Comments for SalesWorks Takes On Salesforce.com With Hybrid Web/Desktop App

SalesWorks Takes On Salesforce.com With Hybrid Web/Desktop App

2007-01-30T21:15:43Z

Mission Research, a vendor of contact management solutions for the nonprofit sector, has launched a product today at DEMO aimed at the SOHO market. The product is called SalesWorks and is similar to Salesforce.com, in that it's used to manage contacts or sales leads. In fact it's being billed as "a Salesforce.com for the SOHO market", but without the cost or complicated features.

The people who founded Mission Research have a successful Dot Com sale behind them already - Charlie Crystle and team sold Chili!Soft for $70 million in 2000 to Cobalt Networks (which was subsequently acquired by Sun Microsystems). Perhaps that success is the reason why their current venture is focused on being "socially responsible". For example, last year they donated over $1 million of software to nonprofits. In terms of their software approach, Mission Research aims to produce a combination of desktop and Web tools - an approach they've named "The Hybrid Web". They want to achieve "the power and safety of desktop applications integrated smartly and safely with web-based functionality."

]]> Mission Research's feature product is called GiftWorks, used for fundraising. But the product they're launching at DEMO today is called SalesWorks. Some of its defining features include a dekstop app; integration with web services such as mapping, eCommerce, back-up/restore, e-marketing mailings; and a user friendly interface.

The cost is either free or $100 upward, but it's not clear how the cost structure works yet. In any case SalesWorks may well find a niche for businesses who don't want to give up the relative stability and security of a desktop app for contact management, but also want to take advantage of the Web. While Salesforce is a purely browser-based service, SalesWorks is betting on its low cost and desktop app rich interface as ways to differentiate itself.

Here are some screenshots:

Comment from John Milan on 2007-01-30

2007-01-30T23:11:46Z

I feel compelled to comment on a hybrid application...

I Like It!

It's great to see desktop applications taking design cues from simplified web applications. There's no reason a desktop app can't be simple too. In fact, I've always thought one of the best compliments is to describe an app as 'its so simple.'

The shift here is embracing some of the traits that made web apps successful on the desktop as well. But just as important, to work with web applications. The days of one app for everything are dwindling-- be it web or desktop.

Finally, we are moving away from sheer volume of features as a means to evaluate an app and more toward how well it solves a problem for all its constituents.

Comment from Michael Vu on 2007-01-30

2007-01-31T04:39:24Z

Looks like ZohoCRM, SugarCRM, Salesworks, Coghead, and Dabble DB will be competing for the dollars of small business owners.

There is a big void to be filled in the small business CRM sector. That reminds me, what ever happened to 37signals CRM rendition - Sunrise. They've been so quite about it.

This story is more than a year old!
http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/sunrise_37signals_crm_tool_for_small_business_is_coming_soon.php

Comment from Joe Darby on 2007-01-30

2007-01-31T04:57:28Z

I'm intrigued with the hybrid model. Crystle is always ahead of the curve with IT products for business people. Can't wait to see how this works. Love the price, too.

Comment from Bill Berry on 2007-01-31

2007-01-31T08:43:50Z

No support for Macs? OK, just wish that was right up front in bold letters. Would save some time. Wonder if Apollo will change this...

Comment from Thomas Bate on 2007-01-31

2007-01-31T10:18:10Z

Salesforce and the AppExchange platform is NO LONGER a web only service...the Visokio Connector for Salesforce turns Salesforce and potentially ALL Apex-based applications into hybrid, 'best of both worlds' applications by connecting them to the Visokio Omniscope total data solution for the desktop. The download-only version of the Connector for Salesforce is free to try, as is the Omniscope, a powerful, scaleable all-in-one desktop data visualisation, analysis, filtering and reporting/publishing solution with compact, portable files like PDF on steroids......as reviewed in RWW.

Comment from charlie crystle on 2007-01-31

2007-01-31T15:32:18Z

Thanks for the kind words. We aren't taking on salesforce, though, we're taking on the older desktop crm apps that aren't very appealing to the majority of people. We serve the lagging markets: small business, home office, nonprofits. The hosted model is cool in some ways, but if you get too religious about it you miss the point of tech in the first place, which is to meet the market on its own terms. In the SOHO space, that means for a lot of people something tangible and more present than hosted apps alone.

The hosted model evolved as a response to the headaches of internally managed apps in larger enterprises, running on Windows 95 and NT; I think with the evolution of desktop power and desktop stability, the need is less, and there's all this power on the desktop which provides for a great, responsive user experience. Then there's all these public APIs out on the web...so let's mash it up--merge the two. Run what matters where it matters, and with performance, storage, and bandwidth increasing in capacity and decreasing in price, it matters less an less.

And yeah, we're still small and can't afford to focus on more than one OS, but we'll do a Mac version at some point. in the meantime, I hate to say it but run it on XP on your Mac, and give us some time--we'll get there.