Don’t be Forced….
2 May 2012
There was a great campaign being run by Microsoft Dynamics Online a little while ago that speaks to a subject that is close to our hearts.
Dont allow yourself to end up being tied into a solution that relies on a 3rd party leveraging, granted, a great development and delivery framework that relies on the high cost partner to maintain. Force.com has got to be one of the best development concepts in modern computing. I am not refering to the technical underbelly which makes or breaks software delivery platforms such as these, I am talking about the ‘hard sell’ and the power of the support mechanism to get you to buy into what salesforce have to offer.
What makes Force.com so cool is also what makes the partnering with a Force Partner potentially limiting. Yes the platform offers flexibility but just take a look at the myriad of ways that your partner can tie up their customisations. Of course the idea is open so you can (in theory) move to a new partner if your relationship fails OR someone else can do a better job, but honestly, do you think that Force.com partners dont know that!
They are always a bit tongue in cheek ad campaigns like this from Microsoft – in some ways all they actually achieve is is to validate that Salesforce.com are the number one for Cloud CRM. What it does for us is highlight how careful you need to be when deciding on your CRM strategy.
Sales Pitch : If you need customisations on your OpenCRM system our team of clever professionals will be on hand to help you get the best from what we have to offer.
Before I got my start in the tech industry as part of Apple’s UK Mac launch team, I was a professional drummer (notice I didn’t say musician). But once I got in, I was hooked and I’ve been involved in the tech industry, primarily software development, for over 35 years. I founded this company and I now have the enviable title of System Architect (as well as Managing Director) here at OpenCRM.