I was reading Salesforce.com’s news release yesterday, “ Salesforce unveils next chapter in customer service…including the industry’s first knowledge-as-a-service,” and I just about fell out of my seat.
Then, my TweetDeck dinged and I saw Forrester analyst Dr. Natalie Petouhoff’s tweet, “@drnatalie: Alex says they have 1st KB for cloud, what about RightNow?” My thoughts exactly Natalie…
The spin and half-truths is enough to force the engineer in me to write a blog post. When will the software industry start holding itself accountable to the levels of accuracy and truthfulness that every other industry is held to?
In their release, Salesforce stated, “Salesforce.com will offer the world’s first Knowledge-as-a-Service, the first ever multi-tenant knowledge base designed for cloud computing.”
In reality, RightNow introduced a powerful, patented, self-learning knowledge base, delivered as a service, in 1997. The RightNow knowledge base is not new; it has a track record of success. Leading consumer brands, such as Black & Decker, Electronic Arts, Nikon, Ben & Jerry’s and British Airways, have been using the RightNow knowledge base for years. Many of these companies have been recognized for their customer service success, some of which can be attributed to the RightNow knowledge base. Our 1,900 clients around the globe have used the RightNow knowledge base to facilitate more than 6 billion customer interactions (that is everyone in North America counted 20 times!).
Salesforce also noted that “…Plantronics has standardized on the Service Cloud for their customer service operations.” In reality, Plantronics has been using RightNow to deliver great customer experiences since 2000. Go to their web site and check out their support section and you will see the RightNow knowledge base in action.
Maybe next week I can convince the RightNow marketing team to announce the first SFA solution for the cloud. Do you think Salesforce would notice?
David Vap
September 10, 2009 at 11:12 am
Yikes! How embarassing for Salesforce. Can you imagine thinking you’ve come up with a great idea for the “industry” without knowing that it’s already been around for 12 years… Or maybe they did know and tried to pull the wool over… well I’m not sure who they were trying to fool. No matter how you slice it, I’m embarassed for them.
September 10, 2009 at 11:46 am
Wow! Unbelieveable that Salesforce.com’s marketing department and….CEO…would make such a claim. I figured Salesforce would be watching their competitors offerings closely and realize that RightNow developed and released a true knowledge as a service offering more than a decade ago. Perhaps Salesforce has finally realized that they can’t compete with RightNow in the eService environment, and therefore failed to evaluate what RightNow has been offering for many-many-many years.
As my father always said, “never lie, cause you will always be cautgh.” Less than 24 hours after Salesforce.com’s false press release, I have to say, Salesforce YOU HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN A DIRTY LIE.
September 11, 2009 at 3:30 pm
David,
Thank you for your insightful post! It looks like CutomerThink’s Bob Thompson agrees with you.
Read more here: http://www.customerthink.com/blog/salesforce_launches_hype_as_a_service_erodes_trust
December 1, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Hey David, looks like you were referenced in a government panel discussion on cloud computing. http://www.elementalcloudcomputing.com/2009/10/06/virtualization-cloud-computing-green-it-summit-progress-report-on-cloud-computing-in-government/