Salesforce.com has continued to expand the capabilities of Force.com, its platform to build and deploy enterprise applications. The company recently rolled out Force.com Sites, which lets companies build and run their applications for internal use as well as for public use on Salesforce.com cloud computing platform. Today, Salesforce will be opening up an additional distribution channel off of Force.com: the Value-Added Reseller (VAR) program.
The VAR program lets partners, which are primarily IT consultants to large companies, resell Force.com and applications built off of Force.com to other companies. So for example, a VAR partner could create a recruiting app to manage HR processes for a company off of the Force.com platform and charge the company for the application and requisite services. VARs can resell the Force.com cloud computing platform, as well as additional services such as mobile capabilities, storage, sites, and development sandboxes.
The possibilities for enterprise applications built off the Force.com platform are endless. Currently, there are more than 120,000 custom applications built off of Force.com to run businesses that perform a variety of functions, including supply chain management, compliance tracking, brand management, accounts receivable, claims processing, time-off applications and more.
Salesforce will charge VARs $7.50 per user per month, but VARs can determine the pricing model they implement to outside companies. The program also includes sales resources, technical training for partners as well as support for issues with the Force.com platform. VARs are responsible for supporting their own customizations and applications. Initial partners that have joined the program include Appiphony, American Data Company, EDL Consulting, Lexnet Consulting Group, MK Partners, Reside, Silver Tree Systems, and Sundog.
The fact that Salesforce is opening up its enterprise cloud computing platform to outside partners for reselling purposes is strong move towards expanding its play in the cloud computing space. Plus, the program is a new business channel that could recruit more companies to adopt both its Force.com platform and its CRM. The company seems to be going vertical in its model in an effort to head off competition from Microsoft Azure and and Google App Engine.
Wow, I think they are inventing a new business model in the cloud computing space. This is huge and something you would expect to be coming out of IBM. Cloud computing is really changing everything. Amazon for example, who would of guessed in 1999.
New business model? How so? And the last place I’d look for software is IBM.
I don’t know the difference between cloud computing and p2p.
Hmmm, wonder how Oracle will respond?
You can do the same thing with appspot.com
appspot.com much easier and faster
Wonder why companies continue to get ripped off with the SF farce platform marketing bs. This is a huge joke. When you factor in the cost of your own developers which you already have and the open source tools available, HR is a LOT CHEAPER than Force.com.
If I have a 2,500 seat organization running on Force.com I would pay about $250,00 PER YEAR FOREVER for an app.
Development isn’t really the problem, Salesforce saves $$ on datacenter space, network infrastructure, application infrastructure, and hardware costs. You have to factor that into your ROI calculations.
Is there a Force.com mandatory training program fee?
No, you can get free force.com training as podcasts on iTunes. http://blog.sfo...-on-itunes.html
I love everything about this model of computing except that when your bandwidth is down you can’t do anything. And despite our generally reliable network connection, every so often it goes out and our productivity dies.
Salesforce is a much more manly name than zoho…salesforce even has babies.. force.com I would do a whole series of comicon styled ads in partnership with starwars.. geeks love that shit and we are in the age of the geeks.. who cares about suits.. the richest men in the world do deals in shorts.. if only girls would see that.. honestly what does brad pitt have that I don’t… what is wrong living with your mom…
Great deal, I love their business model. They are one of the best SAAS Players globally.
we use it http://www.spirofrog.de for our Sales teams
Making the cloud more cloud-like, no? Run any application from anywhere at anytime…
We’re excited about it, as one of SFDC’s consulting services partners. Salesforce make it easy to develop custom apps (reuse the infrastructure) and we’ve done a ton of custom development across a few different verticals. It is great we finally get a cut, instead of only growing Salesforce’s business. Now we have an opportunity for recurring revenue! And our clients still have a single place for supporting the custom apps.