How LinkedIn Drove a Wedge Between Microsoft and Salesforce(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
How LinkedIn Drove a Wedge Between Microsoft and Salesforce
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/technology/how-linkedin-drove-a-wedge-between-microsoft-and-salesforce.html
2 comments
> Salesforce is well run and has a great start but billions of dollars a year in almost guaranteed profit gives companies alot of time and opportunity to compete and fail over and over again until they get it right.
The main issue they have is that their product can be replicated easily, which is exactly what Microsoft are doing (and extending, with Dynamics365). With so much revenue tied up in renewals SFDC cannot simply drop their pricing to come down to the price point Microsoft is leading with. SFDC have indeed set the gold standard for CRM but they are starting to show signs of weakness as they struggle to differentiate with core CRM, and need to compete on edge use cases.
I hear in Australia SFDC are now in a hiring "freeze", which is very telling of the challenges they are now facing with some competitors finally maturing and giving them a run for their money.
I give SFDC 2-3 more years under the sun before they start having serious challenges... unless AMZN buy them, which I also expect is highly likely. That would make things interesting.
The main issue they have is that their product can be replicated easily, which is exactly what Microsoft are doing (and extending, with Dynamics365). With so much revenue tied up in renewals SFDC cannot simply drop their pricing to come down to the price point Microsoft is leading with. SFDC have indeed set the gold standard for CRM but they are starting to show signs of weakness as they struggle to differentiate with core CRM, and need to compete on edge use cases.
I hear in Australia SFDC are now in a hiring "freeze", which is very telling of the challenges they are now facing with some competitors finally maturing and giving them a run for their money.
I give SFDC 2-3 more years under the sun before they start having serious challenges... unless AMZN buy them, which I also expect is highly likely. That would make things interesting.
[deleted]
Lovely how you can't read half the words in the subtitle, because it is white text against white background.
You're not kidding. They didn't even put a black border around the words. I'm surprised it hasn't been fixed yet as well; wouldn't an editor or someone catch that?
They do have a border, it's just too subtle:
.headline {
text-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25);
}Wow yeah couldn't even tell at all.
If their editor uses a 3440x1440 screen it will look fine to them.
Maybe they assume that it's not worth reading anyways.
Aside, wonder how much real estate is reserved for ads. I see text only on the left half of the screen; right half being empty.
Aside, wonder how much real estate is reserved for ads. I see text only on the left half of the screen; right half being empty.
Once a company gets big enough you'll find that it often both competes and partners with the same company at the same time.
It's just inevitable, as the salesforce trying out Microsoft's Azure while competing with Microsoft's Dynamics arm.
Good CEO's are pragmatic, almost out of necessity, as being inflexible is the quickest way to become unemployed.
I'll go out on a limb here and state that I believe that salesforce will eventually be owned by Microsoft.
it gives Microsoft 3 things.
1) Enough revenue to make a dent in Microsoft's growth.
Remember the old saying that Microsoft has to grow by one eBay each year just to keep wall street happy. Sales force is big enough to move the needle for Microsoft.
2) it provides a cap stone customer for Azure.
I think Azure is fully featured and mature enough that everyone will consider it to be in the same category as amazon or google's cloud offering but, this checks off a box for Fortune 500 CTO's who need to see a big customer using it.
Something Something something ... never getting fired for buying IBM
3) Sales force is going up against oracle and Microsoft here. They are just learning what Yahoo when through.
Trying to compete against competitors who have cash cow monopolies in other areas that allow them to fund a business to compete against you really gets tough quickly.
Salesforce is well run and has a great start but billions of dollars a year in almost guaranteed profit gives companies alot of time and opportunity to compete and fail over and over again until they get it right.