Dreamforce: Wonders of the Business Web

Secretary of State Colin Powell was working at his desk four years ago in the U.S. State Department when he received a call from a Russian diplomat in New York City. The diplomat was disgruntled about a clause in U.N. Resolution 347. Not sure what part of the Resolution the diplomat was referring to, so Powell did what we all do these days. "I Googled it," Powell said during his keynote session at the Dreamforce Conference yesterday. "And by God, we got them to agree to the terms because I proved him wrong."

Powell's example, among many others he gave, was aimed at highlighting how the Web and the information and tools available on it are changing American business process. "We're moving faster than ever before because of the Web, and American businesses are too, thanks to the development in recent years of the business Web," he said, referring to the on-demand business model that has been driven by companies like Salesforce.com.

During the afternoon session, Jim Steele, president of Salesforce.com, and Abhi Ingle, vice president of business solutions consulting at Cingular, continued where Powell left off, speaking about the impact that business Web solutions are making on enterprise mobility. "There are currently 2.5 billion people using cell phones worldwide, and U.S. consumers consumed 1.4 trillion wireless minutes last year alone. This is a transformative force and the business Web is poised to follow."

Companies have started with wireless emails but are progressing to business applications, with the continued development and deployment of new wireless devices and their supporting networks being the catalyst for "this revolution," Ingle said. "Email is being underpinned by smartphones and high-speed networks. The mindsets of businesses are changing to adopt to wireless."

Ingle said platforms like Salesforce.com's AppExchange Mobile are simplifying the integration equation for deploying these solutions by creating a marketplace of applications that can be scaled down via Mobile. Business applications like SFA and CRM are becoming mainstream, though Salesforce is starting to see mobile applications from mobile inventory software vendors, work order management providers, and asset tracking companies, to name a few.

Despite how easy a platform like AppExchange makes it to leverage the Web-based applications, Ingle said companies shouldn't adopt mobile applications "just because it's hot." These applications should be kept simple, because of the screen size to present the information on, and companies should focus on only those solutions that will be enhanced by mobility.

Related Articles

Dreamforce: Releases Galore

Dreamforce '09: A roundup of product releases and enhancements that came out of the so-called "Cloud Event of the Year."

Gen. Colin Powell Is Part of the Force

Dreamforce: In a moving speech to a global audience, Colin Powell reinvigorates the need for the purpose-driven individual.

Salesforce.com Brings Social to the Enterprise

Dreamforce '09: The software-as-a-service pioneer unveils what it calls its fourth cloud -- the Collaboration Cloud -- as well as a product called Chatter.

Salesforce.com Doubles Down on CRM

Dreamforce '08: The SaaS vendor ups research funds for CRM, declaring this a critical time to listen to and invest in customers and employees.

Salesforce.com Partners Introduce a Range of Integrated Applications

Dreamforce '04: Dozens of software vendors are now tying their CRM capabilities to the on-demand CRM platform.

Salesforce.com Upgrades Its Flagship Products

Dreamforce '03: Salesforce.com today unveiled major upgrades to its two main products at its first annual Dreamforce user conference.

Dreamforce '07: Highlights from the Salesforce.com Scene

Dreamforce '07: A summary of what's on display from Salesforce.com partners at the company's annual convention.

Salesforce.com and Amazon.com: Superpowers Team Up in the Cloud

Dreamforce '08: Salesforce.com cofounder, Chairman, and CEO Marc Benioff announces the cloud company's foray into Web sites and its integration with Facebook and Amazon Web Services platforms.

Salesforce.com Brings Utility Computing to On-Demand -- But Not to CRM

The Force.com platform becomes the first software-as-a-service offering to allow pay-per-login pricing, but the company's CRM applications aren't included.

Salesforce Mashes Analytics in the Snow

The Winter '07 release will offer "unlimited customization" for analytics and BI tools, including Business Objects Crystal Xcelsius; one analyst sees the potential benefit to CRM in general.

Salesforce.com Unveils Winter Release Details

Dreamforce '04: New customizing manager and customer service capabilities are key updates.

Salesforce.com's On-Demand Dream

Dreamforce '05: Marc Benioff details visions of 'the eBay of enterprise applications' with Appforce.

Salesforce.com's Dreams of Apex

Dreamforce '06: Marc Benioff outlines the company's new customization and programming platform, discusses community development, and announces Winter '07.

Salesforce.com's Soapbox Is the Platform

Dreamforce '07: AppExchange says hello to its younger, bigger sister: Force.com, touted as "platform-as-a-service"; the family also welcomes a cousin: Visualforce, hailed as "user-interface-as-a-service."