Salesforce Debuts Social Key for Data.com + Dreamforce 2012 Day 3 Recap #df12

Day 3 at Dreamforce 2012 showcased Salesforce's product keynotes for all its core systems, and the company has promised some key new features for Data.com and Chatter.

We heard from several Salesforce executives and a few vendors who pitched in to show Salesforce products in specific use cases, but we also checked in with Michael Lock, VP Google Enterprise, to hear his thoughts on the cloud.

Nobody Can Ignore the Cloud

Lock is a longtime Googler, and while he's surely biased about which cloud products are the best, his thoughts on the most important cloud trends a good to keep in mind. 

First, IT no longer gets the best tech hardware first. Witness the BYOD movement that has changed the role of IT. Second, the cloud (especially at Google) is about access to infinite computing power. Google has massive data centers, Hoover Dam sized, Lock said. 

Now cloud based systems can be rebuilt from the ground up. This is exactly why Salesforce has been so successful. Another good example of the massive power of the cloud, YouTube videos are now more expensive to delete then they are to simply leave alone. That is because of the huge amount of computing power the company has. Lastly, Lock stressed the importance of mobile. 

"Mobile cloud is growing faster than any technology in history."

50% of Americans now own a smartphone. Companies should think mobile first, he said, and noted that native apps are beating web apps.

Social Key for Data.com

Brett Queener, Salesforce EVP Data.com and Marketing Cloud, gave the Data.com keynote and he also debuted the Social Key tool for linking public social data to business data. Data.com is a handy sales tool that helps manage leads and keeps sales teams up to date on lead contacts and potential new customers.

Data.com Salesforce bought a company called Blue Tail in July, and Social Key partly came from that data mining company.

Social Key, is a new feature that helps correlate social data with the stores of business data so many sales teams already have. For example, if someone is posting complaints on Twitter, and that person doesn't have any info in their profile, Social Key may be able to figure out who that person is if they are already in the business data mix. Of course, it also works the other way, so business data can be set up in Data.com with those peoples' social personas right there with their other info. 

"Build social profiles of customers and help close more deals," Queener said. Data.com is also helping companies with CRM adoption and with better marketing productivity, he said. "This gets so much more leverage out of what people are already doing." Queener said. 

Customers are on social more than anywhere online, he said. Data has changed as a result because people are sharing more than ever. Social Key can help create new leads because it can harness what people are saying about a company, and then target those folks if they fill a need.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Gearing up for Salesforce #Dreamforce 2012, Chatterbox Details to Come

Salesforce will host the Dreamforce 2012 conference Sept. 18-21, but CEO Mark Benioff has already announced the cloud storage system Chatterbox at another tech conference.

Chatterbox will be Dropbox for the enterprise, Benioff said, but it's just the start of a busy week for anyone who's thinking of adding to their Salesforce package or looking for new vendors altogether.

The focus at Dreamforce this year is social enterprise, and keynote speakers are divided up among the sales, customer service, marketing, collaboration and small to medium business categories. Additionally, entrepreneurs like Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, strategist Anthony Robbins and, of course, Benioff himself will be addressing the crowd at San Francisco's Moscone Center. 

General Colin Powell (Ret.) will also be speaking because he is now a limited partner in the powerful venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Tuesday night's opening gala will feature the musical stylings of funk-rock pioneers The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Keynotes to Note

Among the various segments at this huge conference, the Data segment features keynotes from companies like Pandora and CareerBuilder on how Data.com helps their companies. Furthermore, for SMBs, executives from Square and Yelp will be giving keynotes about their Salesforce experiences.

For those who are curious about specific products like Chatter, there are good sessions to attend on all four days of the conference. On Tuesday, there is a session right after lunch called 'Chatter: Best Practices for Chatter - The Engine of the Social Enterprise' that could be helpful.

On Wednesday there is 'Chatter: Finding the Right Talent, and Empowering Employees' in the early afternoon. Thursday, check out 'Chatter: ENGAGE - The 6 Steps to Success with Chatter' right after the Chatter keynote.

CMSWire at Dreamforce

CMSWire is attending Dreamforce this year, and we'll be covering new products like Chatterbox in particular. Salesforce has promised other new products, and those will be our main focus as well. Look for me there and say hi!

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com