As a sales engineer, I’m in a strange position where I need stay ahead of the latest technologies in order to know how to communicate how my product can fit into their technology stack. The majority of the code base at work relies on .NET and ASP but I often hear about a prospects or client using PHP, Java, and other open source technologies in their environment. Constantly switching back and forth does present a challenge but in the end it’s what I have to do.
The post on Mashable and TechCrunch about the latest venture between Google and Salesforce does create a rather unique situation in the realm of CRM. Does this bring an even bigger player into the CRM space? One can argue that the CRM space that Salesforce resides in, software as a service (SaaS) differs greatly from the space that on-premise CRM solutions such as Oracle/Siebel, Consona CRM, Microsoft CRM. But observing the way that software in general is moving toward these days, SaaS and Cloud Computing are starting to slowly make a big impact. It’s hard to say right now if Google will acquire Salesforce in order to extend their reach into the enterprise space, but if they do, it’ll definitely make my work more interesting.
