Salesforce1 Platform - A Short Overview

Few days back Salesforce.com, a leading On-Demand CRM provider, announced its new Salesforce 1 Platform. With CRM as a core offering, Offering platform which will help businesses to make their company as Customer Company.

Now What does Customer Company Means?
With Salesforce1, Your business would be :

1. Customer First
2. Customer Driven
3. Customer Centric
4. Customer Focused
5. Customer Trusted
6. Customer Company

 With salesforce1, you connect your Customers, Employees, Partners and Product, It makes you connect with customers in a whole new way, a Mobile way, anywhere anytime. 

With Mobile Strategy, Salesforce1 is introduced as an mobile container to create an mobile application for your own purpose.

Sales Cloud :- Sales From Anywhere with Salesforce1

• Assign tasks while you are travelling
• Add opportunities while waiting at launge
• Create new leads in Parties/Meetups
• Submit forecast on your way back to office
• Everything accessible from mobile device
• Create contacts on the Go.

Service Cloud : - Service and Engage faster with Salesforce1

• Always on Customer
• Manage cases from anywhere anytime
• Collaborate with Customers
• scheduling followup tasks

Salesforce Admin App :- No Desk & Assist from Anywhere

• Remotely reset password
• Deactivate users
• Know about Maintenance updates

Now with Salesforce1, You can add functionality in your Mobile App in few hours. Instead of spending few thousands/million dollars into creating an Mobile Application for your Organization, Use Salesforce1. To Download, Click Here. Its great application built by Salesforce.

Also Read my Post about Salesforce Marketing Cloud :
http://sandipmore.blogspot.in/2013/11/salesforce-1-marketing-cloud.html

So The Question Was...About Connecting The Dots

If you want to draw a circle by Hand...

How many dots one should put, before connecting these dots with lines, to draw a circle?

And My answer was zero. well the answer was  wrong cardinally, there is some ordinal aspect to this problem which I would like to write about here.

... I will write sometime, Its philosophy, Its Irrationality, Its Art and Its Science.

Salesforce 1 - Marketing Cloud Explained

Mark Benioff, the CEO, Co-Founder of Salesforce.com, a leader in On-Demand CRM platform unleashed its New Look platform Salesforce1 in its annual conference Dreamforce'13.  Being connected with Salesforce since last 3 years, I am closely tracking how Salesforce is evolving. Considering Current Buzz of Cloud and Mobile (Smartphones, more precisely), Salesforce has taken big jump with Salesforce1.

This year I didn't go to dreamforce, but Last year I experience this big Party. I attended live presentation by Mark Benioff. It was great. This year, I opted out but I watched  keynote on Youtube. It was great show putup by Mark. I was quite impressed by use cases they presented.

Have a look at this must watch video, You can take it as a Benchmark about how to create an intro video of new product. Also I was impressed by the intro video they have prepared for Salesfoce1.

The Salesforce1 Platform brings together Force.com, Heroku, and ExactTarget into one family of cloud services — all built API first — to help deliver apps that connect products, users, and next generation experiences. Designed for scale and speed, it provides a fast way to build apps with open APIs, back-end services, integration tools, starter templates as well as powerful developer environments; there’s no limit to what you can build.  - Salesforce Developer Website

Its Amazing!



I took some time to understand the new look Marketing Cloud which is now rebranded as ExactTarget Marketing Cloud or ExactTarget Fuel.  For a newbee or first look, Marketing cloud will overwhelm you and additionally all the content salesforce has put up on their website won't give much details. Additionally some links are broken yet.

Here I will try to explain Marketing cloud from layman perspective. Marketing cloud has been built up by several acquisitions SF did in last two years. They are building this cloud offering using acquired companies as Lego blocks.


ExactTarget - Email, Mobile, SMS
     Salesforce acquired ExactTarget for $2.5 billion just 4 months back and It has taken centerstage for SF marketing cloud. And It has to as it was already boasting of 6000 of Enterprise customers including big names like Coca cola, Gap, Nike.

The dramatic increase in consumer and business use of social networks, mobile devices and new digital technologies is causing a revolution in marketing, as budgets previously spent on traditional media are now moving to digital campaigns. Gartner estimates that by 2015 consumer technology companies will have switched one-third of their traditional marketing budgets to digital*, and CMOs will outspend CIOs on information technology by 2017**. - SF Press Release,SAN FRANCISCO—July 12, 2013

As this integration has happened just 4 months prior to big announcements, It doesn't come as a something which follows salesforce platform philosophy and have tools like Apex and Visualforce providing customisations to it. but As Salesforce is projecting its platform as more of Data API oriented more of moving on from SAAS to be a BAAS player.
ExactTarget basically provide you more richer Email, SMS/Mobile Marketing. Its going to plug a biggest hole in the Salesforce platform.

Buddy Media - Social media Marketing & Analytics
Mark has a knack of identifying or aligning opportunities, He seems to have clearly  able to relate growing Social clout with enterprise world. Instead of boasting about its own existing offering, he seems to have gone ahead bravely to adopt futuristic things. Buddy Media acquisition decision was one of them. Salesforce.com closed on its $745 million acquisition of Buddy Media in August 2012. It also occupied centre stage along with Radian 6 in Dreamforce 2012.
Buddy media basically provide business to manage social media marketing and Analytics.

Radian 6 - Listen, Monitor, Engage
Salesforce.com acquired Radian6 in 2010 for $326 million, it also added social connections on main platform. but It didn't make any impact as such in a broader way.  But with all the dots connecting, It will definitely a great value add to salesforce platform.
Businesses can use radian6 to listen, monitor and engage on social media. Its kind of beautiful software which enables Marketing team and Primarily Customer Support and service team to use social media effectively.

Social.com - Advertizing on FB and Twitter
Social channel is becoming quite popular for digital advertising as it gives you access to identities and profiles for better targeting. Same thing is not possible in google search or google adwords.
Facebook and Twitter are strengthening their Advertizing offerings, It was good time for Salesforce to jump into it. As Marketing team have to spend budgets on Social Advertizing and if they can do it under same umbrella it would be quite good. They have launched it in April 2013. Its not something which they have acquired.

IGoDigital - Personalized Product Suggestions, Data and Predictive Analytics
IGoDigital was acquisition was not Salesforce brainchild, ExactTarget with keeping in mind Marketing needs of Ecommerce players acquired I Go Digital. With Tremendous growth in Ecommerce, lots of small merchants coming on to internet to do business. ExactTarget acquired IGoDigital, Its personalization technology, the expanded predictive analytics capabilities will enable marketers to leverage predictive product recommendations and content to create personalized experiences throughout the customer lifecycle.

Pardot - Marketing Automation
Messaging is a major part of Marketing. Messaging need to be done on various actions and through various channels. It can't be done manually in efficient way. Again Pardot acquisition is not Salesforce action, ExactTarget acquired it in Oct 2012. Pardot is one of the fewer companies which are providing Marketing Automation for almost all the channels, reducing manual interventions and letting marketing teams to think more on Business alignments and Creations.

-- FROM SALESFORCE Website -- START >
ExactTarget Fuel powers multi-channel marketing programs for many of the world’s top brands. Fuel is an integrated collection of platform technologies that is open to third-party development, enabling you to build upon, extend, and integrate with ExactTarget’s digital marketing products.

Fuel includes:

APIs: Automate email campaigns, seamlessly integrate marketing, analytics, and other business software, and build Marketing Cloud applications.

SDKs: Use native platform and language constructs to integrate with ExactTarget including Java, .NET, PHP, Python and Ruby.

Fuel UX: Build apps the deeply integrate with the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud using familiar JavaScript technologies.

Fuel Cloud Editor: Easily embed world-class content creation in your Marketing Cloud or stand-alone app.

< END -- FROM SALESFORCE Website --

Now with all the lego blocks available, They have put together a marketing cloud but as of now customers can't buy all these in a single pack. As of Now, What I see from individual product websites, they have listed their pricing separately. With ExactTarget just 4 months into Salesforce Cloud, It will take Product Managers enough time to offer all these product under single umbrella with competitive pricing. Otherwise they will stay separated. I also guess as almost all the products are sharing social component, they would be having repetition of features. Salesforce PM team will need to put significant effort in packaging.


Read my Other Post about Salesforce1 Platform - http://sandipmore.blogspot.in/2013/11/dont-build-mobile-app-for-your-business.html

Idea - Predictive Content Editor for Creative Writing

Img src : Wikipedia

I write blogs, mainly for myself. I write blogs when I am stuck with some thoughts which spins round and round and takes me to another world. Writing blogs and writing it in diary, is one of the easiest escape path to come out of that merry-go-round which sometimes make things un-merry e.g. Ideas can change the world buts also can disrupt your sleep too. So random writing doesn't eat up much of effort but since last few days where I am trying to write by thinking of new ideas, Its sometime turning out to be very difficult, may demotivate you to putting a fullstop on writing tasks you want to take up or has taken up.

Prime problem I do face while writing creative stuff:
1) Getting right Ideas
2) Getting right words to express your thoughts and feelings
3) Finding right references to validate your ideas.
4) Sometime  your editor or blogger for e.g. demotivate one due to its oveall UX/UI design


My musings is that, Is there any intelligent editor exists which help me in finding out correct words, will prompt me the  links to other articles while I write my Ideas/thoughts.

It should do search in background automatically and suggest me the links to the references of relevant/similar stuff. It will be helpful for bloggers who are writing for earning money from blogs.

    If intelligent tool can show a web analytics about probable page rank or popularity of topic on which you are writing on, it would pump extra energy into writing.

If it can suggest me replacement of words with better words which will automatically help me improve my english vocabulary and help me improve my writing.

Recently I came across one very good online blogging software Medium.com, its clean in terms of UI/UX. It would really help if Medium creators make it more intelligent.

I will add some more ideas about this intelligent editor, If anyone knows about some advanced online writing tool can comment about the same on this post.

Pune City :- Water Supply And Drainage System Study (Republish)

Standing on 11th floor balcony in Nanded City,  I was watching construction of Water Tower, It got my brain ticking about the why they do build Water towers and How do they work?

I did research on internet about it and got the Answers, then next question was how many water towers are there in Pune. Are they enough for satisfying the need of water supply of the City which is growing at fast pace?

While Searching for it on google, I came across this informative report published on ICRIER website. On further looking at ICRIER who was publisher of this report, I found that it stands for Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. 
I  guess this report was created as a part of assignment, somebody really did good work. 


Report is in PDF and may not be readable on all the devices, so I am just reproducing it as it. My fear is in overhaul of website this valuable piece of research may get lost. This reports seems to be done in 2006.
Original link to PDF is here. Download Full & Original Report

Projected Population of Pune City

Raw Water Sources for Pune City

 

Water Supply

WATER SOURCES 

The city of Pune draws water from the following surface sources :-

• Khadkawasla Dam
• Panshet Dam
• Warasgaon Dam
• Temghar Dam

The Total live storage of all the 4 Dams is around 30 TMC. The Todal water supplied to the city is around 14.5 TMC (1250 MLD). Around 70% of the total requirement of the city is fulfilled throught closed conduit of 3000mm Diameter, 30% of the total requirement of the city is fulfilled through open Canal

Water Allocation

As per the agreement between Pune Munciple Corporation and State Irrigation Department, The city has been allocated 11.50 TMC (900MLD) of water Annually against which the city consumes around 14.5 TMC(1250MLD) of water, considering the growth of the city, PMC has approached the State irrigation dept for increasing the water allocation for city's drinking purposes to 19 TMC (1500 MLD).

Water Supply in the City

PMC draws from Khadakwasla dam through

• 3000 mm MS Gravity main
• Mutha right bank canal
• Population city is 3.8 million
• Daily supply to city is 1222 MLD
• Gross per capita supply 321 lpcd
• As per PMC data, actual supply is 866 MLD or 228 lpcd
• Overall sewage generation can be estimated to be 728 MLD
• Per capita supply as per norms 150 lpcd

Warje WTP

City Water Distribution System

56 Storage Reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 400 ML i.e. 30% of the daily demand. A network of around 2500 kms. The pipe sizes in the water supply system vary from 80 mm to 3000mm.

Problems in water distribution

1. Undulated topography of the city (Sauccer shape)
2. Unplanned distribution network
3. Old distribution network

Scope of work for Consultant

• Collection of information regarding water supply from water supply department 
  
• Carry out hydraulic analysis of the existing water supply distribution network
  
• Preparation of DMA's lead detection studies and Quantification of leakage in the system
  
• Preparation of remodelling  plan to bring leakage to less than 15%.
  
• Preparation of estimates for equitable water supply across the city.
  
• Submission of detailed project report to financing agency.
  

• Preparation of Tender Documents.
  
• Completing the tendering process and selection of contractors for execution of works. 
  
• Supervision of works as project management consultants. 
  
• Carryout public awareness camps. 
  
• Supervise the works as consultants during the operation and maintenance period of the contractor.  
  
• Train the engineers from PMC for network analysis, lead detection SCADA etc. 
  
   
  

Progress of work in Equitable Water Supply Project

• Collection of Information regarding water supply from water supply dept

• Carry out hydraulic analysis of all the water supply zones of the existing water supply distribution network
• Preparation of DMA's for the city (Total 327 DMA's) 
• Finalisation of report regarding 100% meterisation across the city
• Finalisation of scope of work for 5 DMA's which are to be taken up for implementation as pilot study shortly.
• Preparation of detailed project report as per guidelines of JNNURM is in progress

Ambitious Ongoing Projects for Future

• Equitable water supply scheme for the city
• Laying closed conduit of 2500 mm diameter from khadakwasla Dam to parvati water works to avoid uptake from open canal
• Construction of 200 MLD water treatment plant at warje water works.
• laying closed conduit of 1600 mm diameter from Khadakwasla  dam to Warje Water works. 
• Construction of 5 service reservoires

Projects in Pipeline

• Construction of 500 MLD capacity WTP at Parvati Water
• Construction of 300 MLD capacity WTP at Cantonment
• Construction of 250 MLD capacity WTP Vadgaon
• Implementation of Equitable water supply scheme
• Construction of Jackwell on the upstream of Khadakwasla dam
• Construction of tunnel for conveying water from parvati water works to Cantonment water works.
• Development of new source at bhama-askhed, water treatment plant of 200 MLD capacity, construction of new reservoirs, development of distribution system etc. 

Facts about Water Supply and Sewage Generation in Pune City

 

 

Objective of the assignment

• 

  1. To design a project to collect and treat 100% sewage generated in the city of Pune  

  2. To present the project under NRCD to seek the funding.

      

      

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  Key problems for ensuring 100% collection and treatment of sewage  

  • High rate of water supply – resulting in higher sewage flows
  • Inadequate / old conveyance or transmission lines causing sewage to flow in Nallas
    
  • Problems with the collection system (unconnected areas, leaking main lines etc)
    
  • Treatment capacity – some existing plants inefficient
    
  • Space availability at the right locations for sewage treatment
    
  • Sewage flow Insufficients from upstream outskirts of the city 

  
  

 Steps Involved

• Prepare base map and define drainage districts
• Collection of data for existing water supply, sewage network and treatment capacity
• Carryout detailed ward-wise population projections
  
• Estimation of drainage district-wise sewage flows
  
• Analyse gaps in collection system (conveyance mains and transmission mains)
  
• Analyse gaps in treatment capacity
  
• Design for new infrastructure and improvements
  
• Cost estimation 

COMPONENTS INCLUDED IN DPR

• Collection system in Balewadi area ( 43Km)
• Trunk mains & Conveyance mains (12Nos, 46.03Km)
  
• STP’s for 100% treatment of sewage generated by city up to year 2044
  
• (Financial provision for 2024) – 10 STP’s, 383MLD
  
• Up-gradation of 2 Intermediate Pumping stations
  
• Capacity Building

 

 

INITIATIVES TAKEN BY PMC

1. PMC has made necessary modificatino in the building control rules and has made it mandatory for all housing schemes to have STPs & reuse the treated sewage for flushing, gardening etc.
2. PMC had started implementing a scheme of recycling 500 MLD treated sewage for irrigation 
3. PMC has made it mandatory to implement rain water harvesting in all new upcoming housing schemes.

Who will vote for UPA in 2014?

Why shouldn't these people vote for UPA in 2014?

1) people who have bought properties/multiple flats in around 2004-2008. Now property prices has becomealmost 4x to 20x. Turning many of these guys into crorepaties. Similar rise in rates didn't happen in the past.and whole value chain consisting of brokers, banks agents, bankers got benefitted from this.
2) people who got benefitted from many new kits and iims. Although currently these new kits doesn't have facilities and faculties. But w damn care for all this and end of day and life what matters is brand IIT and IIM. One more stamp which provides extra value in job market, shadi market.
3) land owners in various remote regions where land values are suddenly 100x ed. Turning many farmers in labourers.
4) Execs who became rich just due to policies and not due to their hard work.

I guess more such categories would exists, feel free to add those in comments.

I don't know what is the share do they form in overall voters, they should and will certainly vote for UPA.

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Idea - Multiple Recruiter Dealing and Discovery Platform

While running a startup, you deal with lots of interesting problems. Recruitment is one of the interesting and toughest problem to solve. My guess is Startups are not alone facing this issue, they have company of others as Hiring an appropriate candidate which matches employers expectations is one of the biggest challenge for any enterprise, be it a startup or established enterprise.

A funny analogy, There is a popular belief that It is tough for guys who are in startups to get married but its half truth. If you open your eyes and sharpen your ears, you see (and hear all the gossips) that getting married is one of the toughest problem current generation (of marriageable age) has been facing,  It doesn't depend on whether you are in startup or your are earning crores in a big company. It nonetheless exists, for anybody having achieved or not achieved anything in life and having some expectations or not.  

Regular expression of Match Making for marriage won't find a correct or suitable match easily - Me

Same is true for Recruiting, Recruiting is another kind of hunting, every company and every candidate thinks they are special, they need special treatment. so in turn, making it difficult for each other. Hunting and Finding Correct Candidates is difficult ballgame altogether. - NP Problem.

Jokes Apart, I guess every problem has some solution if parties involved either takes a step forward. 

Here is short description of Problem  :-
1) Any company who wants to  recruit for certain position is highly dependent on external recruiters, specially companies who don't have in-house HR.
2) Single recruitment consultancy may not be enough and recruitment consultancies don't want to work with companies who has tie ups with multiple recruiters. #catch22
3) Its very difficult to find correct recruiter who has expertize and experience in gauging candidate before it was presented to employers #HuntTheHunters
4) Many recruiters are ladies who may take job off due to marriage and can work alone due to prior experience but doesn't have easy way to get back to work and utilize their skills.

I Propose (a Toast here :) ) solution :-
1) A platform where recruiters can enlist themselves and get the work. Similar to freelancer programmers websites
2) Recruiters enlist themselves and choose job profiles for which they can do recruiting or have expertize and network.
3) A company interested in hiring for some position will log on to this portal and choose recruiters who are claiming expertize.
4) Company can choose more than one recruiter, while recruiter will see how many other recruiters are assigned with hunting task.
5) Recruiter on finding candidate will submit name of candidate to check if its already proposed by any other recruiter if not, he will submit his candidate for job.
6) Company will see list of candidates with recruiter name.
7) Platform can do auto-grading of recruiter and employer according to selections or number of relevant candidate proposed by recruiter.
8) On this platform, anyone who want to do freelancing can enlist themselves and get the work.

If you are recruiter or employer, Let me know what do you think about this? Have I figured out correct problem?

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How to Write-a memo from #DavidOgilvy