Posted by Nik on Dec 7, 2009 in
Development,
Salesforce So, for the past year, one of the items on my list has been “get an introduction to Visualforce (also shortened to VF by many) and Apex”. As you have likely heard, these two development languages are slightly important in the cloud world known as salesforce.com – with these you can build all sorts of triggers, pages and even external websites for your clients, and your own company as a Salesforce user. Alas, like all great plans, this hit the backburner – either due to work, family, or everything combined, there just never seemed to be enough time.
Last week, I started thinking about Apex and VF again and while at Chapters (the Barnes and Noble of Canada for those unsure) I saw the Teach Yourself series. This got me thinking about my lack of drive to really delve in. That’s when it hit me. The documentation out there, right now, is all created for experienced developers. The 101 assumes you know your class from your variable, so to speak…and of course, I am in no way, shape or form, a developer!
While chatting with others on Twitter and facebook about this, David Schach (@dschach) confirmed my belief stated above, by saying:
IMHO, Java or C++ is essential for Apex. Before, could only modify others’ code.
My concern with this, however, is how it fits into the whole mantra and philosophy of “quicker, easier, cheaper”. Many of my clients have been absolutely blown away with the low cost of implementation and configuration using native salesforce.com – but when you think of the amount of marketing and discussion that has gone into such advances as Apex and Visualforce, or more importantly Sites, there has been little discussion to the end user about what is required. Now, for the administrators to really become the masters of their own domain, they need to learn a language such as Java, or C++, then take the books lovingly put together by salesforce.com on Apex and Visualforce, and learn the differences. If they do not, they are in the same boat as they were with their on-premise CRM applications of the past. They become slaves to consultants such as myself. And honestly, that’s not what I want!
Now, does this mean that I believe Apex and Visualforce should only be used by large enterprise clients who have development staff on hand who could learn the necessary quirks of a similar language? Of course not. One of the major advantages of salesforce.com’s multi-tennant architecture is the ability for small and medium businesses to have access to and the ability to use the same functionality as the big boys do, for the same price! Where I do think that salesforce.com (or a very industrious developer and writer) could really make an earth shattering advance in salesforce.com is in the creation of a “Teach Yourself Apex and Visualforce in 21 days” type book. In other words, write the manual that helps non developers get up to speed, without the need to learn Java or C++. Teach us about classes, methods and all the basic needs to begin, using Apex as the language to teach. Move into how to load Eclipse, the IDE, and how to develop, and finally finish some actual introductory programs for us to work out the basics, both with Apex and VF….even help people make their first sites page!
A book like this would do a couple of things, in my opinion. First and foremost, it would give a non-developer looking to advance their ability to utilize their Salesforce.com a single book to purchase, with a single path to follow in the quest to learn how to step into the force.com development world. In a second, and just as important to me – it allows small to medium companies who wish to move into the world of Apex and Visualforce a simple means to step up to the plate, and not become locked into a heavily configured salesforce.com without any ways or means to either take control themselves or monitor what is being done. I have, in the past seen CRM setups turned into a glass menagerie, only touched (at a very expensive price) by the handful of people who have created it. This is not what I ever dreamed salesforce.com to be, and don’t believe it ever should!
Is it a lofty idea? As the non-programming salesforce.com lover in the house, I don’t think so. But let me know what you think? Until then, enjoy the dream cover, and take care!
Nik
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Tags: Apex, learning, Visualforce
Posted by Nik on Feb 5, 2009 in
Development,
Integration,
Salesforce As I opened my email this morning, I clicked as I do everyday on my Google Alerts email regarding Salesforce.com. When I did, I saw an article by Peter Thomas entitled “10 key issues that On Demand (SaaS) CRM systems won’t tell you”. In the article, Mr. Thomas outlines 10 supposed issues SaaS companies try to hide from you. As I have worked with CRM for over a decade now, and with Salesforce.com for 3 years, I have heard these all before. However, today I feel like responding. You may want to read the original as I do not quote his original point in every one of my counters.
1. Yes, Salesforce.com is a subscription based model, which lasts for the contract period you sign. And, for the price per license of an on-premise application (over a year) you are typically spending a similar amount. However, most on-premise models also have annual subscriptions, which allow you access to the latest versions, support and in some cases even hotfixes for the application of your choice. These subscription costs typically run anywhere from 15 to 25 percent. Add on to this the software, licensing, and setup costs for the required servers (Windows Server, SQL Server, IIS, SharePoint for partner collaboration, etc.) and you have a truer sense of your CRM hardware requirements with an on-premise solution. With Salesforce.com, you need a computer and a browser – that’s it.
2. You say customization is not as great, and when possible is as expensive if not more. I would highly disagree – customization native to Salesforce.com is in most cases point and click – you no longer need a VB or a .net developer to be on site (or outsourced) to change the look and feel of the application. You don’t need a database administrator to create custom tables and fields in a database. And in cases where you wish to completely change the look and feel, Salesforce.com has Visualforce and Apex – Visualforce being a markup style language which is moderately easy to learn even for non-programmers (such as myself) and Apex being a truer programming language (similar to Java) which allows for some serious programming to customize your business process.
3. I’m not even sure how to answer this “issue”. Every CRM company has solutions partners across the globe to assist clients with implementation, customization, support and training. I own a company that does this for Salesforce.com in Canada, and you work for a company that does this for Microsoft and Sage in the US. A CRM company’s partner ecosystem is one aspect of how they are rated. All prospective clients for a CRM solution should take the time to look at partners (for Salesforce.com, they are listed and rated by previous clients at www.salesforce.com/partners) and ensure they find a partner that fits. One beautiful point about on-demand consulting I will share is remote consulting. I have had clients I only met and conversed with over the Internet (and finally met in person at Dreamforce) as there are no required visits to their IT closet. No software minimizes the need for travel, lowering consultancy fees. Combine this without the weeks of planning and installing software on servers, clients and such, and you are left with a simple fact – SaaS implementations cost less than on-premise applications.
4. I have worked with Microsoft, Goldmine, Sage and SuperOffice CRM (holding certifications with all) in the past, and have seen price sheets (and been on the selling side) for all, including Salesforce.com. SaaS applications such as Salesforce.com are not the only CRM which have extra costs for add-on functions, or versions broken out for typical styles of users. As an example, in my experience with most on-premise applications, licenses for a mobile edition of the application was available at an extra cost. And for MS CRM, you could download a mobile client, but a free application existed for Windows Mobile devices only.
5. SaaS development/test environments do exist, and yes we refer to them as sandboxes. You do have to pay for these with the Pro edition of Salesforce.com, get one test environment in Enterprise and unlimited in the Unlimited edition of Salesforce.com. I also agree with on-premise, you can install the CRM application for development (I suggest all users of on-premise CRM read their licenses to ensure that they are legally doing so, especially if using more than one instance). Once again, however, the associated costs of testing are not shown in your article. Setting up clients to attach to the test environment, managing the installation and management of multiple instances, and having another critical application to be concerned with, not to mention remote access to the test environment all have associated costs. With Salesforce.com, you receive a new URL and an append to your username and password. All with six clicks of the mouse by a Salesforce.com administrator, anywhere from a 10 to 30 minute time period before the sandbox is finished, and you are ready to test or develop.
6. I am not a programmer. I run away from programming like a 7 year old from homework, and I have successfully integrated Salesforce.com with financial applications, ERPs, and other databases which were on-premise at a client site. Your point on integration being harder or more expensive is absolutely, horrendously wrong.
7. Salesforce.com hasn’t always been available. You are right, and I think we have all read about the 45 minute outage users experienced last month. Let’s be honest though, can you imagine if the same coverage occurred every time an in house system caused a major outage in email, CRM or data access? Newsfeeds would flood with information! And as we are being honest, did my client care if 51,000 clients, and 1 million users lost access at 3 pm for 45 minutes? No – they did not. They cared that 1 client lost access…them. As one client said to me though – “ah, it’s not too bad – you should be here for our monthly Exchange crisis!” I do not have the numbers for Salesforce system availability for last year, but as a user, I can not remember a time where full access was lost except for that fateful day last month. I would put the availability of Salesforce.com up against the availability of the systems at any company I have ever worked for as an employee or consultant any day.
8. No IT! Yes, you are right – there is no IT requirement for Salesforce, until you wish to bring them in. The native application is easy enough to manage (after training) that a techno-suave business user can administer it. Most of my clients are this way. No IT lord thrashing at the bit with regards to database management, or time wasted setting up a new user. Until IT needs to play a part in extension through development, integration or such, they can forget about Salesforce.com and worry about those systems I spoke of in point 7.
9. Trying out an application is simple. And it has been a mainstay of application sales even before SaaS models. Microsoft and Sage offer the same on their website. And it allows the customer to make a knowledgeable, sound decision on which application is right for them. Although, the 30 day on-premise trials usually require the help of the IT staff to install on servers, it is a good idea to ensure you have all the backoffice requirements. And yes, moving CRMs is a costly experience. The tryout assists with some of those concerns; so that you don’t have to do it again due to poor choices in vendor. I also recommend prospects talk to a partner(s) of the applications to get another view on the program, as well as implementation costs.
10. You are correct – contracts are hard to get out of. Not just with Salesforce.com, but with almost every contract, I believe. I remember when I worked as the IT manager of a start up firm which was closing its doors. Getting out of subscription contracts for our hardware (Cisco, Dell) and software (Microsoft Open Volume L&SA, which was a 2 year annually paid software assurance plan for their software…which sounds very familiar to me right now) was like pulling teeth. And I never recommend to any user of CRM, whether it be on-premise or SaaS that you continue with an application without their support and maintenance subscriptions.
Well, that was long…sorry for the length. There just has been an increase in the amount of “SaaS is evil” threads I have read in the last month, and I felt it important to add my rebuttal to this one.
Enjoy the day, all…
Nik
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Tags: On Premise, SaaS, Salesforce
