Though mostly simulcast on the cloud, yesterday’s Cloudforce was a bricks-and-mortar event most brands can only dream of having.
Thousands (estimates range from five to 10) packed New York’s Javits Center to be on the receiving end of a day-long sales pitch by Salesforce.com’s CEO Marc Benioff and others from the host company, its brand customers and its development partners.
I’m not implying that the event was lacking in actionable information (it was top-notch content marketing) or networking opportunities. Benioff’s keynote was supported by a lineup of Salesforce.com brand customers with stories worth hearing. Angela Ahrendts of Burberry was particularly impressive, as you can see on this video.
For more than two hours, the core message — brands must become social enterprises run in the cloud on Saleforce.com’s growing platform — never wavered and, based on the Twitter stream and hallway conversations, was well-received. The presentation of seven product clusters, however, made it a bit difficult to determine what was new and to take away a clear impression of key differentiators between Salesforce.com and its competition.
The Cloud In Process
Benioff did not overlook the opportunity to take a swipe at Oracle by warning attendees to beware of “False Clouds” that are not efficient, not democratic, not economical, not environmental and not open. When these benchmarks are applied to the “real” cloud, though, we must admit the cloud is work in progress.
Salesforce.com is impressive in its integration of often disparate data sources and providing practical, social business communication channels. The company certainly has competition in both the cloud and social enterprise. As more brands work to put their strategies and operations in an increasingly social context, Salesforce.com’s interleaving of public and internal social media is clearly to its advantage.
For coverage of Cloudforce, you may want to check out:
Benioff at Cloudforce: Salesforce.com Was “Born Cloud and Reborn Social” (pcmag.com)
Marc Benioff Brings His Social Cloud Message to New York (allthingsd.com)
Tweets from Josh Weinberger
The Cloudforce New York Wrap! (curated links by Salesforce.com’s John Taschek)
Salesforce.com Unveils New Radian6 Social Marketing Cloud (company press release)
Graphics are from Salesforce.com’s website and Facebook page
