Comments on: Bay And Bessemer Add $25 Million In Monetary Muscle Behind Force.com http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/ Startup and Technology News Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:52:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: » Force.com takes $25 million from Bay Partners & Bessemer Venture Partners Web 2.0 Money: The Money & Business Behind the Web 2.0 Innovations http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1804928 » Force.com takes $25 million from Bay Partners & Bessemer Venture Partners Web 2.0 Money: The Money & Business Behind the Web 2.0 Innovations Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:19:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1804928 [...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-force... ] [ http://www.salesforce.com/company/investor/ ] [ [...] [...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....nd-force... ] [ http://www.salesforce.com/company/investor/ ] [ [...]

]]> By: The Inside CRM Blog » Blog Archive - Funding the Force http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1695773 The Inside CRM Blog » Blog Archive - Funding the Force Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:06:48 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1695773 [...] just read an article on Tech-Crunch that Bay and Bessemer Ventures are setting aside $25 million to fund companies built on the Force.com platform. Bay has set aside money to invest in Facebook [...] [...] just read an article on Tech-Crunch that Bay and Bessemer Ventures are setting aside $25 million to fund companies built on the Force.com platform. Bay has set aside money to invest in Facebook [...]

]]> By: SaaS Entrprenuer http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1654160 SaaS Entrprenuer Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:34:11 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1654160 When is Techcrunch going to employ someone who knows or follows enterprise software. First of all Salesforce.com is not the only enterprise software company doing great new things but its virtually the only one that gets coverage here -- I also happen to have noticed they advertised on the site pretty heavily in recent quarters. Second, and more importantly, every time TechCrunch mentions the Force.com platform they say things like "sure to lessen the appeal for a host of other database-driven application platforms" which demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what is happening in enterprise software and SaaS right now. 1. Enterprise Software companies which have not yet switched to SaaS are feeling the pressure and in many cases this is already affecting the bottom line. 2. In order to adopt a SaaS strategy a quick way to do this is to partner with SaaS and build on the Force.com platform, but this is not an end-game strategy, it is a stop-gap measure. Ultimately Salesforce will want to own all major categories, Benioff wants to build the next SAP/Oracle/PeopleSoft onDemand and why wouldn't he? However, this causes a fundamental conflict with an partner who would ever consider Force.com their primary platform 3. Do you think every other enterprise software company out there is going to bow down to Force.com, give up, and hand over they keys to Benioff? Exteme niavite on the part of TechCrunch here. Every enterprise software company will need a strategy to compete with this kind of platform and allow their own applications to be customized, expanded, and even new apps created in an ecosystem, in order to remain competitive. And there is much more of a business case for a successful stand-alone enterprise software company to build or buy to get there versus give up and run on Force.com Force.com is a fantastic platform, but it represents a very new very big change that is happening in enterprise software today. It represents an incramental shift in power to end-users in terms of their ability to customize and build applications specific to their business needs. It is the intersection of the do-it-youself web with enterprise software (e.g. YouTube ==> YouSoft). To say that Salesforce.com has and will continue to have a monopoly on this is short-sighted at best and either extrememly niave or "sponsored" at worst. When is Techcrunch going to employ someone who knows or follows enterprise software. First of all Salesforce.com is not the only enterprise software company doing great new things but its virtually the only one that gets coverage here — I also happen to have noticed they advertised on the site pretty heavily in recent quarters.

Second, and more importantly, every time TechCrunch mentions the Force.com platform they say things like “sure to lessen the appeal for a host of other database-driven application platforms” which demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what is happening in enterprise software and SaaS right now.

1. Enterprise Software companies which have not yet switched to SaaS are feeling the pressure and in many cases this is already affecting the bottom line.

2. In order to adopt a SaaS strategy a quick way to do this is to partner with SaaS and build on the Force.com platform, but this is not an end-game strategy, it is a stop-gap measure. Ultimately Salesforce will want to own all major categories, Benioff wants to build the next SAP/Oracle/PeopleSoft onDemand and why wouldn’t he? However, this causes a fundamental conflict with an partner who would ever consider Force.com their primary platform

3. Do you think every other enterprise software company out there is going to bow down to Force.com, give up, and hand over they keys to Benioff? Exteme niavite on the part of TechCrunch here. Every enterprise software company will need a strategy to compete with this kind of platform and allow their own applications to be customized, expanded, and even new apps created in an ecosystem, in order to remain competitive. And there is much more of a business case for a successful stand-alone enterprise software company to build or buy to get there versus give up and run on Force.com

Force.com is a fantastic platform, but it represents a very new very big change that is happening in enterprise software today. It represents an incramental shift in power to end-users in terms of their ability to customize and build applications specific to their business needs. It is the intersection of the do-it-youself web with enterprise software (e.g. YouTube ==> YouSoft). To say that Salesforce.com has and will continue to have a monopoly on this is short-sighted at best and either extrememly niave or “sponsored” at worst.

]]> By: Alex http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1653542 Alex Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:12:58 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/30/bay-and-bessemer-add-25-million-in-monetary-muscle-behind-forcecom/#comment-1653542 I salute the effort. But, nothing will really change. In other words. The only way salesforce is going to get traction from their Force.com platform is to "GUARANTEE" some business to these Partners. I believe there are two types of companies that join the Force platform: 1) Companies that have no real business outside of Force.com 2) Good established companies that only Partner with salesforce because it is solely convenient. I salute the effort. But, nothing will really change. In other words. The only way salesforce is going to get traction from their Force.com platform is to “GUARANTEE” some business to these Partners. I believe there are two types of companies that join the Force platform:
1) Companies that have no real business outside of Force.com
2) Good established companies that only Partner with salesforce because it is solely convenient.

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