simplicity of using 5GL, the following  video is worth watching. It is just over 3 minutes. http://tiny.cc/hxhji

It shows building a Force.com App from scratch by configuring a new Custom Object. 

Force.com Content Management: Diversity of Capability

Content Management is a term that now represents a diverse range of capability.

Within the force.com at the basic level the following list provides some of the content management capability:

Chatter Overview: Collaboration and Content

• Collaboration Fully part of Force.com
•  People and bios; find people  
•  Corporate Directory  
• Follow spreadsheets and other Files
• Links with other systems
• Filters with drill down
• Pull data from other social networks
• Groups – sharing project plans
• Link to Mobile Lite
• Video 4.07 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puydh-ey_2k

Chatter: Collaboration around  Files

•  The term Files means Document
• Load Files
• Search Files
•  Follow Files – This means you get notified every time there is a change; you can have discussion groups around the File – Private or Public
•  As a File could be an Executive Report then you have collaboration around the document
• File Version Management – ensure people access the latest version
• Private File Sharing  - meaning you name the people that can view the File
•  Avoids the need for email to send copies of Files in attachments – now you load once and have multiple assess – this will cut down a lot of email traffic and cut down server storage
•  Video 1.3 minutes demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYyRgyDZIW4

Force.com Sites - Content Management System for Websites   

·         Public facing websites using Force.com – one human system

• Content Management System for Websites – Feature on Force.com
•  Content on Website, Social Media like Facebook and Mobile; create once access from multiple touchpoints
•  Fully integrated as part of Force.com
• Create and edit multiple Websites
•  5GL Content Management – means marketing can do the work themselves without the need for web developers
•  Everything is built and maintained around Panels – sections of a web page
• Integrates with workflow and approvals – this means you can adopt corporate practices to manage change
• Publishing into production is one click
• Build eforms
• Includes alerts etc
• RSS feeds
• Undertake ecommerce
• Warning – as its 5GL it empowers business people like marketing but deskills web specialists
• Video 2.52 minutes Force.com Sites Overview including Case Studies from multiple organisations and building a website using 5GL http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=8tf_WaD52mI
• Video 2.31 minutes demo for Content Management System  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLTxXlJT_0M

Demo Chatter and Content

•  Includes file upload and sharing
• Feedback and comments
•  Feeds related to File
• Shared workspace
•  Delivery options
• Delivery Links from email back into the content
• Video 3.37 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yst8I1kb4T4

File Collaboration – Demonstration

• Find a file: search, browse, filer, follow, share, groups
• Share a file with someone
• Collaborate on a file
• Share a file with a group
•  Change permission: update / read only
•  Deliver content - publication
•  Send to client
• All 5GL
• Video: as above 3.35 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IavvnAQJ9bc

Force.com Linking Account / Contacts with Content Management / Social Media  

• ·         Shows setting up contacts using 5GL
• ·         Capture emails and track
• ·         Link Files
• ·         Inset Google Maps
• ·         Bring data from Twitter and LinkedIn
• ·         Video 2.58 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8eZaoGWZjA

Using Content in Force.com Workflow and Approvals

•  Visual workflow and approvals
• Link Files / Content / Email  to Workflows and Approvals
•  Video 2.02  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM3xHN8M9-8 Example shows recruitment

Multilingual Content

·         Translation workbench

·         View in different languages

·         Video: 1.16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-AJIqgdsB0&feature=relmfu

Rich Text Fields

•  Design of rich text content using 5GG
• Video 1.30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_801682&src_vid=4iH7CHRG2o0&v=pmrteIlyHGw

Mobile Lite – Standard

•  Supports accounts, contacts, tasks
• Search
• Chatter
• Blackberry and iPhone

There is much more but the above is a start. 

Dreamforce 2011 Tenrox

Tenrox is now integrated with Salesforce.

Dreamforce 2011 New Licence Agreement

It was announced today that there is a new Social Enterprise Licence that has unlimited use of products and users.

The first contract has been signed by Coco Cola.

No cost details have been provided.

Dreamforce 2011: Marc Benioff keynote launches social enterprise as a true paradigm shift

Marc Benioff announced today a fundamental shift for Salesforce as its Autumn Release (probably in October) will put the company in the way it operates as fully immersive into Social Enterprise. Today's announcements are designed to engage the corporate leadership in a way that will fundamentally change their strategies and it is already happening!

The list of corporate leaders that have adopted this approach already is truly impressive.

Lord Rothermere, DMGT stated that since adopting social enterprise he has seen more innovation in the past few months compared to the previous 12 years.

Another corporate leader for the UK was Angela Ahrendts, the CEO of Burberry. She met Marc in May of this year and was so inspired about the social enterprise that she has already launched Burberry World.

Other impressive stories came from Toyota that has branded the term Toyota Friend which is a new concept Marc calls Product Social Networks. Coco Cola has also adopted this approach by using their vending machines to become smart by interacting with the customer and using gamification as a rewards system.

My passion is artificial agents and using them to advance Product Social Networks is a pure natural fit. Any product could then have a dialogue with customers.

It was amazing to listening to Groupon, who integrated social enterprise into their offering from the outset leading to their spectacular growth.

Dreamforce is about business and the vast majority of people are from the business side.

Microsoft, Oracle and SAP now feel like dinosaurs in comparison as their community are the tech heads. I do wish Steve Ballmer reads this as I did try and get him to focus on business people and not technology some years ago!!

Today, there were so many new product announcements that it is the equivalent of a 10 year cycle for traditional software products. It has only taken Salesforce 10 months to deliver thus cycle compared to 10 years!!

Well done to Marc Benioff and his team as they are truly going to lead the transformation of the enterprise, which is happening faster than most people realise.

Social Enterprise is agnostic in terms of age, gender, race, status etc. This is really about transparency (knowledge economy) versus non transparency (industrial economy). The outcome is inevitable!

Dreamforce 2011: Cloud Architecture and Cloud Architects are now a priority

Source: George Hu, EVP Platform, Marketing and Operations

1. Force.com for customer and employee engagement - think Social Enterprise
2. Heroku for mission critical apps needing high performance such as transactions, social video

Heroku supports Ruby on the Rails and now Java. This has big implications.

Heroku  can directly access Force.com database and database.com enabling joined up data to support mission critical applications. No need for replication.

Cloud Architecture and Cloud Architects are now a priority as there are so many elements that can be leveraged.

Salesforce announces accreditation for Cloud Architects which are now in huge demand.

Dreamforce 2011: too many attendees but Oracle is worried

Source: Mike Rosenbaum, VP Platform, Marketing and Operations

Dreamforce 2011 San Francisco attendees

• 44,000 registrations 
• 30,000 attendees 
• 2,700 C-level executives and Vice Presidents 

The crowds are staggering - really there are just too many people, which is negatively impacting the experience. However, the sheer volumes show the rise and rise of Salesforce as a company. 

The sessions are good and provide useful insights. 

Amazing to see Oracle outside on the street flying balloons to say they are number 1 for CRM. I would say this is a lead indicator that Oracle are worried about their future as they slip further behind the cloud leaders. 

Salesforce is really attracting the business community as the tech heads are being relegated to a minority group. Sanity at last as business takes ownership of technology.

 

Dreamforce 2011 San Francisco First Impressions

Today I registered at Dreamforce 2011 in San Francisco.

The registration process was very smooth with a blend of self-service and human agent.

Apparently, there are 40,000 delegates, which is their biggest to date.

Went to the pre conference  run by the Salesforce Foundation for Higher Education.  They were expecting a 100 delegates and 250 turned-up.

Looking forward to the week but is the event too big!! Mind you met one of my clients outside from the UK - small world!