I have been working with Salesforce.com for some months now during implementation. There are some massive benefits as well some issues to consider based on early impressions.
Have no doubt that for many applications SaaS or software-on-demand is the way to go. It's great to instantly access the app. and get going. Basic configuration changes are easy enough to make. A large proportion of users should be able to perform basic functions with minimal training. All this without having to be concerned with procuring servers, lead times, amortisation schedules, power and NOC constraints, etc.
Inherent scalability and extensibility are major benefits. SFDC are running hard with making the force.com platform attractive and have a head start with a captive user base of about 1.1m users at last count. This means that CRM functionality can be enhanced and new functionality can be relatively easily added.
In South Africa, the most common concerns relate to data privacy and performance. Both are important. Protection of personal information legislation is in the works and clients/customers (whose data will be stored on SFDC) will have to provide consent, usually through terms and conditions when signing up with an organisation using SFDC.
The bandwidth situation is improving but there is no substitute for rigorous testing to ensure the user experience when adding, editing or running reports is acceptable. User adoption can quickly deteriorate or fail completely if response times due to poor bandwidth management.
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