Clara Shih

By Marc Benioff

When Facebook first launched its platform and APIs, developers clamored to build consumer applications, such as playing Scrabble, sharing photos, and “super-poking.” Clara changed this when over a few days she developed Faceconnector (formerly Faceforce), the first enterprise social networking mashup that pulls Facebook profile and friend data real-time into Salesforce CRM. Clara had the vision that the next generation of enterprise software won’t be about software at all. It will be about people and relationships, and social networking sites by design are all about relationships. Clara’s breakthrough idea was that using Facebook, business professionals could get to know the person behind the name and title, and thereby build a larger number of richer, more personal, and longer-lasting business relationships with customers, prospects, business partners, and colleagues.

Developers have taken notice and are following Clara’s example in “mashing up” business with consumer social networking sites. It’s a good thing, too, because times are changing. Increasingly, graduating college students entering the workforce and starting to take on leadership positions are shunning “antiquated” email systems. (They say it’s only for grown-ups.) They all use Facebook. Social networking and collaboration have become the expectation. They will be frustrated and unproductive, and even reject, business applications that don’t offer these features. Clara believes that five years from now, no enterprise application—CRM, recruiting, email—won’t be integrated with the social graph. She’s right.

Recently, we announced a partnership with Facebook, led by Clara. Force.com for Facebook makes it easy for Facebook developers to build enterprise social apps on Force.com’s global trusted enterprise infrastructure. At salesforce.com, we’ve spent the last ten years building out enterprise-grade functionality like workflow, security, multi-language and multi-currency, and integration services “in the cloud” so that developers can focus on innovation, not infrastructure. Both Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, and I believe that this partnership will enable a whole new class of business applications inside Facebook, such as truly social CRM.

Marc R. Benioff is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of salesforce.com.
Excerpt from the foreword by Marc Benioff in The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff.