I missed the Boston Tour de Force this past week.  I had registered for the event (before my wife reminded me  that it was smack dab in the middle of school vacation week, and we had vacation plans with the boys!).  How about you?

Want to see what happened?  You can view all of the Boston Tour de Force sessions here:
http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Tour_de_Force_April_2008

I really dig the way Salesforce.com tapes all their key note and break-out sessions, and then makes the content available for registered and non-registered users alike – very cool.

Sia Frederick forwarded along an eMail describing some pomo’s their doing for Force.com Training.  Check these out:

Register for a class today with promo code TDFQ1EDU and get 20% off our Force.com training if you sign up before May 31, 2008. The first 25 registrants will receive a 50% discount, so don’t delay and call 1-877-TRAIN10 today!

• Getting Started on Force.com  This one-day class is perfect for Salesforce.com Administrators wanting to learn how to leverage the full potential of Force.com.
• Force.com Application Laboratory  Five days of intensive training makes this the fastest way for experienced developers to get started on Force.com.  Get a Salesforce.com overview then build a sophisticated Force.com application.
• Developing with Apex  Developers already familiar with Salesforce.com will get a crash-course on Apex code in this one-day class.

Call an education expert now at 1-877-TRAIN10 for details and registration, or request a one-on-one training consultation. When you call, be sure to mention promo code TDFQ1EDU.

P.S. Don't forget to bookmark developer.force.com for the latest Force.com announcements, development tools, documentation, discussion boards, and more.

Did you miss the April 2008 Meeting of the SFDC New Hampshire User's Group?  Here's what you missed out on!

We had several last minute cancelations, and a smaller group, but still had a great meeting.  This audience was comprised almost entirely of SFDC administrators.  We had Professional, Enterprise and Developer LIcense users, for companies ranging from 1 user license to 125 user licenses.

ROLE CALL:
- Darius Ginwala (Sales & Service Synergy Systems)
- Karen Nolan (ECCO USA)
- Ken Quast (Melexis, Inc.)
- JP Seabury (Cedar Point Communications, Inc.)
- Suzy Webb (JSI Store Furnitures, Inc.)

DISCUSSION:
We introduced ourselves, and talked at length about our different business environments and how we are using the Salesforce.com application.

A common challenge several of us face is finding a way to integrate SFDC with a back-office system, such as Oracle, SAP, Great Plains, etc.  The integration, as Karen Nolan has found, is not easy.  We talked about integration solutions that might help, such as the "Scribe Insight" integration tool developed by Scribe Software.  Find out more on the AppExchange, click here...

JP Seabury (Cedar Point Communications) logged into his company's instance of SFDC, and gave a tour of the various applications they're using (like Google Talk!), some of the custom objects and custom fields they've created, as well as custom applications they've developed.  CPC started using SFDC strictly for it's customer support team, but got other departments involved by developing custom applications for them.  They developed a hardware inventory and RMA tracking application for their manufacturing department.  Then they integrated Miller-Heiman Sales Methodology (blue sheets), which got their sales team engaged in the tool.

I probably put "too much" on the agenda (I was hoping that we'd have time for more userrs to show off their instance of SFDC), and I certainly ordered too much pizza!  It was our first "real" SFDC User Group meeting, however, and it gave me a better idea of how to organize future events.

General concensus seems to be that it is easier for folks to hold these meetings "after hours", although it occurs to me that the only people I put that question to are the people who are attending these "after hours" meetings.  Members -- please email me (jseabury@cedarpointcom.com) with your preferences on ideal day of the week and time to hold these meetings.  I'm particularly interested in hearing from SFDC Members who have not attended a meeting yet, because I wonder if the reason you haven't attended is because the meeting time of day (6:00pm EST) has been inconvenient for you.

Next User Group Meeting will be in June, date and location to be announced.  Please chime in with a reply on this thread with any special topics that you'd like to cover in the June meeting!

There was some “big news” out of Salesforce.com this week – they’ve announced a second joint product with Google.  The application, called “Salesforce for Google Apps”, allows for closer integration of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs within Salesforce.  Salesforce has published a pretty slick demo on their blog, check it out:

Salesforce for Google Apps is available to Salesforce.com customers now, as a free option.  However, you probably need a fair amount of API development expertise to make use of it – it’s not likely to be “enable-and-play”.

BREAK – Like the new phrase I coined, “enable-and-play”?  Let’s face it, one of the reasons we’re all such big fans of Salesforce.com is because we love the SaaS model.  With SaaS, we don’t have to buy hardware or software.  We don't have to install anything, and we don't have to plug-in anything. It’s no longer a “plug-and-play” world ... it’s “enable-and-play” that we’re interested in.  Enable-and-Play, folks, you heard it here first! – BREAK

Salesforce for Google Apps leverages the Force.com development platform with Google’s open application programming interface.  For most of us "admin-types", that probably translates into something that isn't exactly "enable-and-play".  I haven’t looked at the integration yet myself (I certainly plan to), but there are already 3^rd-Party companies like Sxip and Appirio that are offering tools to make the integration easier, which reinforces to me that the debut product is not entirely seamless. 

When I viewed the demo, my first thought was, “Why would a company do this?  It really doesn’t offer more than the current Salesforce add-ons provide.  Salesforce has products that integrate with Microsoft Office, like the Connect for Microsoft Outlook tool which allows the SFDC user to import their Microsoft Outlook Email and relate it to SFDC objects (contacts, accounts, opportunities, etc.).  It also allows users to synchronize their calendar events in Salesforce with their calendar events in Outlook.  Salesforce has a Contents application, for hosting and sharing documents.  Still, if Google Apps can make these tasks easier (and the demo certainly made it seem easier than what I go through to syncrhonize my Outlook mail and calendar events), I can see why Customers might switch from Outlook integration to Google integration.

Then it hit me. I’ve only considered Google as a search-engine company, but with their ever expanding list of Google Apps, Google is as much SaaS as Salesforce.com.  Google Apps include some pretty cool tools – like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Documents, and Google’s most recent offering, Google Sites.  Google is not just another search-engine – they are SaaS!

When I looked at the partnership in this SaaS context, it became very clear why Salesforce would develop this.  There are many companies out there who have shunned Microsoft Outlook exchange for the same reason I shunned a platform-based CRM application.  I chose Salesforce.com for it’s ease of implementation, ease of access (for both my users and customers), and reduced IT-infrastructure costs.  If I were starting a new company, I’d consider Google Apps (vs. Microsoft Exchange / Outlook) for the very same reasons.

Is this partnership a precursor to a future merger between Salesforce.com and Google?  Larry Dignan over at ZDNet asks “Why not?”.  I'm not sure I want to see that happen any time soon, but I sure like the courting these two companies are now doing with each other – and the options it’s giving me as a Salesforce.com Administrator and Developer.

CRM Project Manager

Responsibilities:

·         Manage a Team to install, configure, and deploy the SaaS CRM application.

·         Ensure that the CRM application meets corporate objectives, fulfill end-user requirements, and identify and resolve business requirements issues.

·         Gather, analyze, and define end-user requirements for CRM in accordance with business objectives.

·         Collaborate with 3^rd Party analysts, developers, and Basis Administrators in the implementation of the SaaS CRM solution.

·         Assist in the creation of long-term strategic goals for achieving and maintaining high data quality in CRM by working with newly defined Data Architect as the data relates to CRM.

·         Work with the Data Architect to devise, coordinate, and conduct data-cleansing initiatives to purge and eliminate corrupt or redundant information from CRM database.  Also work with Data Architect to ensure high quality data loads into CRM.

·         Work with the designated IT resources to ensure integration points are identified and successfully implemented.

·         Benchmark CRM initiatives against best practices to ensure optimal performance.

·         Work with a 3^rd Party Vendor to formulate and conduct Train the Trainer sessions so that the Trainees can Train the End Users on the SaaS CRM solution.

·         Manage all aspects of CRM team, including hiring, mentoring, disciplinary action, performance reviews, termination, and scheduling.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Company is located North of Boston.  This could be a Contract or Perm position – if contract it would be written for 6 months and possibly extended from there.  Project is slated to take 1 year.  Client seems to be leaning towards contract.

Looking for someone who has gone thru multiple CRM implementations or one complex implementation.  This individual will be taking the implementation from the beginning – and managing all phases of the implementation.

They are in the process of making the tool selection. SalesForce.com is a leaning consideration – nothing definitive as yet.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in hearing more detail….please have them contact:

Cindy Pfeiffer
Cornerstone IT llc
125 Main Street, Suite E-1
Stoneham, MA 02180

Direct: 781-304-4403
cpfeiffer@cornerstoneitllc.com