Organizing your Salesforce Orgs

Does this sound familiar? You’re moving from an independent instance (or org) of Salesforce CRM to the consolidated corporate org.  While there will definitely be business benefits in terms of visibility, reporting, customer/prospect communication, support, responsiveness, enablement and general leverage of corporate resources, it still represents a potential loss of autonomy. But it’s the right strategy for your business. Or is it?

Whether you ended up with multiple Salesforce orgs through mergers and acquisitions, separate brands or divisions, or through organic growth: at some point your organization is going to need to determine what is the right approach to multi-org consolidation. Here is an overview of 3 approaches to consider.

Salesforce.com Multi-Org Consolidation from Darren Cunningham

Related articles

• Where are you Salesforce? (channel-buzz.com)
• Salesforce.com set to build out Chatterbox with EntropySoft acquisition (techworld.com.au)

Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica

I’ve written about the topic of cloud-based master data management (MDM) in the past:

1. 2012 Cloud Data Integration Trends
2. What do Salesforce.com Customers Care About?

This week Informatica announced the availability of a new Cloud MDM solution for salesforce.com customers. Here are a couple of perspectives on the news:

1. Will Salesforce be the Catalyst to Propel MDM to the Cloud?
2. Mind the Gap: How Sales Operations Can Overcome Five Customer Information Gaps in Salesforce

If you’re new to the topic of MDM and want to learn why a cloud-based solution built natively on force.com is so relevant to salesforce.com customers, be sure to check out this video:

2011 Predictions: Hybrid Cloud Integration Platforms, Private Cloud Confusion

I posted my 2011 cloud integration predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog today. They are:

1. Cloud Adoption Drives Two-Tier Cloud Integration Strategies
2. LOB-Driven Cloud Integration Projects Lead to Strategic Master Data Management (MDM) Initiatives
3. The Rise of the Cloud Integration Platform
4. Enterprise Database.com Adoption
5. Private Cloud Confusion Continues

Full post:  2011 Cloud Integration Predictions: Hybrid Platform Adoption, Private Cloud Confusion

Related Articles

• Cloud Predictions for the Next Generation Enterprise (getapp.com)
• 14 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2011 from Chirag Mehta and R “Ray” Wang (readwriteweb.com)
• Research Report: 2011 Cloud Computing Predictions For Vendors And Solution Providers (enterpriseirregulars.com)
• Six big trends to watch in 2011 (enterpriseirregulars.com)

2011 Data Integration Predictions

Chris Boorman has posted his 2011 Predictions from the World of Data Integration on the Informatica Perspectives blog. Not surprisingly, he has a lot to say about cloud integration. Here are his predictions:

1. The Data Deluge Increases Pace – Big Data Arrives
2. The Hybrid IT Enterprise Finally Embraces the Cloud
3. Cost Savings will Still be Front of Mind
4. Enterprises will Focus on Data to Emerge from the Recession
5. Data Virtualization takes its rightful place alongside other Virtualizations
6. Social Data Moves Enterprises from Transactions to Interactions
7. Privacy and Security Risks Drive MDM and Data Masking
8. Community will Accelerate Innovation
9. Self-service, Cloud and Collaboration will Squeeze Open Source Data Integration Solutions

It’s a solid list. Be sure to read the entire post here and share your feedback.

Sohaib Abbasi Keynote at Informatica World 2010

I recently summarized some of the cloud integration highlights from Informatica World 2010, but I forgot to mention a few of the great customer sessions. Special thanks to our friends at Janus Capital, Network Solutions, Toshiba and HealthDetail for sharing best practices and approaches to integrating cloud-based applications like Salesforce CRM with other enterprise applications, databases and files.

Here are some highlights from the keynote session delivered by Informatica’s CEO Sohaib Abbasi:

Related Articles

• Informatica Aims toward $800 Million in 2011 (arnoldit.com)
• Toshiba Honored with 2010 Informatica Innovation Award (prweb.com)

Master Data in the Cloud?

Interesting article in Computer World today: IT Moves to the Cloud, Anecdote by Anecdote. It got me thinking about what will move to the cloud and when. Last year at Dreamforce a number of people in a panel session hosted by Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies mentioned that they’re thinking about MDM in the cloud. As people get ready for this year’s event, I thought I’d put up a poll to find out when your company will (or will not) consider moving master data to the cloud:

If the topic of MDM is new to you, Wikipedia has a pretty good overview.

Informatica Cloud Podcast

It’s always tough to hear your own voice, but I thought I’d share this podcast with cloud and data integration industry guru Dave Linthicum anyway: Cloud Provider Spotlight: Informatica. (Just turn down your speakers a little bit after his introduction so I don’t blow out your ear drums.)

It’s always great to chat with Dave. In this discussion, topics range from Informatica Cloud Summer 2010 to data quality and master data management to the future of enterprise software. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Three Ways to Improve Cloud Data Governance

I wrote about Cloud Data Governance on the Informatica Perspectives blog this week. My recommendations for IT organizations dealing with what Dave Linthicum refers to as “Technological Infidelity” include:

• Establish an Integration Competency Center  Shared Services Model
• Investigate Lean Integration
• Develop a Master Data Management (MDM) strategy

The full post is here:  Will Data Governance Slow Down Or Accelerate Cloud Adoption?