There were many conversations happening both on the floor and online, and much business conducted in the exhibit hall between buyers and AppExchange vendors. There was also a lot of excitement generated by Marc Benniof's announcement that outlined the inclusion of social media into the Salesforce platform.
Smart move. One that should be followed by B2B software companies. As the electronic conversation on the web grows from email to include social media channels in the business community, sales automation platforms will need to include these new channels.
Something I found interesting was the poor representation of the big business information publishers like Thomson/Reuters, Reed Business Information and McGraw Hill. It seems that large publishers are looking askance at the opportunity in the AppExchange partner ecosystem. I have spoken to a number of these players and the issue seems to boil down to the fact that they can't see the sort of immediate revenue numbers that would justify changing already frantic development priorities which are being squeezed by the need to cut costs in the economic downturn.
However, the key factor here is that sales and marketing automation delivers amazing returns, and will drive continued expansion and innovation of the Salesforce ecosystem which cannot be ignored by the big business content players forever. In the meantime, lots of new companies are springing up to fill the gap with new content models.
At NetProspex, we believe that business information will respond to all new communication channels as the sales and marketing discussion spreads into social media.
If you'd like to take this discussion onto a social media channel, we're always available on twitter @netprospex.
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