Salesforce has changed its app platform to arm ISVs with more information about how their software performs.
The idea is to help customers identify skilled consultants in partners using a TripAdvisor type model.
The firm held its London partner forum last th week and told the 1,200 strong audience that it wanted to have a relationship that put the customer at the centre and for the channel to take more advantage of the services that could be gained on the back of selling Salesforce.
Salesforce senior vice president alliances and channels EMEA Leon Mangan said: “We don’t forget that we are selling a product, we don’t forget what we are seling and what we are developing, and how we sell it but who we are selling it to. ”
The firm has re-launched its AppExchange with a TripAdvisor type feature where customers will be able to search for consultants based on location, skills and reputation as well as providing those ISVs that do submit with more analytics around the use of the tools by customers.
“If you are an ISV you want to know how your App Exchange listing is appearing, who is looking at it, what types of companies they are engaging with on the app exchange and the second side of it is how is the app performing inside the customer, they will now see analytics around the performance of the app and how it is being consumed and used.”
Partners deliver three quarters of the implementations globally for the firm and are seen as an essential route to market.
Mangan said: “We showed them the size of the opportunity. We are different from our competitors because we are focused on our customers and there is this explosion of opportunity.”
The firm has more than 5,500 apps and more than six million downloads but there are ambitions to work more closely with the ISV community and increase that number.
Mangan said greater analytics would help ISVs gain insights into how the app was working and help generate greater levels of customer intimacy.
