Comments on: Marc Benioff, Please Stop Confusing Me

By: SaaS Blogs - » What to Look For in an On Demand Platform (aka SaaS Platform)

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:03:16 +0000

[...] The clamor and buzz surrounding�on-demand platforms for SaaS has been growing steadily. I recently wrote an article on Marc Benioff’s latest platform position. In the video�interview I reference, Mr. Benioff highlights some key, defining aspects of platforms. Although in the article I discuss a prevailing ambiguity in Benioff’s vision, I must say that I agree with most of his statements regarding platforms. I was recently reading an excellent post by Phil Wainewright that summarized panel discussions at the SIIA OnDemand Summit. In the summary, Mr. Wainewright discusses how most of the panelists congregated around the SaaS platform & ecosystem campfire. I realize that the discussions were high level, but the topic coupled with Mr. Benioff’s observations prompted me to think about the next step: what are some of the traits that *might* (notice the * for ‘proceeding with caution’) define a successful platform in the future. I came up with the following, in no particular order: [...]

By: Sinclair Schuller

Sinclair Schuller — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:49:43 +0000

For anyone still reading this post, the video is back up. The section I refer to as the “paraphrase” in the article can be found from 2:20 on.

By: Sinclair Schuller

Sinclair Schuller — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 21:21:24 +0000

Unfortunate indeed! Renting that movie is a brilliant idea; you’ll surely appreciate the reference.

By: Kingsley Joseph

Kingsley Joseph — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:35:12 +0000

Unfortunate. On the upside, you did remind me to rent The Usual Suspects, which I haven’t seen yet.

By: Sinclair Schuller

Sinclair Schuller — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:19:35 +0000

Kingsley, I was actually paraphrasing Mr. Benioff, who was being interviewed in a video on Mr. Farber’s post, and not the text of Mr. Farber’s post. In the video, Mr. Benioff’s comment is near verbatim to my paraphrase.

Alas, the video is now gone. I wonder where it went? Nonetheless, I appreciate your attempt to provide clarification, but we are clearly referencing two sources. Unfortunately, my source pulled a Keyser S�ze.�”And poof. Just like that, he’s gone.”

PS: I never assumed your opinions belonged to anyone other than yourself;-).

By: Kingsley

Kingsley — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 17:24:16 +0000

Sinclair, here’s the exact quote: “Benioff calls it moving from killer apps to killer platforms, of which there will be many.”

If this is what you’re paraphrasing, I see *no way* in which this can be interpreted as “code and data will be portable across platforms”. It seems to me like he’s saying that the industry will move from creating killer apps to creating many killer platforms.

PS: As always, these are my opinions and they are not endorsed by my employer.