Help...

So, I guess many of you have heard about the problems affecting Salesforce.com last week. If not, take a look at Ben's blog which has links to various news article from around the web - http://blogs.msdn.com/midatlanticcrm/archive/2005/12/22/506872.aspx

However, rather than using this an opportunity to take a cheap shot against another CRM vendor, I started thinking about the whole on-premise vs. hosted choice that customers need to make. Salesforce.com have 100% gone down the hosted road, which for some is absolutely the right approach for their business today. However, what about those customers who prefer to run entirely on-premise, or who may want to change from one to the other as their business needs evolve. What about those customers who require a mixture of on-premise and hosted services?

Actually, what most customers are asking for is a solution that helps them solve their business needs and gives them the option to do it they way they want to. This is precisely what our strategy of Choice is all about. With the release of the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) for CRM 3.0 in January, a number of our CRM partners are preparing to offer hosted CRM solutions for their customers. But this doesn't preclude them from chosing to move to an on-premise solution in future, should their customers require it.

I think over the next few months we will see just how this will pan out, but I feel confident that we have not only the right CRM solution for most customers, but also the right deployment options.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.