Technology

Not too long ago, I was working for a publishing company which relied on an Oracle database and customer service software package to track its vast warehouse of books. When it came time for a software upgrade, an army of our colleagues in IT spent weeks installing and tweaking the new system. It was a logistical nightmare. Aside from the standard retraining (about 200 employees needed help) and a massive laundry list of changes each department needed, our customer service reps spent two days taking orders in notebooks and assuring customers they’d call back as soon as possible with shipping dates and confirmation numbers.

While Oracle was the culprit in this case, horror stories of this nature could be shared about all software-based customer relationship management tools, or even about software upgrades in general. That’s why CIOs at companies of all sizes are gravitating towards internet-based applications to meet their needs. Salesforce.com is one of the innovators in the field of “on-demand” business applications. As their website explains, “On-demand is the antidote to many of the IT headaches associated with the traditional on-premise software model. With no software or hardware to buy, install, maintain, or upgrade, the popularity of on-demand grows with IT organizations that are increasingly asked to do more with less.”

The on-demand model allows businesses to operate in a web-based environment, which means that all their databases and enterprise tools are accessible and upgradable within an internet browser. This not only eliminates the need for massive disruption when changes are made, but it also takes the servers and security off-site, which frees up IT staff to focus on making an business impact.

Salesforce.com’s growing list of customers includes IBM, Microsoft, BEA Systems, Sun, Spherion, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dow Jones Newswires, Sprint, Kaiser Permanente, and many others. As their client Coral Energy notes, “Salesforce.com allows us to constantly evolve our CRM system.” This is especially easy to do with the introduction of Force.com, a web-based platform which allows Salesforce customers to build and easily manage customized applications using their model.

Force.com is branded, “Platform as a Serivce” (PaaS), and it is another big push towards the death of software. With this new service, enterprise IT groups can not only customize and update CRM tools to suit their business needs, but they can also add more applications such as security technology, manufacturing and order tracking, PR management, and just about anything else you can think of. This on-demand platform is rivaling traditional software platforms like Microsoft’s .NET. Force.com also hosts an “AppExchange” which allows independent vendors to share their PaaS products with businesses around the world.

The Wall Street Journal’s Vauhini Vara recently sat down with Marc Benoiff, CEO of Salesforce.com, and their conversation sheds some light on the future of web-based enterprise applications. Benoiff’s predicts that web-based applications will kill the traditional software model. When asked about Microsoft, Oracle and SAP’s move towards web-based services, his answer is casual and upbeat. He welcomes competition in the field of “software as a service”, saying “They used to say, ‘Big companies will never use software as a service.’ Now, they’re doing an about-face and saying, ‘This is the most important thing.’” He describes Force.com as “an operating system that runs on the Internet,” which allows all your other tasks to run smoothly. This comparison will likely spark a heated debate about the future of web-based applications, both in the business world and in the lives of everyday users.

In addition to his prescribed death sentence for software, Benoiff has a doomsday prediction about the enterprise atmosphere itself: “I think the big news is that there will be no office. The office is becoming more virtual every day, and the technology that’s making that happen is the huge wave of mobility…Whevever I am, I can have a video or audio conference, I can collaborate, I can share information.” Indeed, more and varied web-based services, like Google Apps and Salesforce.com, will enable business to be transacted from anywhere with a WiFi signal. Personally, I can’t wait for the day when “commuting” means opening up your laptop and signing on for a morning meeting.

Salesforce.com is definitely a company to watch, and they represent the future of enterprise tools. As more traditional software companies jump on the web-based bandwagon, everyone from customer service reps to warehouse pickers to CIOs will see a positive change in their daily interactions with technology and their ability to provide value to their customers.

By Haley January Eckels