AppExchange charging...

There have been a couple of blogs about charging on the AppExchange. My current understanding is as follows:

• Native apps that are free will not be charged for
• Customers adding apps will probably be listed as free
• Composite or external apps (anything using apex, api etc.) will have to go through certification.
  

This conflicts some things that have been written elsewhere (on Salesforce collective and on Where's the Upside) so I thought it was worth posting.

Post Dreamforce...

Sitting in SFO I have a few minutes to reflect on Dreamforce last week. From a partner's perspective obviously the largest changes concern the partnership model and it will be interesting to see how this pans out. Certainly the plans to make every app certified is a positive from our perspective but at the same time this is a radical shift from how the AppExchange was originally positioned. There is a definite move towards a traditional partner model. My main fear is that this will isolate small players as larger players will just throw cash at SFDC.

However, it is important that all the apps are of a certain quality and we have had experience of being burnt by a poorly thought out and implemented app in the past. The next few weeks will be interesting and as soon as I know more (facts) I will post them.

From a product perspective we had a great show. More and more customers are coming to us as I think word of our solutions it finally getting out. We have some massively cool functionality coming out in a couple of weeks and I will post it first here.

Dreamforce approaches...

This is a quick entry to apologise for not posting much lately but also to get going again... Basically, the Salesforce.com world is gearing up for Dreamforce06. And that, obviously includes us. We are now using version 7.0 of the API and are planning to launch both new versions of the core Clicktools application as well as improvements to the Salesforce interface.

I obviously won't reveal these here now as that would ruin the excitement but, information will be posted here as soon as I have it.

What I will be also adding in the next few weeks is a series of hints and tips around the best way to use Clicktools with Salesforce.

So, sorry I have been away and I promise more will be coming soon.

Top tips for publishing...

The final stage of the process is actually getting your application published. Once it's live everyone will be able to see your application, see how it affects their salesforce implementation and compare it to other packages in your chosen categories. My top tips for a succesful publication are:

1. Breeze is beautiful
I am not talking about the capability here rather than technology (which is way way way too expensive in my opinion). But, as Salesforce.com kindly provides an environment for you to put up a breeze presentation I think every partner exploit it. I think it's the best collateral you can have so spend a little time thinking through your messaging.

2. Test drives CAN be good
In the early days of the AppExchange you had to have a test drive. The idea of letting people 'play' with a potential application is a great idea, but, as it's read only I am just not sure they work for every application. We have three apps on the AppExchange and two of them have test drives. Our major app doesn't. Why? Well, our main app, Clicktools for AppExchange is a generic capability that enables salesforce customers to build any custom form, survey or landing page and then automatically create or update information in to salesforce. Because people use this for many purposes including updating campaign member status records, sat surveys, Promoter, case, stay in touch... The read only test drive confused many people.

This was the case with many apps so now, like other, we just use a standard breeze presentation. Our other two entries are geared towards specific applications (a user adoption survey and a HR sales skills survey). For these two apps, we have pre-defined custom objects, reports and dashboards so the test drive becomes more valuable and is clear to users.

3. Free trials
We provide free 30 day trials of our product. It helps organisations understand how they can use our product but also helps faster transition to a working implementation. A lot of organisations use our free trials to build their actual intended solutions in the trial.. When they become customers a switch is flicked and away they go...

Top tips when reviewing and repairing an AppExchange package

Once you have built an AppExchange package you then move on to the "fun" bit of the process.

In the past year Salesforce.com has massively improved the process for registering, reviewing and publishing apps on the AppExchange. I remember the days when this was a completely manual process and believe me, that was hard work.

Even now, I think this stage is the most painful. I think it's partly to do with the fact that, as a supplier, you have now built your perfect package and can't see why it should take any time at all to review and approve packages... the reality is that it's bound to take time and Salesforce.com has to ensure that packages reach a certain quality to be published.

To make this process run as smoothly as possible, here are my top tips:

1. Build your package properly
This may sound rather stupid but the more time you spend building your package, the less time you will spend reviewing and repairing your package to meet Salesforce.com requirements. And believe me, you want to spend less time doing this. Put in the test data, make sure the test drive organisation works properly - you will only have to go back and redo it all if it doesn't work.

2. Use the processes and checklists
One of the areas that has massively improved is the amount of information provided to help you with the publishing process and the automation of the process. I know that many I.T. types never read manuals (that's obviously more true if you are male) but everyone should really read the process guides and marketing guides. They do tell you everything you need to know.

3. Don't be afraid to iterate
No matter how much effort you put in, don't expect to get your package approved first time. Make sure you put some time in to your plan for re-working and iterating through the publishing process a couple of times. Also, take time to get internal reviews because it is much better to make corrections and improvements at this stage of the process rather than after the package is published.

4. Don't be afraid to ask
Finally, if you do get stuck, don't be afraid to ask. Also, if you don't quite agree with some of the recommendations - ask. The AppExchange is new so everyone (even the Salesforce.com staff) is going through a learning process and I have found both the technical and partner teams very open to discuss alternative approaches.

Top tips for building an application

My top tips for building an application are as follows:

1. Understand salesforce
When we started building our integration with Salesforce (almost 18 months ago now) we didn't really know salesforce that well. I think this held us back. Really understanding how people use salesforce on a day to day basis, the features people like and dislike, and the preferred methods of operating can all impact the way you build your integration and its ongoing success.

Bear in mind too, that when you come in to contact with salesforce users these, in the main, will not be system administrators but marketing users and sales users. In a majority of cases these people will not fully understand the concepts and differences between custom objects, related lists and custom links etc... You need to understand them, understand their impact to an organisation in terms of customisation and also be able to explain them.

2. Do what you know
I have seen several AppExchange packages that have clearly been built by organisations who have no knowledge of the subject domain. I think this is a huge mistake. Firstly, it means that you build the wrong solution. Second, it means that you are likely to force salesforce in to places it's just not flexible or powerful enough to go in to. As good as it is, I really don't believe it's suitable for every solution. My recommendation to anyone building an AppExchange product is build something you know. Build something your organisation is a specialist in. This not only means that you will build a strong product but, when combined with a knowledge of salesforce, means you will understand enough about how deploy your product to meet different organisations' requirements.

3. Be a leader not a follower
I view the AppExchange as a bit like the wild west. Everyone is rushing around trying to gain first mover advantage and grab customers. What's interesting is that I see companies quickly adding packages to areas where there are already established solutions where I see masses of opportunity in areas that haven't been touched yet. Organisations considering AppExchange implementations should surely be looking for the killer app in new areas.

As an example, a native accouting solution and a native HR management tool are two applications that I am amazed no-one has added yet. I can see salesforce adding their own PeopleSoft equivalent soon but there is still the opportunity for someone else to get their first. Also, there are a mass of inadequate accounting packages for SMBs out there and I can see a native salesforce accounts app winning a lot of business amongst the salesforce customer base.

4. Find a friendly user
The final top tip in the build phase is to find a friendly user. I know, this is fairly basic stuff for I.T. projects but I am amazed at the number of people I speak to who launch AppExchange packages without ever showing them or getting any feedback from salesforce users and customers. Give the integration away if you have to - the feedback you get will be invaluable.

But what about building an AppExchange application?

In recent entries I have outlined how and why I think the AppExchange adds value to my business.

What I now want to talk about is the process of actually building an application. The upcoming entries are, again, based around the presentation I gave to the Business Web seminar but also a presentation entitled "Top ten tips for AppExchange Success".

Simpy, I see the AppExchange build process as three steps:

1. Build
2. Review and Repair
3. Publish

My next entries will cover each area..

Technical Value #3 - A window on to the world..

Ok, I go to the lengths of getting an API out of my selected SaaS partner. Now, how do I get the product to market...? Any ideas?

The AppExchange provides an open, visible market place on which I can place applications. I can (and have) put multiple applications on to the Exchange at no cost. Everyone can then browse those solutions, look at the implementation requirements and, in some case, try them out.

I have been working in IT for too long but I have never known an environment to match the AppExchange. At the push of a button a potential customer can download my application in to their salesforce implementation and get going. I truly believe that ERP solutions will never be the same again.

Technical Value #2 - Publishing an interface

If I want to integrate with a solution what's the one thing I need? That's right, an API! Now: go to any number of SaaS providers of ERP/CRM systems and see how many actively publish an API and other integration mechanisms (AJAX, SOAP etc)... Get my point?

Technical Value #1 - Belief in SaaS

So, what about the technical value of a SaaS platform... Well, the first question I think you need to consider is does the organisation promoting the platform believe in SaaS. Clearly, Salesforce.com does.

The SaaS scene in the US is dramatically different to that in the UK. Going to San Francisco is like going to SaaS heaven. If people aren't doing it, they are talking about doing it. Having being involved in the UK scene (I'm not sure I should be calling it a 'scene') for a number of years I honestly believe that Salesforce.com has dragged the UK in to the computing 21st century. I don't see any other company doing that.

The second point may raise a few eyebrows. I just don't see how organisations can effectively promote, support and justify a traditional client-server model and SaaS model at the same time. The propositions, products, pricing, support, maintenance and delivery processes are just way to different for it to make sense to me. I get a feeling that some organisations are just offering SaaS as an option because they have been forced to. Frankly, that just doesn't convince me that their heart is in it...

Business Value #4 - It makes it easier to sell

A couple of years ago we sold a solution to a large financial institution. We provided a real time view on to customer retention, loyalty and advocacy for the organization as a whole and for each and every branch across the country. This provided three major benefits. Firstly, it gave all levels of management with information they had never even seen, the information was provided much much faster than using the previous method and it reduced their annual customer research costs by around 50%. The project was stopped by the I.T. department because they "couldn't host data outside of their datacentre". The organisation in question validated our environment, they even tried to break our environment but couldn't. But, because we were SaaS, the solution wasn't seen as viable.

I have not yet had one objection to us being a SaaS provider from a Salesforce.com customer. Now, that's hardly surprising but anything that reduces the number of objections I receive during my sales process is fine by me. Salesforce customers understand SaaS, believe in SaaS and are willing to go with it for other applications.

P.S. The organisation in the scenario above came back to us very recently to re-open conversations about rebuilding what we gave them. They still haven't been able to match what we gave them and now, SaaS is acceptable...

Business Value #3 - It provides me with an opportunity to sell to more people in more places

This business value doesn't need much explanation. Not only is there a defineable market out there, it enables me to grow my business in to new territories. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of our new customers are coming from the USA but we have also started to sell to organisations in the Far East and mainland Europe. Today the UK, TOMORROW THE WORLD!

Business value #2 - it provides me with an opportunity to sell to more people

One of the key challenges facing most small and ambitious companies is increasing channels and routes to market. As soon as you become more successful, more people are willing to help and more people are willing to take your money. As we have built up a reputation as a company that knows about customer feedback and Salesforce, the number of offers of help increases. Unfortunately, most of these offers of help to “Increase my sales”, “Increase my profile” etc. come at a large cost with no guarantees.

In the early days of Clicktools we did very well at selling to some reference accounts. Most of those customers were in large corporates but we soon realised that SMBs were just as likely to buy. So, once those reference customers were in place our challenge, then just as it is now, was to figure out the best way of getting to masses of potential customers at a low cost. Where were/are those SMBs?

At the time of writing, Salesforce.com has something like 18,000 customers. It doesn’t exist in the minds of an analyst, it’s not a vague estimate based on a survey of 100 companies usage of feedback tools – it’s real and, in terms of my Salesforce integration – it’s my addressable market. Where else would I find such a contained, defined and clear marker? Business Link? Give me a break, Google Adwords..? No… Salesforce.com customers looking for an add-on for a particular solution will go to the AppExchange. Let’s face it, if you are a Salesforce.com customer and have not heard of the AppExchange you must have been on the moon for the past year so, the AppExchange it is!

Business Value #1 - It improves my proposition

Let’s be honest, very few individuals and organizations have products that can change the world. Whilst many of us think we have, the reality is very different. In most cases, someone already has what you have and the difference between success and failure is very very fine. It could come down to being in the right place at the right time, signing the right contract, turning down the wrong contract or $40 million of VC funding and great PR. Ultimately all you can do is believe in your proposition, work hard and hope you get that little bit of luck. In the case of Clicktools I don’t think I will shock any of my co-founders by saying we don’t have a world changing product. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great product. We really help organizations improve their customer experience, and we do it in a different way to many other tools. Sure, people can do what we do with other products but we do it faster, cheaper, and more effectively, but but but, that’s not a paradigm shift. We are not a google, an ebay, an amazon, or dare I say it, a Salesforce.com?

Our product is not a ‘staple’. Just as we have staple foods that we eat, organizations have staple applications they rely on. Organizations don’t yet use feedback every day. It’s not ingrained in organizations processes (that’s not to say it shouldn’t be – more on this later!) and it’s viewed as a nice to have rather than a must have. It’s an add-on to staple services. One such staple service is CRM.

And this is where the AppExchange value add starts. The AppExchange makes my product and proposition better. Feedback is useless without a context. Many organizations carry out “Annual do you love us surveys” to generate PR that says their satisfaction rate is, yet again, 97%. The fact that their customer attrition rate is 30% passes people by but hey, let’s carry on with that Annual Survey regardless.

As our MD says, collecting feedback is a cost – the value comes from improving because of that feedback and here is where the AppExchange helps. Feedback, when placed in the context of organization wide customer data increases in value. This, in turn, increases the value of my product. Placing feedback in context of the customer helps me to understand the value and profitability of customers that are happy, loyal and are advocates (I put that in for all you Net Promoter fans). Also, capturing feedback as part of the process not only helps me to react more quickly and effectively to immediate issues but also helps me to improve my customer experience for the next customer. That is, simply, the sort of thing that turns customers in to advocates.

So, the AppExchange helps me to turn my point, ‘nice to have’ product in to a part of a wider must have solution. That can only be good for my business. And, in the case of Salesforce.com and the AppExchange, it’s not only CRM that I can easily integrate to. I can link to ANY enterprise application built on that platform. So, when someone builds a competitor to PeopleSoft or Sage (and they will) based on the AppExchange then I have immediate an easy integration with those applications too… Can anyone name another platform where that is the case?

The AppExchange Value-add

This was the basis of my presentation to a Salesforce.com audience in London at the Business Web event. To answer this question I believe you need to look at the AppExchange from two perspectives, namely a business perspective and a technical perspective.

In my view, the value that the AppExchange adds is:

Business
1. It improves my proposition
2. It gives me an opportunity to sell to more people
3. It gives me an opportunity to sell to more people in more countries
4. It makes it easier to sell

Technical
1. The believe in SaaS
2. There is a published and available interface
3. A window on to the world

I will talk about these in separate entries. In reality, these values don't just apply to the AppExchange, they are questions that you should apply to any business exchange.

A little info about Clicktools

I thought I should start by telling you a little about Clicktools... Clicktools is a privately owned organization who believes passionately in Software as a Service (SaaS). We are based in Bournemouth on the south coast of England and also have offices in San Francisco and Australia. We are small, growing, profitable and have a unique proposition:

Clicktools helps organizations improve Customer Experience through the provision of SaaS Enterprise Feedback Management products and solutions. At a product level, organizations subscribe to our service and implement their own feedback programmes designing, collecting, analyzing and acting on feedback from employees, customers and partners. At a solutions level we design and implement complete feedback programmes. Our customers include o2, Shell, RBS, Unisys, innocent drinks, Economist Intelligence Unit, Rackspace Managed Hosting, Yamaha, Ryder and many other organizations large and small.

We have been working with Salesforce.com for about 18 months. I believe we were the first SaaS Feedback Management tool to integrate with Salesforce and I believe we are the first organization to partner with other AppExchange partners to offer “joint applications”. Although our initial offering was based upon the capture and transfer of customer satisfaction data in to Salesforce, our integration is now capable of much, much more. Simply, our integration enables organizations to build ANY form, survey or landing page and use the completed forms to create and update ANY Salesforce information. Additional uses include updating campaign member status records, stay in touch forms for re-sellers and agents, case(support) surveys, web site effectiveness, Net Promoter… the list is almost endless.

Now, I am going to move on to talk about why the AppExchange is important to us...

Why have I started this blog?

This blog started because of a two minute conversation following a recent Salesforce.com event. I was asked by Salesforce.com to share my thoughts and experiences on Clicktools' participation in the AppExchange. After presenting and receiving (mainly) positive feedback someone asked me if I could share not only the slideware but also my script.

When presenting I tend not to write scripts. I run through the presentation several times thinking of salient and relevant points to the audience and basically ‘wing it’. After explaining this, I was told I should write down what I had said as it may prove useful to individuals and organizations contemplating integration and adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) and the Salesforce.com AppExchange. Also, as a throwaway comment, the same person said I should start a blog.

You will have noticed that I have referred to the person anonymously. That is because I cannot for the life of me remember which one of the many people I spoke to mentioned the above. I treated it as a throwaway comment but whilst sitting on the train home I thought, why not? So, when I got home I went online to Blogger and started... The joys of SaaS!

This is the (first) result of that fleeting conversation. I don’t know whether any one will find it useful but I hope it provides cause for thought. These views are not necessarily those of my fellow employees at Clicktools, certainly not the views of anyone at Salesforce.com and all mistakes are mine. Please agree/disagree, comment or point out any errors by emailing salesforce@clicktools.com.