The presenters included Brad Desent of Apex Consulting, Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, and Michael Topalovich, CTO of Delivered Innovation. Topics of conversation centered around old cloud vs. new cloud discussions, leading cloud offerings (PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS), and which cloud applications are useful in running your business, such as Remember the Milk, Google Docs, and Quickbooks.

Justin Hartung, Enterprise Deployment Manager at Google, stated that the turnout of the event, “shows how much the cloud has grown, and how important it is for businesses today to educate themselves on cloud benefits.”

Russell Pease, Strategic Accounts at Windstream, shared his thoughts, “the event was great; it’s interesting to see so many industry experts participate in a cloud discussion and give their own definition of cloud computing since everyone’s is slightly different.”

For a full review of the event, read Delivered Innovation’s blog.

More about Delivered Innovation
Founded in 2006, Delivered Innovation (DI) designs and develops on-demand SaaS business applications. Utilizing leading cloud computing technologies and leveraging strategic partnerships, DI helps clients address complex business challenges and create revenue opportunities by automating business processes, extending the functionality of existing CRM enterprise systems, and introducing new business capabilities within Salesforce.

DI understands the critical nature of getting services to market quickly in order to capture first-mover advantages. Additionally, DI understands that it is just as important for services to be well-designed, highly functional, and high performing in order to drive rapid adoption and growth. With DI’s innovative approach to SaaS application and design, they have completed over 125 successful projects, ranging from innovative startups to global 500 companies.

Links
www | Force Architects Blog | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Google+

Media Contact
Jessica Buhrman | Social Marketing Manager | jbuhrman/deliveredinnovation.com

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Monday AM Admin: Get your Chatter-cation
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• State of the Cloud Event Recap

Salesforce.com recently announced an alliance with Deloitte, one of the largest consulting firms in the world. The goal of the alliance is to provide, “multinational companies with software, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.” Deloitte can also help salesforce.com increase their presence in the cloud computing market share by having access to Deloitte’s large customer base, comprised mainly of large enterprises. Deloitte’s customers are looking to “work more effectively and more efficiently,” and the possibilities with cloud computing and Salesforce might just be the key.

• Salesforce.com to Widen Cloud Computing Reach with Deloitte Partnership

Cloud computing is very cost effective, but also comes with a lot of risk and security worries. With these in mind, how are higher education institutions implementing cloud computing? Currently, United States’ universities implement the cloud for three essential reasons: to lower the cost of hardware and maintenance, expand access to research and academic outputs, and grant access to Web 2.0 applications for students and teachers.

• Cloud Computing: Its Benefits, and How it is Implemented by Universities

Before deploying a cloud service, it is important to asess the risks and ask the right questions. CloudTweaks offers a few important questions to ask that will help you get you started: Who is managing my data? What access controls are in place? Is the data secured? Where is the data actually located? Are they here to stay? Each of these questions will give you a better idea where your data is going, how it is being kept secure, and what would happen to your data if the company shuts down or is acquired by someone else.

• Security Questions to Ask Your Cloud Service Provider

There is a great discussion in LinkedIn regarding marketing automation in Salesforce, Stephanie Kimball posted the question to the Salesforce Power Users Group: “Looking for a great email marketing software that integrates with Salesforce, we are currently using Exact Target and are not happy with it. Any suggestions?” The discussion has over 40 participants, with Exact Target, MailChimp, and Marketo in the lead for most suggestions. If you have any input, post your thoughts through the link below.

• Looking for a Great Email Marketing Software that Integrates with Salesforce

State of the Cloud 2012 was a full house, with attendance ranging from professionals at Google and Motorola, to SMEs such as First Communications and Hexistor. Our three presenters, Brad DeSent from Apex Consulting Group; Chris Kabat from MPS Partners; and Delivered Innovation’s own Michael Topalovich, spoke on leading cloud capabilities.

In response to the event, Justin Hartung, Enterprise Deployment Manager at Google, stated that the turnout of the event “shows how much the cloud has grown,” and how important it is for businesses today to educate themselves on cloud benefits. Russ Pease, Strategic Accounts at Windstream, shared his thoughts, “the event was great; it’s interesting to see so many industry experts participate in a cloud discussion and give their own definition of cloud computing since everyone’s is slightly different.”

We were very excited about the turnout of the event, and would like to share with you what we learned:

Brad DeSent was the first to take the stage and presented on the old vs. new in cloud computing. Old news- cloud computing discussions were centered around public vs. private clouds, what the difference is between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and what essential characteristics such as on-demand service and resource pooling that the cloud provides. Today, discussions circle around topics of mobility due to releases in tablets, smart phones, and mobile apps, security and backup for cloud services, and “cloud by default” deployments in offices, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs.

Chris Kabat helped bring to light our understanding of PaaS, IaaS, and storage as a service. A couple big players in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are Google and Amazon EC2; in Platform as a Service (PaaS) there are Amazon, Windows Azure, Force.com, and Google; in Storage as a Service (which is a relatively new term), there are Dropbox, Google, and Rackspace, to name a few. Each of these players have unique offerings to consumers, and when exploring cloud possibilities, it is important to investigate and compare options.

Some interesting statistics:

• 72% of professionals feel more positive about cloud computing than they did 1 year ago

• Cloud computing is predicted to stay in progressive growth mode, with 53% of professionals wanting more clarity around cloud offerings, and 47% wanting more clarity around deployments.

Lastly, our CTO took the stage. Running 100% in the cloud for the past two years, Mike Topalovich gave a run down of the cloud applications that Delivered Innovation uses on a daily basis. Topalovich gave us a quick demo of Evernote for note taking and web clipping, Remember the Milk for task management, Quickbooks for finance management, and Google Docs for document and project collaboration. With these tools, Delivered Innovation has been able to more effectively run our business, making accessibility to information quicker and easier than ever before. Some other applications to consider for your business are Dropbox for storage, Expensify for expense management, DocVerify for document management, Basecamp for project management, and ZenDesk for an online help desk.

With so many cloud applications, there comes an issue with integration- how can you integrate one application with another? Better yet, how can you integrate five applications into one? Topalovich answered this question by stating that applications can be integrated into PaaS services, such as the Force.com platform. That allows for the application to be integrated into a SaaS environment, in this example it would be Salesforce. The added benefit being paying a one time fee for integration and customization, then having it available for full usage. This cuts down on management of different cloud applications, as you could manage them in one place, in one dashboard.

Thank you to everyone who attended our event, we enjoyed your feedback and look forward to seeing you again soon! If you have any further questions or comments about this event, please comment below, or email me at jbuhrman/deliveredinnovation.com.

REST API Cheat Sheet: It’s Only Cheating if You’re Taking a Test
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• Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour

Salesforce.com is home to over a million applications running on Force.com, Database.com, and Heroku. These platforms are all targeted towards a specific type of application: Force.com for developers who are creating data-centric applications similar to CRM, Heroku to run custom apps that can be rewritten in multiple languages, and Database.com for unifying Force.com and Heroku under a common set of cloud services. According to Byron Sebastian, CEO of Heroku, the reason why salesforce.com is so successful in the cloud is not the type of cloud platforms offered, but rather, because salesforce.com “allows them to concentrate on building the application rather than worrying about managing the servers the application runs on.” If you need Force.com application help, let us know and we might be able to help.

• Salesforce.com: A Million Cloud Apps and Counting

Have you voted for Delivered Innovation’s two panels at Techweek? If not, what are you waiting for?

• Techweek 2012- Vote for Delivered Innovation!

Deloitte has formed an alliance with salesforce.com to “provide multinational and international companies with the software, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.” Paul Clemmons, Principal at Deloitte and leader of their cloud market offering and emerging solutions line, will be the lead in the global alliance. Deloitte argues that their clients are looking to work more effectively and efficiently, and a switch into cloud computing and salesforce.com will represent the solution catalyst.

• Deloitte Partners with Salesforce.com

Results for salesforce.com’s fiscal 4th quarter and full year 2012 financial results will be released on February 23, after the market closes. The company plans to host a conference call at 5:00 PM eastern time to discuss the financial results with the investment community. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the salesforce.com Investor Relations website at www.salesforce.com/investor.

• Salesforce.com Announces Timing of It’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Financial Results Conference Call

Our “State of the Cloud 2012: What Business Executives Need to KNow” event at the ITA is this upcoming Thursday, February 16! Our CTO, Mike Topalovich, is excited to join in on the cloud panel next to Brad DeSent of Apex Consulting Group, Inc., and Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, to discuss the evolving cloud computing landscape. The event is free, and held at the ITA (200 S. Wacker, 14th floor) starting at 9am on Thursday, February 16. Register using the link below, and we’ll see you there!

We are excited to announce that Delivered Innovation is in the running for two Techweek panels this year! The more votes, tweets, Likes, and LinkedIn shares we get, the more likely you will be seeing our panels at Techweek. If you can, take 10 minutes and review our panels and give us a big, fat vote. Voting ends Thursday, February 16.

Panel 1: Growing up on the Cloud
This panel will feature executives from companies with business models that were enabled by the cloud, speaking to how cloud computing technology allows them to provide products and services that would not be possible without leveraging cloud architecture. Moreover, they will discuss how the cloud has changed and where they see it going in the next 5 years.
Speakers include: Curtis Chambers, Head of Engineering at Uber; Alan McIntosh, CIO of Groupon; Chad Thibodeau, Director of Product Management and Alliances at Cleversafe; Mike Topalovich, CTO of Delivered Innovation.
Vote Now!

Panel 2: To “Like” or Not to “Like”: Should Your Company Turn to Social?
In this panel, you will learn how social can help your employees get their jobs done faster, improve efficiency, and increase employee satisfaction as well as create a forum for them to collectively develop new programs and services to enhance both the client experience and that of their work environment.
Speakers include: Jennifer Cloyd, VP of Sales/Marketing at Omega; Jessica Buhrman, Social Marketing Manager at Delivered Innovation; Starr McCaffery, Owner of Sound Solutions; Joe Bastain, Sr. Learning and Development Consultant at ACS Corporation.
Vote Now!

More about Techweek:
Techweek’s goal is to, “spotlight the big ideas and disruptive products in each [technology] industry.” To do this, Techweek holds a 5-day conference and 5-day expo at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. This year’s conference will include over 500 speakers across 200 panels and 12 tracks, ranging across every vertical of technology innovation. The conference will be held on June 22-26, 2012, and you can register for the conference here.

Create Custom Objects and Fields with Spring ’12 Schema Builder
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Mobile SDK Webinar Recording and Code
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• Salesforce.com Yields to Pressure Over Analytics Pricing

Have you rolled out Chatter yet in your organization? Becka offers some great advice on how she rolled out Chatter at her company. First, she allowed power users to get comfortable with Chatter in a sandbox environment for two months. This way, they could test it out, gather thoughts and feedback, and discuss best practices. During the end of this period, they began implementing a Chatter teaser campaign to all the end users to get them excited and interested. This campaign included videos on Chatter and a link to register for their Chatter training session. Once they thought it was ready for full implementation, they did a weekend launch to reduce the impact on users, and it was pretty darn smooth.

• Chatter Round 2

On Tuesday, salesforce.com launched Desk.com, “a savvy customer support application that connects agents with e-mail, phone calls, and social channels;” the application allows for simple management of customer questions and feedback. Desk.com speaks to smaller and medium sized businesses by providing them with cloud-based customer support management. Initial setup is easy, and customers can quickly begin handling questions from phone calls, email, and social media. Desk.com is built on Assistly, which salesforce.com acquired in 2011.

• Salesforce Launches Desk.com, Slick Social Customer Support Software Based on Assistly

There is a long-standing discussion going on in the Salesforce.com Professional Network LinkedIn Group regarding expense management applications. James Sankpill, current Salesforce user, asked current users what applications they prefer to use for expense management. Answers have danced around apps such as Expensify, Concurforce, and our favorite budget application, Marketing Budget Management. Not to brag, but we think MBM has the best solution out there at the most reasonable price. So James (and anyone else looking for a budget application) don’t forget to check out Marketing Budget Management on the AppExchange.

• Please Recommend an Expense Management App From the AppExchange

TechWeek, a week long event in Chicago dedicated to technology innovation, released panel and presentation submissions this week! Now it’s your time to vote and give the panels a green arrow or a red arrow. And while you’re voting, make sure to pay attention to Delivered Innovation’s TechWeek panels: “Growing up on the Cloud,” and “To Like or Not to Like: Should Your Company Turn to Social?” TechWeek will be held on June 22-26, and you can purchase tickets here.

• TechWeek 2012: SessionCast

Salesforce Email Services- Where is “Delete” Button?
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Video- Getting Started with Rails & Database.com Gem
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Upload Contacts from CSV File in a Visualforce Page- Source: Ranjeet Singh
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Developer Contest Contests!
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New developer contest, “Mobile Hybrid;” submit an article that demonstrates how to build a web application using the Mobile SDK hybrid approach.

• State of the Cloud 2012: Free Event at the ITA!

AppExchange released the top 11 Salesforce applications in 2011, as ranked by “glowing customer reviews” in their categories. Some of the winners include Marketo Sales Insight for “Best ChatterExchange,” ProvenWorks CountryComplete Free v2 for “Best Data Cleansing App,” and Jobscience Recruiting for “Best Human Resources and Recruiting App.” Check out the 11 applications to see if any can be of use to your organization. And hey, while you’re at it, check out Marketing Budget Management as well, it’s our favorite budgeting application. Maybe we’ll see that one on the list next year?

• AppExchange Customer Choice Award Winners 2011

Wanted Analytics, a talent research firm, reported that there has been a 61% increase in cloud computing-related jobs in the past year. Even more impressive, San Francisco had a 95% increase in cloud computing jobs. Other cities with cloud computing jobs in demand include New York, DC, and Seattle. Supply and demand for cloud computing jobs is not being met; so, if you’re considering a career change, perhaps you should look towards the cloud.

• Cloud Hiring Reaches New Heights

Congratulations to the newest round of Force.com MVPs. The MVP program is set in place to highlight individuals that provide outstanding service to the community, show leadership, and stewardship. As Force.com states, “MVPs are people who widely disseminate their knowledge as well as actively interfacing with and shaping the community.” Congrats, winners!

• The Next Round of Force.com MVPs!

Salesforce is more than just a CRM system, it can be used as a platform to develop a variety of custom applications quickly. The platform (Force.com) is reliable, doesn’t require on-premise software and infrastructure, and applications can be developed quickly and efficiently. Additionally, Salesforce is linked to the AppExchange, where there are already hundreds of pre-built applications, some of which are even free. If you’re looking for custom application development, let us know if we can help.

• Salesforce as Your Strategic Cloud Platform?

We are excited to announce our next (free!) cloud event, “Cloud Computing: What Business Executives Need to Know,” on Thursday, February 16 from 9:00am to 11:00am. At this event, our cloud experts will discuss the State of the Cloud entering 2012

The event will be framed like a discussion, in which three cloud computing enthusiasts will discuss the evolving cloud computing landscape by examining the shift to lower-cost, utility-supplied computing and the implications of the shift as related to business returns that are being experienced. Additionally, our presenters will discuss how specific offerings have evolved and provide examples of how companies are deploying the new technologies.

Questions and participation from attendees are welcomed and encouraged.

Come on by on the morning of Thursday, February 16, grab a bagel, and get ready to learn!

When & Where
Thursday February 16
9:00 AM-11:00 AM
ITA, 200 South Wacker Chicago, lL 60606
15th floor, Conference Room A/B

Schedule
8:30 am Registration, Networking and Complimentary Bagels
9:00 am Meeting Overview
9:15 am Deep Dive Introductions
9:30 am Cloud Computing Research Presentation
10:00 am Cloud Computing 2012 Prediction
10:30 am Roundtable Cloud Computing Discussion

Cost
Free!

The presenters include:

Michael Topalovich, CTO and Founder of Delivered Innovation, Inc.
Founded in 2006, Delivered Innovation (DI) designs and develops on-demand SaaS business applications. Utilizing leading cloud computing technologies and leveraging their strategic partnerships, A Preferred Business Partner of Salesforce.com, Delivered Innovation specializes in Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform.
For more information, contact Jessica Buhrman jbuhrman[at]deliveredinnovation.com / www.deliveredinnovation.com

Brad DeSent, Consultant and Founder of Apex Consulting Group, Inc.
Apex Consulting Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 to help Chicago-based businesses improve operations. Apex Consulting Group manages information technology for small and medium-sized businesses and offers a proactive approach to server and desktop management, network and systems administration, and end-user support.
For more information, visit www.apexcg.com

Chris Kabat, VP of Connected Business Systems, MPS Partners
Chris is responsible for overseeing solutions based on Enterprise Integration, Trading Partner Integration, and Service Oriented Architecture.
For more information, visit www.mpspartners.com