Salesforce.com Revolutionizes Customer Service for a Social and Mobile World with Desk.com
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today unveiled Desk.com, revolutionizing customer service for a social and mobile world. Desk.com enables businesses to deliver personal customer service by offering a help desk that is social, mobile and simple to use and deploy. Built with social at its core, Desk.com allows any business to instantly work with customers over any major social network. Desk.com Mobile allows companies to carry a help desk in their pocket and answer customers on the go. Finally, Desk.com is so simple that any company, even one without an IT staff, can get up and running over a weekend. Businesses can sign up for Desk.com today for as little as $49.
Comments on the News:
- "We built Desk.com so that every company can deliver personal customer service in a social and mobile world. Desk.com is social at its core; its mobile app instantly lets any employee, anywhere, deliver awesome customer service; and it can be deployed quickly and easily," said Alex Bard, vice president and general manager, Desk.com…
Mobile, cloud, and big data pros in high demand for 2012
Recession-fueled stagnation is slowly drawing to an end as U.S. companies are signaling they’re ready to sink some cash into growth and emerging markets. That spells opportunity for certain IT professionals: Companies are looking to hire and retain those who are skilled in areas such as mobility [1], cloud computing [2], software development [3], and big data [4].
Such is the big picture painted by two separate reports released this week. One comes from research company Hackett Group, titled "2012 IT Key Issues: Coming to Terms with the ‘New Normal’ [5]." It identifies Global 1000 companies’ key priorities for the year. The other is IT staffing company Bluewolf’s "2012 IT Salary Guide [6]," which provides an in-depth look at IT salaries and hiring trends…
2012: Cloud and SaaS To Drive Need for Enterprise-wide Identity, Access Management
The explosive success of cloud computing, especially SaaS, will spark searches in 2012 for better ways to ensure security, privacy and enterprise-wide identity and access management, said Darren Platt, CTO and co-founder of Symplified.
Researcher have noted cloud security is attracting more interest from IT. In 2012, IDC predicts as many as 80% of all new commercial apps will be deployed from cloud platforms. Further, by the end of 2012, Forrester Research predicts that enterprises that tap into the cloud will be using 10 or more cloud-based services or SaaS applications…
The Rise of Cloud Computing on Wall Street
As Wall Street continues to struggle with volatile markets, uncertain global economic conditions and vanishing profits, many firms are looking to reduce their capital expenditures. Targeting the costs of building data centers and maintaining server farms, more and more Wall Street organizations are looking to outsource pieces of their infrastructures to the cloud.
While all of the largest financial firms already are experimenting with cloud technology in non-production areas such as server provisioning and storage networks, most remain cautious about security and refuse to let client data leave the relative safety of their own facilities. "We want to manage our own destiny," says Darren Tedesco, managing principal, innovation and strategy, at Commonwealth Financial, an independent broker-dealer that built an enterprise private cloud to host the firm’s wealth management platform…
Outsourcing the IT Department to the Cloud: Does It Make Sense for SMBs?
Cloud computing–it’s been the buzzword around technology markets of all types for the past several years and is finally starting to deliver on promises made. In many ways a more efficient reworking of the centralized data concept, cloud computing promises more for less by allowing a small or midsize business (SMB) to outsource any part of or all of their IT department. But while "as-a-service" options all offer greater ease of use and supposedly lower costs, does letting a cloud provider take full IT control really make sense?
The Great IT Debate
For SMBs, the cloud represents two things: lower cost and improved agility. Many businesses love the idea of having no in-house servers, which should cut power costs and end the need for upgrades over time. In addition, the cloud’s promise to deliver almost any app and run on multiple operating systems makes many SMBs eager to buy in. Limited patching and downtime and always-on access sounds great to most business owners…
Separating cloud facts from cloud fiction
Cloud computing isn’t new, having been in use by big business for decades in some form or another. Now the technology is readily accessible to SMBs, you need to separate fact from fiction to understand the benefits it can deliver to your business.
We keep hearing about how ‘the cloud’ is going to make us crazy-powerful and change the way we live. If that were true, it should’ve happened back when Hotmail started the trend for people to exchange information without requiring their own physical server for storage. That innovation did change things, but it didn’t rock the world quite as much as contemporary cloud computing aficionados are making out…
Microsoft entices startups with Azure cloud promotional offer
Startup business incubator TechStars has forged a partnership with Microsoft intended to entice certain members of its accelerator programs around the United States to use Azure cloud computing and storage capacity.
The deal is an extension to the Microsoft BizSpark Plus program, which is a broader initiative to provide Microsoft services and technology resources to certain selected startup companies. The motivation: Get small businesses hooked on Microsoft technology early in their business development, and they are likely to stick with that technology as they grow…
How Rackspace Generates Cloud Computing Customer Loyalty
Rackspace VP of Enterprise Strategy Andrew Schroepfer says the cloud computing company has a 1 percent monthly churn rate. How did Rackspace achieve such a low customer churn and high customer retention? Schroepfer offered some insights during the CA Technologies MSP Symposium today in Miami, Fla.
Schroepfer pointed to four lessons:
- We’re a great place to work
- We have a standardized services portfolio to keep things simple.
- We’re easy to work with
- Our employees focus on jobs that involve their core strengths…
Megaupload Equals Mega Fail for Cloud Computing
The shut down of Megaupload by the U.S. government is not being perceived for what it is: a mega failure for cloud computing.
The operation, which had 50 million users, was a lot more than a pirate operation. It provided legitimate cloud-based backup, storage, and transfer functionality for plenty of people.
So now, two storage companies that hosted users’ data could begin erasing files this Thursday. I’m certain many, if not most, of the 50 million users will find out about this on Friday, when some automated function fails. When these poor saps look into the failure, they’ll be surprised to learn that their data has been unceremoniously deleted. If it was important, well then, too bad…
Companies Achieve Private Cloud Breakthrough with CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms
Cloud computing can make a variety of computing services available to companies of all sizes on an ‘as-need’ basis. It allows cloud providers to offer a range of physical resources, such as processors, data storage, applications, and platform access for developers. The result is that smaller companies can eliminate the need for physical hardware as well as the expenditures it entails.
In turn, companies receive access to massive computing and storage resources, then pay only for pro-rated computing services and usage. With that goal in mind, an increasing number of companies are also creating their own private clouds. Into this arena comes CA Technologies (News – Alert) with its latest offering: CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock…