TMCnews Featured Article
July 13, 2011
Customer Service Software from Salesforce.com Focuses on Strategic IT
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
How effective is your customer service software? If you are a salesforce.com customer, you might be able to say that you leverage the leading application in the cloud. The trend to move this direction is growing as customers increasingly recognize the cost advantage. A big focus for salesforce.com, however, is not the cost savings as much as it is the strategic IT in the cloud.
This recent Enterprise Irregulars piece focused on customer service software and the different cloud platforms types available from salesforce.com. These types include infrastructure as a service (IAAS) to provide virtualization, yet the old IT and application development models tend to stay in place; standard cloud application development; and SF.com, which offers a full application development environment that includes UI and application support.
While the traditional model of customization still in place for a number of companies, only about one third of all enterprise software environments are running on current versions. The remaining two-thirds are stuck in the previous version as customization has locked the use of the customer service software in the specific version. This challenge has left a number of companies avoiding customization.
The SF.com customer service software model, however, offers an untouchable core code base that sits on a managed infrastructure. The customization layer is actually an abstraction of the database, business logic and UI so that it actually appears to be physical code and a database. The result is a layer that is still coupled with the platform, yet is resistant to changes. Any function that is upgraded within the SF.com platform occurs in real-time for all customers.
This model also allows links between partners as a result of remapping of business objects, app sharing and data leveraging. You can also integrate with other platforms in the cloud, such as Facebook (News - Alert), Amazon or Google, as well as on-premise customer service software solutions such as Informatica, Boomi and Cast Iron. The shared infrastructure does not compromise security and the metadata shared within the systems is stored directly within the application.
When using a customer service software application development environment such as SF.com, including availability, auto-upgrading, built-in support for a number of different mobile devices within the same application, iTunes used for provisioning and adding Chatter to drive collaboration to any application all extend the value of the customer service software. Plus, with the addition of Radian6 also allows for social media monitoring.
If you are seeking to operate in the cloud and want to leverage optimal customer service software, salesforce.com and its strategic IT model in the cloud could offer a solid return on investment.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
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