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One month after the Desynit crew returned from San Francisco, the Dreamforce dust has now well and truly settled. With the benefit of hindsight, we ask the question, what did this year’s Salesforce Superbowl really mean? And what has changed for us in the 28 days since we came back down to earth and to work, as customers, developers, admins and business owners?
“Taking the decision to adopt a technology platform for your business is a tough call. Salesforce is becoming much more mainstream in the UK, but the old adage, ‘no one ever got fired for choosing IBM’ still holds some currency, even today.”
“My experience, therefore, at Dreamforce, was basically reassuring. This was not just about unveiling a few new toys, this was a business with a comprehensive roadmap for taking the platform well into the next decade. They are making the investments in technology and in people that will bring with it the growth and success I want to see from my tech provider.”
“No one wants to find their business failed by a mature and quietly declining software house. The big players such as Oracle and SAP may have dominated the enterprise market for the last 30 years, but the next 30 belong to Salesforce. And that’s great news for me and the business I run.”
“I have two main takeaways from Dreamforce this year. Firstly, after taking part in the incredibly popular $1m Salesforce Hackathon, more than ever I believe that this is a winning format for development teams everywhere. Laser focus + tight teamwork + a set time goal = great results.”
“My other lightbulb moment, pardon the pun, was that with the announcement of Lightning. The future of development is moving towards components, and away from code. What does that mean for me? I see my role as building the cogs to connect the working parts. For example, you could build a Lightning component that displayed contact details on a map. This could be used equally by a delivery company, or by health professionals visiting patients at home. There is a good chance these cogs will find their way onto the AppExchange, providing everyone the building blocks they need.”
“It’s democratised development basically, and it can only be a good thing. It will open the door to development wide open, blurring the traditional roles of ‘devs’ and admins’ even further.”
“ I echo Chris’s thoughts on this entirely. Admins were given big status at Dreamforce this year, and that just reflects our growing powers and capabilities on the platform, and with it, our status.”
“The Process Builder is a point-and-click tool that allows us to automate business processes, without needing to resort to any Apex code. We get to carry on with our declarative way of working, but can crack on with those tasks that we would have had to pass over to our developer colleagues previously.”
“I know it’s not just Admins who are excited about this -the developers feel the same way. It makes their working lives a whole lot easier and more efficient too.”
“Dreamforce 2014 was a real glimpse of the future for me as a customer, and user of the platform. Unlike last year, when I came away with the Salesforce1 mobile app on my phone, there were no new toys to take away there and then. However, I know that Salesforce have fired the starting gun on something very important to my user experience, and its just around the corner…Lightning.
By making developer tools such as this available, in 2 years (maybe less) I expect to see my desktop experience transformed. I’m looking forward to an upgraded and far more personalized interface. Responsive design, more screen area, just the information I need at that time – this kind of UI will come as standard.”
Our independent tech team has been servicing enterprise clients for over 15 years from our HQ in Bristol, UK. Let’s see how we can work together and get the most out of your Salesforce implementation.
