Comments on: Salesforce.com for Wealth Managers http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/ A blog for investment advisors, brokers and financial planners. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Bill Ramsay http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-422 Bill Ramsay Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:11:15 +0000 http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-422 Some more interesting things I found http://www.coghead.com/ http://www.rollbase.com/home.shtml this next one doesn't look like a Paas, but the emphasis on rules and the organization of business spaces is rather interesting. http://www.awareim.com/ not sure about coghead, but i think rollbase and awareim are utilizing Mysql as the DBMS- are these the open source competitors to Astoria? Is Microsoft close to losing control over end users' operating system? If I could run thin computers that just need to run a browser, it would save a bunch of time and $ (and sanity). I've been thinking about how salesforce is implementing Paas- in essence it looks like they have a "Fathead" structure in place (CRM), and have created their own proprietary language and dev-environ for folks to build out the LongTails that each customer wants (with the added appexchange opportunity for developers). The limitations may be substantial for non sales apps if their core structure is too sales focused which has thus far defined the typical CRM. Some more interesting things I found

http://www.coghead.com/
http://www.rollbase.com/home.shtml

this next one doesn’t look like a Paas, but the emphasis on rules and the organization of business spaces is rather interesting.
http://www.awareim.com/

not sure about coghead, but i think rollbase and awareim are utilizing Mysql as the DBMS- are these the open source competitors to Astoria?

Is Microsoft close to losing control over end users’ operating system? If I could run thin computers that just need to run a browser, it would save a bunch of time and $ (and sanity).

I’ve been thinking about how salesforce is implementing Paas- in essence it looks like they have a “Fathead” structure in place (CRM), and have created their own proprietary language and dev-environ for folks to build out the LongTails that each customer wants (with the added appexchange opportunity for developers). The limitations may be substantial for non sales apps if their core structure is too sales focused which has thus far defined the typical CRM.

]]> By: Matt Abar http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-419 Matt Abar Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:59:14 +0000 http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-419 MS has an interesting project called Astoria that creates a generic SOA web interface for SQL databases. Even better, it runs over their new Entity Framework, which lets you build an queryable ORM on top of a SQL database. These technologies are the future (if you're a Microsoft developer). Unfortunately, it will be six more months before it's practical to really build anything on top of them. But they're fun to play with. http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/ http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2007/09/04/entity-framework-for-dbas.aspx I'm not familiar with the Salesforce stuff. I thought it was a solid platform but what you're saying about "mimicking many to many relationships" sounds lightweight. That would be disappointing. They're on my list to check out soon. MS has an interesting project called Astoria that creates a generic SOA web interface for SQL databases. Even better, it runs over their new Entity Framework, which lets you build an queryable ORM on top of a SQL database.

These technologies are the future (if you’re a Microsoft developer). Unfortunately, it will be six more months before it’s practical to really build anything on top of them. But they’re fun to play with.

http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/
http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2007/09/04/entity-framework-for-dbas.aspx

I’m not familiar with the Salesforce stuff. I thought it was a solid platform but what you’re saying about “mimicking many to many relationships” sounds lightweight. That would be disappointing. They’re on my list to check out soon.

]]> By: Bill Ramsay http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-417 Bill Ramsay Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:55:03 +0000 http://wealthfly.com/blog/2007/10/18/salesforcecom-for-wealth-managers/#comment-417 That is some nice looking stuff, and my wife uses SalesForce extensivelly in her marketing business. I've done a bit of digging through salesforce developer info, and it feels a bit more like FileMaker than more robust relational systems. I saw references to "mimicking many to many relationships" and SOQL lacking features like ambiguous joins and calculation expressions. I'm not sophisticated enough to understand how limiting that might or might not be, but it feels at first blush like complex functionality would be more difficult. APEX looks like its evolving rapidly, and maybe triggers and business rule layers will be robust enough (and easy enough to implement)? They also still don't have an integrated email client, which seems like a big negative for a high end CRM solution. The concept of hosted platforms for development is I believe absolutely the future- centralized dll management sounds fantastic, but would not Microsoft be very interested in the subscription revenue model? Would SQL be usable for such hosting, then only requiring browser interface development tools to be robust? Given the installed developer base they have, is this the next way for M$ to continue its dominance (if in fact the desktop OS is truly, finally devalued?) Thin clients finally coming back? That is some nice looking stuff, and my wife uses SalesForce extensivelly in her marketing business.

I’ve done a bit of digging through salesforce developer info, and it feels a bit more like FileMaker than more robust relational systems. I saw references to “mimicking many to many relationships” and SOQL lacking features like ambiguous joins and calculation expressions. I’m not sophisticated enough to understand how limiting that might or might not be, but it feels at first blush like complex functionality would be more difficult. APEX looks like its evolving rapidly, and maybe triggers and business rule layers will be robust enough (and easy enough to implement)?

They also still don’t have an integrated email client, which seems like a big negative for a high end CRM solution.

The concept of hosted platforms for development is I believe absolutely the future- centralized dll management sounds fantastic, but would not Microsoft be very interested in the subscription revenue model? Would SQL be usable for such hosting, then only requiring browser interface development tools to be robust? Given the installed developer base they have, is this the next way for M$ to continue its dominance (if in fact the desktop OS is truly, finally devalued?) Thin clients finally coming back?

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