The (Sales)force Is With Them: 10 Hot Cloud Computing Vendors To See At Dreamforce
Cloud Computing Up-And-Comers
With hundreds of cloud computing vendors taking to the Cloud Expo show floor at Salesforce's Dreamforce 2010 in San Francisco, there is a lot to see. From Salesforce integration and cloud consultation to data security and lead purity, Dreamforce's Cloud Expo had all of its bases covered.
And some of the cloud computing vendors making a splash are considered youngsters in the grand scheme of things. Many of them have just passed their one year anniversary, and most only have a handful of years under their collective belts (which is really no surprise, as Salesforce itself is just barely over a decade old). Here is a roundup of 10 younguns, none more than 7 years old, causing a stir at Dreamforce 2010.
Swyft Technology
Swyft Technology may have been founded in 2004, but this past September the company launched Swyft for Mobile, a smartphone application that gives sales teams a performance boost via location-based, prioritized leads and real-time personalized information about prospects and customers.
Swyft for Mobile, which Swyft Technology was highlighting in the DreamForce Cloud Expo, leverages Swyft's Interaction Hub, a SaaS offering that integrates customer interactions across several communications channels like call centers, Web sites, mobile devices, IVR units and more.
Seesmic
Seesmic, founded in 2007, used DreamForce to launch a private beta release of its integration with Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce's internal social networking application, with the beta release of Salesforce's Chatter Plugin for Seesmic Desktop 2.
Using the Chatter plugin, folks using the Seesmic Desktop application, which lets users manage and work in various social networks simultaneously, can view their Chatter streams and collaborate with coworkers, share files and post status updates while integrating with other social networks including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
VSee
Video is hot. VSee knows it. With video collaboration and telepresence offerings for sales teams, VSee is bent on edging out the pricey competition. At DreamForce, VSee, which was founded in 2003, showcased its desktop video telepresence and collaboration platform which lets users connect from anywhere with their contact lists with business grade audio and video.
Rseven Mobile
At the DreamForce Cloud Expo, Rseven Mobile showcased Rseven for Salesforce, an application launched to AppExchange 2 in November that logs customer smartphone calls and delivers that information into their Salesforce account. Rseven Mobile, which was founded in 2009, built the application on Force.com, Salesforce's cloud computing platform. Rseven for Salesforce automatically logs calls in the activity history of the leads and contacts section in Salesforce CRM. Rseven for Salesforce can synchronize leads, contacts and calendar meetings directly between Salesforce and smartphones and works with Google Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile devices.
Trustosphere
Cloud computing vendor Trustosphere is just getting off the ground, but the young company already has big plans. Trustosphere provides cloud data protection solutions that protect sensitive data and keep it under user control while allowing them to still utilize cloud applications. The company says it completely eliminates data security and compliance concerns associated with cloud applications.
On the DreamForce Cloud Expo show floor Trustosphere highlighted its Cloud Data Protection offering to safeguard the cloud by discreetly monitoring cloud usage in real time. It anonymizes sensitive data that is submitted by users before it is sent to the cloud. When users request the data, the original data is displayed back in the Web browser with no visible change in the application and full functionality.
Jitterbit
Jitterbit calls itself an integration wizard. And at DreamForce, the cloud computing vendor cast a magical spell on Salesforce. Jitterbit showcased its CloudReplicate solution that gives Salesforce customers the ability to access their data in a relational database of choice on Amazon EC2. CloudReplicate mirrors Salesforce to a central data warehouse. The CloudReplicate offering is a turnkey solution that provides pre-configured Amazon Machine Images that automatically create and synchronize changes made to Salesforce and other cloud applications with the Amazon EC2-based data warehouse.
Radian6
With so much of Salesforce's DreamForce 2010 focused on social media and social networking, it's only fitting that a startup like Radian6 takes a spot on the Cloud Expo show floor. Radian6, founded in 2006, makes social media monitoring software that gives businesses insight into conversations across the social Web. It tracks mentions across more than 150 million social media sites and sources and can produce real-time results via an interactive dashboard that lets users take action. Radian6 also integrates with Salesforce to give users insight into clients, contacts and cases so mentions on social media platforms can become opportunities.
LogMeIn
LogMeIn has been around since 2003, but just recently it launched LogMeIn Rescue Support with Salesforce, an AppExchange application that integrates LogMeIn Rescue with an organization's Salesforce account for remote support. Users can take control of customer or employee PCs, Macs or smartphones in seconds directly from the Salesforce Case Detail screen. And Rescue session details are automatically stored in the activity history.
And at DreamForce 2010 this week, LogMeIn also debuted a new IT helpdesk capability that helps support technicians instantly create Salesforce.com tickets directly from chat-based support sessions, which further extends the integration between Salesforce and LogMeIn Rescue.
Ribbit
Ribbit for Salesforce, on display at DreamForce 2010, makes sure Salesforce users get the information they want through the medium of their choice. Ribbit, which was founded in 2006, bills itself as a sales productivity tool that unifies voice and SMS communications, Salesforce CRM, e-mail and voice to text transcriptions. Users can leverage Ribbit for Salesforce with voicemail transcribed as a text message. They can receive, respond to and forward messages without dialing, and view SMS reminders for Salesforce tasks and events. Users can also turn voice messages into text in Salesforce accounts; search, track and manage voice note, voicemails and calls alongside customer data in Salesforce; send personal and automated text messages from Salesforce; and route mobile calls to different lines. Ribbit for Salesforce also lets users keep the same phone number, CRM and e-mail account and Ribbit can be used with the Salesforce mobile client for iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.
PerspecSys
Founded in 2006, PerspecSys is charged with ensuring that data never leaves the enterprise and that its users are always in compliance. And the PerspecSys Salesforce.com Edition, the company's first Cloud Data Governance solution, lets Salesforce users address compliance requirements when using any Salesforce application or the Force.com cloud computing platform. It's an added layer of security for Salesforce and the cloud.