As if the 200+ sessions alone weren't worth the price of admission to attend Dreamforce 2007, comes the news that none other than George Lucas will be speaking at the event.

This just keeps getting better all the time.

I was reading through the new API features coming out in the next release of Salesforce (Summer '07) when the Metadata API feature caught my eye. This feature addresses a big pain point we have today, which is helping customers to quickly install and configure their Salesforce org for i-Dialogue web site integration.

AppExchange packages are fairly self-contained and cannot modify native objects. Many tasks are left to manual configuration. For example, if we want to extend Salesforce Campaigns with detailed, real-time information like number of emails sent, click-through-rate, or web pages viewed, then we must manually create these metrics as custom fields on the Campaign object. Our default AppExchange package only installs a couple additional custom objects (a web event data warehouse).

But the Metadata API apparently will let us remotely create these fields on the Campaign object, conceivably allowing us to add a link on the "About" tab of our package that instructs our service to configure your Salesforce environment for rich Campaign management and real-time web analytics.

So, I started thinking... why have anything at all in the AppExchange package except the smart "About" tab? Just let customers download the bare essentials and let our service remotely provision Salesforce to guarantee installation/configuration success every time? Why cast our fate into the wind and use Managed Packages when implementing upgrades? With the Metadata API, we can figure out precisely which object/fields are installed and automate upgrades of both Salesforce and your i-Dialogue web site.

Microsoft's announcement that MS CRM Live will be priced at $45 per user has raised some responses from the competition.

You can buy the on-premise version of MS CRM today for about $1,500, which includes a perpetual use license. Spread that cost out over 3 years and you get $41.66 per month. Add a few bucks for hosting and $45 sounds about right.

I have a feeling that there will be more parity between an organization's size and the number of seats licensed at this price point.

For example, an organization with 20 employees may only subscribe to 5 Salesforce seats at $75 per month and limit access to those in Sales or Support. Whereas the same organization may be more inclined to purchase 10-15 seats at $45 per month.

While Salesforce clearly has more cross functional value than MS CRM, customers often do not want to pay for unused functionality in the early stages of adopting CRM when centralized contact management is the primary goal.

Who is this iPod person and why do so many Marketers continue to embark on a campaign to free him/her? OK, but seriously. How qualified is a Lead that responds to a "Free iPod" campaign anyway? From my personal experience, the answer is "zero". Aside from the person who actually wins the iPod, "no" leads are actually compelled to learn more about your product or service when giving away consumer goods in a B2B campaign (and good luck converting the winner... they'll kick the tires and take a test drive out of respect, but they won't be a real decision maker). The lesson learned? If you're going to give anything away, at least make sure it has your brand/logo on it so you can justify the giveaway as an advertising expense. But ideally, make the collateral relevant and related to cultivating the dialogue with a customer.

Want to do your part and contribute to a greener Internet? Use www.BlackGoogle.com instead of regular www.Google.com to reduce the watts used by your display.

Who knew?

Actually, this topic brings up an interesting point. When designing landing/web pages or emails, do you prefer white backgrounds? Blue? Black? Other colors?

Some research shows that a variety of background colors may be used, as long as there is high contrast. Other research demonstrates that Black on White is the most readable color combination.

Looking for a way to enjoy the beautiful Oregon Summer evenings? Check out http://www.lunchtime.us/ (I'm hoping to start attending the Monday evening league games). Other disc golf courses in Oregon.