All the information is available here... Read the case and answer each question
ID: 330465 • Letter: A
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All the information is available here... Read the case and answer each question below.
160 INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS CASE STUDY #1 Salesforce.com: Taking CRM to the Cloud eading ORMM sotware wendex Salestovce.com Slestorce staff who decide whether to include the featura pioneering company that launched cloud- ing release. The ideaExchange shows the fateofch idea s also the based sotware as a service (Saas) for enterprise-evel tors can see the outcone The relentless drive to imnovate ied company execubives to arpications Founded in 1998 the compwny boasts doubie-digit annual prowtht with sales topping S6 billion by 2016. In the eanly years, how sider office space design Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff over Salestforce had diiut time convincing other companies that a Budthist manks to give their thoughts an how to configure the cloud-hased solution for CRM would work or that their sensitive data skyscraper headquarters in San Francisco. The monks observed and ave employees were talking all the time and working constanty wowd be secure Laper enterprises in particulax, were rebctant to move such data gested that space should be provided for more contemplation on each floor so that employees would have off their prvately managed servers housed im ther out data centers added "mindtfness" areas Buir Salestorce persisted, offering a pay asyou-go" subscription paricing a quiet place to think and reflect Despite very rapid growth, Salesforce.com faces a numberof companies to identity a smal /auwmber of users to try out service The acvanced ORM features thuat Salestorce offered were otten lenges. One involves the need to constantly upgrade its services well beyond what the company's an mobile devices. Salespeople are on the road quite a brt, and having atbility to manage their leads, tasks customer communications, and other casts. It also must ensure that its own platform is constantly available far data inmportant for CRM from anywhere at any time quiokly became a "must customers. A major outage in 2016 left customers very frustrated, and 5 have" The company's approach essentialy properled the era of enterpvrise- hours' wovth of data updates were lost level cloud computing Anay ts pro et hat 50% of organizations wa Perhaps the most important challenge for Salesforce.com is mai select Sass for complex business process support by 2018 as they wind taining secunity, especialily because the data's sensitivity is quite high down their private data centers and move apyplications to the cloud and own CRM sotware couid do, particulanly technology. For example, it relies on Oracle databases, but the the is considering moving to an open source database solution to reduce Concerns about security have always been uppermost in customers Salesforce.com has a growing number of competitors, however, and minds, and Salestorce.com continually bolsters the systems used to facuses heavily on continuous innovation for its products. For example, monitor traffic and access. its Salesforce Shield, for instance, allows IT the company added the "Wave Analytics" app to its services so that administhsters to see user activity in real time. business users can analyze data in real time and take action from withinalesforce.com spends a large chunk of its revenue on the app. To encourage imovative thinking, Salesforce.com draws on the ideas of its milions of customers who contribute their thoughts to hile revenueis the ldeaExchange. Other heling and also technology to improve and expand product customers can vote on the ideas by clicking expunses exceeding income. But with growing adoption of Saas and cloud thumbs up or down, and those with thigh vote totals are reviewed by computing in general, Salesforce.com should h ting in general, Salesforce.com should have a promising future. Discussion Questions ldentity one way that in the early years Salesforce.com addressed market confidence in its cloud-based systems. Was this way successful? Why or why not? Soures: Darrox, B.(May 11, 20161, Salesforce negotiates tricky software path. Fortune.com httpfortune.com/2016/05/1 1/salesforce-two-software worlds/, accessed August 17, 2016 Frank, &, H. 2016), Salesforce picks AWS as preferred public cdoud pravider. CIQ, ttpul 5-16. How does Salesforce.com use the IdeaExchange for competi- accessed August 17, 2016. preferred public-cloud-provider hnn, tive advantage? What benefits does it provide to the company and its customers? Gallaghet D. (February 25, 2016. How Salesforce.com can keep making it rain Wal Street Journal (Onlnel, http:0www.wsj, com/articleshow-sales rain-1456429982, accessed August 17, 2016 -17. Explain how office space design in the San Francisco head- Green, .2016, Salesforce.com Inc Hoover's Online, ht quarters was changed and why this change is expected to return value to ivers com durHlcompany360/fulldescription.ham/?companyld-992970300000 library hu. August 17, 2016. Konrad. A·(2016). How monks convinced Marc Benioff to install 18. Identify at least two challenges that Salesforce.com faces and "mindfulness zones explain why these are important challenges to Salesforce.comsalbn throughout Saléesforce's nesw ofices fortescoan offices. Forbes.com, htp./www.forbes.com/sites mindlulness-zones-in- salesforce#6751 fd31 f75e, accessed August 18, 2016. LL M, Kankanhalk A. & Kim,S. H. 12016) Which ideas are more ikely to be n communities? An empinical anaiysis. Decision Support Satemu in 28-40 http Adoiorg/10,1016 dss 2016.01 004Explanation / Answer
Answer 5-15: Salesforce.com offered a "Pay-as-you-go" subscription pricing model to the companies which aloowed them to identify small number of users to try out the service. Yes, this way was very successful because the company's approach propelled the ra of computing. The features Salesforce offered were beyond what company's own CRM software could do.Sales were able to manage their leads, tasks, customer communications and other data for from anywhere at any time quickly became a "must have" for companies.
Answer 5-16: Salesforce.com get the ideas of millions of customers who contribute their thoughts to IdeaExchange. Others customers can go to the app and vote for the ideas and ideas with highest votes are reviewed by salesforce team and decide wether to include that idea in the new release. This will help increasing the faith in customers as the each contributor can see the outcome. Company also gpot millions of ideas to look into and analyze their future goals.
Answer 5-17: Mark Benioff, CEO of salesforce brought Buddhist monks to give their thoughts on how to coonfigure companys headquarter in San Francisco.The monks observed that the employees were talking all the time and working constantly. So they suggested that the space should be provided for more contemplation. Benioff added "mindfulness" areas of on each floor so that employees have quiet place to think and reflect with the ideas to grow salesforce.com
Answer 5-18:One challenge is to upgrade its services and technology.Company is considering to move to open source datbase solution to reduce cost. But they have to make sure that their platform is up and running all the times.
Other challenge is maintaining security because the data sensitivity is very high. Customers are very concerned about security and salesforce continuosly monitor traffic and access so the sustems are secured.