Salesforce’s core competency is scalable multi-tenant architecture, he said, pointing out this is one of the aspects that differentiates the on-demand specialist from other applications players with on demand offerings. That is not what SAP and Microsoft do, he said.
The emphasis on architecture refers to the debate over whether single-, multi- or isolated-tenancy is best for delivering on-demand applications, and the answer depends on your perspective. As far as customers are concerned, the architecture should be irrelevant so long as the service provided meets cost and functional requirements. For vendors, it is their way trumping and differentiating themselves and their on-demand services.
Multi-tenancy, as used by Salesforce.com, brings economies of scale to an on-demand operation, but the company also argues that it provides more flexibility and speed of development. Microsoft, whose CRM application will be single-tenant until the next version launches, and SAP which has developed the isolated-tenancy model, are able to support multiple architectures to potentially reflect the levels of choice buyers want.
Benioff believes the architecture issue provides insight into vendors’ intentions. He said: They [SAP and Microsoft] operate different business and application models, He went on to say that where Salesforce.com is focused on usage and adoption, the traditional vendors are focused on selling another module. Using Microsoft to illustrate the point, he said Salesforce.com supplies all the necessary infrastructure in a box as a service, in contrast to the technology stack needed to run a Microsoft-based system.
The comments were made at the London preview of the Winter 07 launch. As on previous occasions, Benioff heaped criticism on Microsoft and SAP while omitting to mention the third player in the traditional enterprise application triumvirate: Oracle. Larry Ellison retains a shareholding in Salesforce.com even though he has said he would be happy to see the on-demand specialist crushed.
The company has invested heavily in its architecture, and said that Winter 07, which will be available in the fourth quarter, is an indication of how far it has developed. As part of its move to provide deeper customization options that Benioff said would take multi-tenancy to the next level, it will offer analytic mashboard capabilities.
This refers to new functionality that will enable componentization of its analytics dashboards using mash ups. Instead of taking full analytic applications or pre-configured dashboards, Salesforce.com users will be able to construct custom dashboards by installing fine-grained components built by themselves, AppExchange partners, or Salesforce.com that reflect their own specific KPIs. Users will be able to select analytical components from a range of providers and combine them into a single view or dashboard. The dashboard is illustrative of the way the platform has developed, said Salesforce.com COO Phill Robinson. It allows an analytic engine to run on top of the platform. It is SOA on demand. You don’t have to install any software, it is modular and componentized, and you can pick and mix, and it is immediately [available] on demand. It brings the benefits of SOA and on-demand together.
BI player Business Objects was the first to offer something for the mashboard platform when it announced Crystal Xcelsius which will integrate within the new Salesforce.com dashboard framework to provide interactive visualization to improve the presentation of business data.
