Marc Benioff recently announces the limited availability of AppSpace. It is excellent that Benioff understands the value of enabling the voice of the customer in an authentic way and this initiative is an admirable one. It is off-target, however, to consider forum discussions and product input and feedback (via Crispy News which I'm quite certain has been acquired by Salesforce.com) as MySpace-like functionality. MySpace is successful because individuals can share both information and build relationship. The relationship building features are seemingly not available via AppSpace - at least not as of yet. You can, however, currently find these full-features online community and social networking solutions on the AppExchange. I would imagine that Benioff will recognize this omission and build or buy this functionality in a hurry. Marc Benioff, the PR machine, is hard at work to insert a stake in the ground as the CRM thought leader, a position which clearly belongs to Benioff.
Benioffs' move should send a message, loud and clear, to Salesforce.com competitors that they need to think about providing more value to the customer, and that their customers do want to enable online communities and social networking. Nice work Marc!
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