SalesForce.com is the solution we need, but it's still out of reach
By David All, 09/22/2007 - 7:17pm

Related links:

That crazy Brit, Ed Trelinski, points out a gnarly video which adapts Michael Wesch's uber-informative "Web 2.0...The Machine is us/ing us" vid to help promote SalesForce.com's "the Platform is a Service" brand push.

Via YouTube: "Force.com...the Platform is a Service."


CRM software is hardly as sexy as Web 2.0 or nifty socnet strategies, but it's the reason why some of our favorite companies are able to make the world of the "Long Tail" niche available and profitable. With its tool geared toward campaigns, CampaignForce, we can expect politicians to follow a similar effective/successful/commonsense strategy.

Or is there something that might prevent campaigns from embracing a quality CRM solution?

Maybe. I've personally talked to quite a few folks over at SalesForce.com and while their app for campaigns is killer, it's still far too expensive for any race except Presidential campaigns (Mitt Romney and Ron Paul both use it) and possibly a highly-competitive Senate race (I'm talking to you Virginia).

Look, I'm not suggesting the investment isn't worth every penny. It is. It's just that the people holding the keys to the treasure still think everything on the Internet should be free, dirt cheap, or made in the basement.

The argument against shuffling funds to the online strategy of course is that every dollar going in to an online solution is a dollar away from the media budget. And the media budget is the fat, juicy head -- often 80% of the campaign's total spending.

Fortunately, after this election cycle I'm hopeful that Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will make their experience with these top-notch products available as case studies.

[Cross-posted with a smile from TechRepublican]

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The Competition

I've been through this with political and nonprofit campaigns, and everyone understands the need for a good database after they've had to deal with Excel for too long, but yes - many are expensive. And a few of the best companies that had good products exclusively for political campaigns that did exist during the '04 campaign didn't survive until '08.

However, that said, there are still some great solutions out there. I just did a ton of research recently for one organization and I looked at about 25 databases including Salesforce. At least for those who choose to work with Democrats, there are some good products available at good prices. I don't know about the Republican exclusive companies. Some campaigns prefer to work only with companies or nonprofits that produce these solutions exclusively to members of their own parties for security purposes.

In any case, if the companies know they're working with an organization or candidate who can bring a big name and/or future customers to their client list, they are almost always willing to bring the price down.

....
Sarah Granger is Founder & CEO of Future Campaign Solutions.

By Sarah Granger at Sun, 09/23/2007 - 5:23pm | login or register to post comments

Late to the Party

David,

You're usually pushing the envelope, but I think you're a bit behind the times on this one.

Campaigns started using CRM tools decades ago. In 2000 they moved to web-based solutions, when my company and several others launched campaign-specific applications.

Thousands of campaigns, from local school board candidates to US Presidental candidates are now using web-based CRM solutions.

And industry specific solutions, like ours, are getting wide acceptance because we're specifically tailored to the needs of political organizations and we respect the budgetary constraints of our clients.

TechPresident's sister site, Personal Democracy Forum, did a great survey of political SaaS providers, many of which offer CRM solutions.

Email & phone below for questions (or if you want a demo.)

- Ben Katz

Company Founder
CompleteCampaigns.com
katz@completecampaigns.com

By CompleteCampaigns at Mon, 09/24/2007 - 12:49pm | login or register to post comments

Dems have had NGP for years

David, we'll cut you some slack, as you work with Republicans, and therefore probably haven't run into NGP, which doesn't service Republican candidates. We've been around since 1997, and our online CRM (Campaign Office) was already used by most of the Democratic Presidential campaigns back in 2004.

This cycle NGP Campaign Office is being used by top Democratic Presidential candidates including Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Obama, and Richardson (as well as about two thirds of the Democrats in Congress and many smaller campaigns). Many of us at NGP come from campaign backgrounds, and that understanding is reflected in our software, services, and reasonable pricing.

Stu Trevelyan
President
NGP Software
www.ngpsoftware.com

By Stu Trevelyan at Thu, 09/27/2007 - 6:01pm | login or register to post comments

Well maybe...

...you guys should have made a YouTube video to help promote your products creatively?

________________________________________
David All
http://davidallgroup.com
http://techRepublican.com
http://slatecard.com
________________________________________

By David All at Sun, 09/30/2007 - 4:08pm | login or register to post comments



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