Christmas comes 4 times a year

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 June 2007 05:21 Written by Steve Wednesday, 13 June 2007 05:21

New features for Summer ’07 revealed on the Idea Exchange.

Some thoughts from the roadmap summit

Last Updated on Wednesday, 6 June 2007 10:03 Written by Steve Wednesday, 6 June 2007 10:03

I just spent three days at the Salesforce Nonprofit Roadmap Summit, and it was a great event. By all accounts, this was a great get together hosted by the Salesforce Foundation. The people who attended were really high caliber–I am really lucky to be able to have so much of my work deeply connected with these great people.

First let me say that I am continually impressed with the Salesforce.com Foundation and their commitment to nonprofit success on their platform. The Foundation staffers I’ve spent time with–Steve Wright, Meghan Nesbitt, Tucker MacLean, Mike Dannenfeldt are all people I really like and respect. And I’m not just saying that so they’ll continue to give me all sorts of free stuff. This team is top-notch, and a joy to work with. So much of the success of their donation program to date has come because of the great decisions they’ve made along the way, their compelling vision, and tons of hard work.

I know that everyone who was able to attend the gathering left with that impression, if they didn’t already feel that way. Just the fact that the Foundation put on a gathering with the explicit goal of asking us how they can serve nonprofits better is very telling. And the good news is we stepped up to the challenge and let them know. I’m pretty sure we set Mike Dannenfeldt’s calendar for the next 12 months. And that’s saying a lot–Mike is really a heavy hitter. The goal when you hire someone on to a team should always be to make the team stronger–there is no doubt Mike raises the bar at the Foundation.

We also got to talk to a number of Salesforce.com corporate staff. We chatted platform with the folks that build it. I learned a ton, and gave feedback to the folks who could actually make the changes I want made. It showed that the commitment to nonprofits doesn’t reside just at the Foundation, but in the Company as well–a really encouraging thing to see. Thanks to Ron, Ron, Tom, Kaveh, Mark, Bryan, and Amy for coming down.

The bulk of attendees were people like me–users/consultants on the Salesforce.com platform. It was great to reconnect with lots of old friends and meet new people who all brought interesting things to the table. I learned a bunch, and got to share some of what I know with folks. Why do I always have my best conversations with fellow Seattleite Evan Callahan when we’re miles from Seattle?

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in 2 years. The first day we had 40 people in the room talking about Salesforce.com for nonprofits. When I started working at ONE/Northwest 2 years ago, there were only a few people outside the foundation thinking about how to systematically improve the Salesforce.com experience for nonprofits. I agree with Steve Wright that we are the single most visionary cohort of Salesforce.com customers thinking about how a whole “vertical” of organizations can best use the platform.

I also think we’re the most collaborative set of implementers/developers in the Salesforce.com arena. If Salesforce.com wants to figure out how to catalyze collaborative development on their platform, they should work with us. We’re ready and willing.

So now it’s back to pressing project work for customers who want onto the Salesforce.com platform. It’s refreshing to talk vision for a few days, but it’s today’s implementations where the rubber hits the road, and one nonprofit is better able to do the great work they do day in and day out.

How sweet it is…

Last Updated on Saturday, 2 June 2007 03:50 Written by Steve Saturday, 2 June 2007 03:50

It’s like flying very low to the ground. Nothing like buying 15 minutes off your bike split time…