Microsoft Just Showed Off Exactly What Salesforce Was Worried About (cnbc.com)

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Microsoft Just Showed Off Exactly What Salesforce Was Worried About (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @05:20AM from the how-about-that dept.

Microsoft just took a direct swipe at Salesforce with a new enterprise-ready version of LinkedIn's customer relationship management product called Sales Navigator. From a report on CNBC: "Today's announcements take Sales Navigator to the next level," Doug Camplejohn, LinkedIn sales solutions head of product, said in a blog. The new product steps up competition with arch rival Salesforce. Microsoft beat out Salesforce to acquire Linkedin for $26.2 billion -- by far the company's largest acquisition to date -- in June. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was so concerned, he accused the company of "anti-competitive behavior" and urged regulators to investigate. Flash-forward less than a year and Microsoft's new Sales Navigator Enterprise Edition incorporates many features aimed at turning LinkedIn into a must-have tool for sales teams at big companies.

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Is it my first post? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:24 · Score: 0

Everyone should worry about Anonymous Cowards first posts.
Alternative competitiveness by bruce_the_loon · 2017-03-21 05:26 · Score: 5, Informative

Oh boo-hoo Salesforce, MS has had a CRM for decades, just not a particularly good one. Now it has a somewhat better one, all of a sudden you can't compete in an open market with what you've got? Build a better one then.
And while you're at it, can anyone build a CRM that doesn't require signing off souls to all three Hells to make it work? I've only got one and Satan, Cthulhu and Kali all require exclusive rights to it.

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1. Re: Alternative competitiveness by cyber-vandal · 2017-03-21 05:35 · Score: 1
  
  Dynamics CRM is pretty terrible. I hope this new thing is a lot better.
2. Re:Alternative competitiveness by angelasmark · 2017-03-21 05:37 · Score: 1
  
  And while you're at it, can anyone build a CRM that doesn't require signing off souls to all three Hells to make it work? I've only got one and Satan, Cthulhu and Kali all require exclusive rights to it.
  You clearly have been outsourcing the wrong jobs in your organization sir.
3. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:46 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, that guy has some real balls. He's crying because he will have a bit of competition now after dominating and having nearly his own monopoly. Those are real, gilded golden balls that guy has.
4. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Kjella · 2017-03-21 05:50 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  And while you're at it, can anyone build a CRM that doesn't require signing off souls to all three Hells to make it work? I've only got one and Satan, Cthulhu and Kali all require exclusive rights to it.
  Don't worry, my CRM only requires you sign over your soul once*.
  * May contain an irrevokable clause to sublicense your soul.
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
5. Re:Alternative competitiveness by ranton · 2017-03-21 05:56 · Score: 1
  
  And while you're at it, can anyone build a CRM that doesn't require signing off souls to all three Hells to make it work? I've only got one and Satan, Cthulhu and Kali all require exclusive rights to it.
  To reflect your own callousness, oh boo-hoo to management who think they can try to do things on the cheap and still have a quality solution at the end. And yes, sometimes spending millions of dollars can still be on the cheap for large projects. There are plenty of competent CRM professionals and consultants who can set up any of the major CRM platforms for you which will work very well for any company with reasonable expectations.
  All of the major players have deficiencies, but none of those cannot be fixed with quality implementation partners. Just get your head out of your ass and try to do something right for a change.
  
  --
  -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
6. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Richard_at_work · 2017-03-21 06:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I'm interested in what SalesForce was going to use LinkedIn for, if not precisely this - they are basically whining about someone else doing what they intended to do, while trying to push it as some sort of abuse of monopoly (where exactly is the monopoly here?)
7. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:38 · Score: 0
  
  And while you're at it, can anyone build a CRM that doesn't require signing off souls to all three Hells to make it work? I've only got one and Satan, Cthulhu and Kali all require exclusive rights to it.
  The soul for Kali can be recycled & reused to serve Cthulhu and Satan
8. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Attila+Dimedici · 2017-03-21 06:45 · Score: 2
  
  Perhaps you did not notice, but this article was not produced by Salesforce and does not contain ANY information from anyone at SalesForce.
  
  It is merely the opinion of the author of the article that SalesForce is concerned by this development. The only evidence they provide for that theory is that a Salesforce representative accused MS of anti-competitive behavior during the negotiations to buy LinkedIn (possibly as an effort to get regulators to pressure MS out of buying LinkedIn).
  I do not actually see this giving MS any strategic advantage...the more this gets used, the more likely I am to remove my LinkedIn account.
  
  --
  The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
9. Re: Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:45 · Score: 0
  
  You don't understand B2B and you don't understand what having access to LinkedIn + Salesnavigator's lead generation means for a salesperson
10. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Attila+Dimedici · 2017-03-21 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  SalesForce is not whining. This writer of the article appears to have written a press release for Microsoft talking about how this innovation has Salesforce shaking in their boots. The author could not even be bothered to ask anyone at Salesforce what they thought of this new development.
  
  --
  The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
11. Re: Alternative competitiveness by sed+quid+in+infernos · 2017-03-21 06:58 · Score: 1
  
  No I do not understand. I would very much like someone to explain what these do. That's not a sarcastic accusation that they do nothing. I genuinely want to know.
12. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Richard_at_work · 2017-03-21 07:07 · Score: 1
  
  My comment refers to the Marc Benioff quote from June - it was whining.
13. Re: Alternative competitiveness by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2017-03-21 07:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'm signed up with LinkedIn. Every so often is spams me that someone else I know is also on LinkedIn, or asks me to spam other people I know to join LinkedIn.
  Other than that, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it. I never have used it as any resource. I think it simply convinced a few people to sign up with them, and infected the internet from there.
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
14. Re: Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:15 · Score: 1
  
  Having LinkedIn behind your CRM is like having a Rolodex of people who might be interested in buying something from you if you call them, except that all those people *want* to be on your Rolodex and actively make sure their contact information is up to date.
15. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:37 · Score: 0
  
  we did. we called it betamax. just because it was better than vhs didn't mean it would be widely adopted. clinton was the better candidate, yet not widely adopted. go figure.
16. Re:Alternative competitiveness by rubycodez · 2017-03-21 07:55 · Score: 1
  
  no the boo-hoo-hoo is that Microsoft just turned linkedin into a phone, mail and email spam engine
  that's why I filled my linkedin account with bogus information and then cancelled when microsoft buy announced
17. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 10:20 · Score: 1
  
  CRMs lie in that dark triangle between Sales, IT, enterprise software, and Bullshit Business Buzzword Bingo (Yes that's a triangle with 4 sides) - It's going to awful no matter what. It's going to be painfully expensive and it always has to work. It's woven in to your business logic. The vendor knows this. They have you by the balls. They spared no expense wooing your bosses with only the finest coke to be snorted off the most expensive hookers getting there in the first place.
18. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Altrag · 2017-03-21 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  By your logic, the only database systems in the world should be Oracle and MSSQL.
  Just because all the "big" players are currently absurdly over-complicated and expensive doesn't mean there isn't or shouldn't be a desire for something more reasonable.
  Hell I'm sure there's already more than one open source CRM out there. Just a question of one of them getting enough features and enough public awareness to become "big" in the same kind of context that Postgres or MySQL are well-known and well-used alternatives to Oracle and MSSQL. Sure they still require some knowledge but its not like you have to hire a $300/hr consultant to get a Postgres database running well enough for small to mid-sized projects.
19. Re: Alternative competitiveness by Altrag · 2017-03-21 10:44 · Score: 1
  
  You can somewhat think of it as a weak form of references. A prospective employer is likely to try searching you out on LI to see who you know and what they do (and of course you can store resume-like information such as job history and whatnot on LI if you want as well.)
  As long as you're not looking for a new job or considering doing such though, its mostly just a spam generation system.
20. Re:Alternative competitiveness by ranton · 2017-03-22 00:52 · Score: 1
  
  By your logic, the only database systems in the world should be Oracle and MSSQL. Just because all the "big" players are currently absurdly over-complicated and expensive doesn't mean there isn't or shouldn't be a desire for something more reasonable. Hell I'm sure there's already more than one open source CRM out there. Just a question of one of them getting enough features and enough public awareness to become "big" in the same kind of context that Postgres or MySQL are well-known and well-used alternatives to Oracle and MSSQL. Sure they still require some knowledge but its not like you have to hire a $300/hr consultant to get a Postgres database running well enough for small to mid-sized projects.
  When a CRM implementation is unsuccessful, it is almost certainly not because they didn't pay enough in software licensing. It is more likely because they didn't put enough human resources into implementing them successfully. And the cost to hire quality staff to implement proprietary vs open source solutions is not significantly different. There are cheap MSSQL consultants and cheap Postgres consultants, but quality resources for either are just as expensive.
  So by my logic it really doesn't matter if you choose Salesforce or Sugar CRM, skimping on implementation costs will sink any CRM initiative.
  
  --
  -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
21. Re:Alternative competitiveness by Altrag · 2017-03-22 12:33 · Score: 1
  
  The trouble is when those "implementation costs" are $20k for the base platform, another $10-15k in addons/extensions/plugins/whatever and then $100-300/hr for consultants to set it all up and suddenly you're looking at 6-12 months and $100k in cost to get it going.
  That's out of the price range of many small to mid sized businesses. You have to be pushing the higher end of "mid sized" before that becomes a plausible cost.
  To compare with Postgres: Yes, if you need a massive database to handle multiple terabytes of data and thousands of concurrent connections, you're probably going to want someone who knows what the hell they're doing to set it up, and it will cost you.
  On the other hand, if you just want a couple dozen small tables to be used internally by your 5-person staff, pretty much anyone with even minimal DB experience can get that up and running.
  That's the difference -- PG handles basically any size of operation. Yes bigger is costlier of course, but smaller is possible which is not really something you get with SF. If you can't afford $50-100k up front costs plus who knows how much over the long term in maintenance and support, you're left with good old Excel spreadsheets and other hackjob "systems," which is what many many companies still use.
  Like I said, I'm sure there are CRMs (including, though not specifically, open source ones) that are more reasonable but none of them have taken enough market share to be really well-known and common in the same way that Postgres and MySQL have done in the database market.
What about the LA Clippers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:30 · Score: 1

From TFS:

In the second quarter, Sales Navigator subscriptions increased 20 percent over the prior year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the company's most recent quarterly earnings conference call. Customers include SAP, Ernst & Young, The Sacramento Kings, Symantec and PayPal.

What about Steve Ballmer's Clippers? Enquiring minds, you know.
1. Re:What about the LA Clippers? by Enigma2175 · 2017-03-21 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  Notice they didn't give actual subscriber numbers. A 20% increase would be significant if they went from 1 million to 1.2 million customers but if they went from 10 to 12 it's not as impressive. Seeing as how Microsoft seems to fumble everything (internet, Zune, Windows phone, Xbox [at least initially]) that isn't their core business (Windows and Office) I don't think Salesforce should be too scared yet.
  
  --
  Enigma
2. Re:What about the LA Clippers? by BronsCon · 2017-03-21 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  Have you used recent versions of Windows or Office? You could have stopped at "everything" and been just as right. I say this as a primarily Windows shop that keeps a few Macs handy and runs infrastructure primarily on Linux.
  
  --
  APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Salesforce isn't just sales by rsilvergun · 2017-03-21 05:33 · Score: 1

it's a complete WYSIWYG application platform that can build complex business apps without code ("Clicks not Code" in SF parlance). It's basically Visual Basic 6 for the web.

OTOH I see a lot of shops using VF/Apex to build apps for no good reason (especially in the post Lightening era). But still, properly used Salesforce makes it child's play to build, deploy and update fairly complex business apps. I can't help but wonder if Microsoft & LinkedIn are willing to put the money behind building that sort of application platform.

--
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1. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:48 · Score: 0
  
  it's a complete WYSIWYG application platform that can build complex business apps without code ("Clicks not Code" in SF parlance). It's basically Visual Basic 6 for the web.
  
  Aah. So it's U+1F4A9, and users will U+1F609 U+1F93F.
2. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:16 · Score: 0
  
  except there WYSIWYG application platform is complete and utter fucking garbage.
3. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by ewhac · 2017-03-21 07:17 · Score: 1
  
  it's a complete WYSIWYG application platform that can build complex business apps without code ("Clicks not Code" in SF parlance). It's basically Visual Basic 6 for the web.
  Thank you. I've been trying to figure out what SalesForce actually is for months. This is the most complete, intelligible description I've seen anywhere.
  
  --
  Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
4. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by Altrag · 2017-03-21 10:46 · Score: 1
  
  Microsoft builds a new, frequently unnecessary language every 3 or 4 years anyway.. I doubt they'd have a problem with that. How well they'd do, especially in the first few iterations, is up for grabs though of course.
5. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by Hognoxious · 2017-03-21 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  Generating apps without coding? I remember my grandpa talking about that. CASE, I think that's what they called it.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
6. Re:Salesforce isn't just sales by DarthVain · 2017-03-22 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  We're currently looking into a number of CRM type platforms (we haven't landed on a single one yet, though both Salesforce and Dynamics are in the mix) to try an consolidate and replace a number of legacy systems, mostly from a cost, consistency, and interoperability standpoint. Our business isn't sales. However two points; One as you mention with a bit of creativity it can be applied to anything really to a less or greater degree depending on what you are doing, and Two is that it doesn't mean you cannot do custom work on top of it, only that you need to try and minimize it (because that is the advantage of the CRM, and probably more importantly each time they release a new version of said CRM may break whatever it is your custom crap did).
  An example I thought about would be tracking and invoicing Royalties collected from a mining operation. So while it isn't selling "Widgets", you could create a product of "1 Tonne of Aggregate" or whatever the commodity is assigning it the accepted value (say 0.75$), so when the mining client reports in the extraction of 315,600 tonnes of material (ideally directly into the CRM), it can automatically calculate the Royalty bill of 236,700$ and sent it off. Doing this with all clients, storing the data, and being able to run metrics on it over years, would be great. Could contain the client information with all the mine specifications etc... Anyway it just takes a bit of imagination and thinking outside of the box to apply a CRM to something other then "I'm a store, and I sell things to customers" model.
Oh goody, new "must-have" tool by LinkedIn by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:33 · Score: 0

Serious companies will give MS the finger.
wait... what? by RobertNotBob · 2017-03-21 05:34 · Score: 1

Wait... Why is it such a news flash that a company is making moves to make their products more valuable to their existing customers, and to expand market share? -- That is, in fact, what they should be expected to do, right??

--
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
1. Re:wait... what? by number6x · 2017-03-21 05:48 · Score: 2
  
  Wait... Why is it such a news flash that a company is making moves to make their products more valuable to their existing customers, and to expand market share? -- That is, in fact, what they should be expected to do, right??
  Yes, but this is Microsoft. For the last decade or so their idea of "make their products more valuable to their existing customers" is getting rid of features, hiding controls and interface selections from users and making the software more difficult to manage on the back end.
  Let's not talk about how they expand market share.
  If MS is creating a competitive product and expanding market share, good for them! That is big news for them. As you so correctly noted, this is just what is expected from every other company on Earth, but so novel and exciting to see Microsoft trying to do it.
2. Re:wait... what? by El+Cubano · 2017-03-21 06:17 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  If MS is creating a competitive product and expanding market share, good for them! That is big news for them. As you so correctly noted, this is just what is expected from every other company on Earth, but so novel and exciting to see Microsoft trying to do it.
  This really could be a stroke of genius on the part of MS. A CRM tool is only as good as the information that goes into it. If everybody on the team is not disciplined in putting good information into the tool, then garbage-in-garbage-out. The genius that I see here is this is a CRM that leverages a platform where the customer wants to put into it as much work-related information about themselves as they can. My LinkedIn network isn't that big and I see a constant stream of things where people are patting themselves on the back for some new job, certification, or other such thing. From a sales perspective, each of those events represents a potential opportunity to engage, or a lead. It would be the equivalent of each time a mention something cool I did at work it was via an email to every salesperson with whom I had come into contact.
  If executed properly, this could be a rather significant development in the CRM space. This is especially valuable because as a salesperson, everything depends on timing and the LinkedIn activity feed is nothing but a stream of potential cues: "I see that John just took a new position at his company. Now is a good time to connect back up with him and see if there is anything I can offer to help him in his new role." That is not the sort of insight you typically get form a CRM system.
3. Re:wait... what? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:34 · Score: 0
  
  It would be the equivalent of each time a mention something cool I did at work it was via an email to every salesperson with whom I had come into contact.
  In other words, what we've known all along: LinkedIn is a data collection tool for head hunters and marketers. Although from what I've seen, most of the data it collects is crap.
4. Re:wait... what? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 11:04 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, but this is Microsoft. For the last decade or so their idea of "make their products more valuable to their existing customers" is getting rid of features, hiding controls and interface selections from users and making the software more difficult to manage on the back end.
  Wait, are we still talking about Microsoft or the GNOME Project?
given their track record, i doubt it. by nimbius · 2017-03-21 05:41 · Score: 1, Insightful

Zune: failed to compete with ipod.
Microsoft Phone: failed to compete with either android or iPhone.
microsoft store: failed to compete with apple store and was rolled into best buy as a kiosk
microsoft surface: failed to compete with iPad or android.
Bing: failed to compete with either google or yahoo despite being based on code bought from yahoo.
Azure: failed to compete with aws/ec3/rackspace.
so yeah. i dont think salesforce is as terrified as they would have been say, 30 years ago when a microsoft embrace/extend/extinguish strategy basically spelled bankruptcy. This is a new redmond, and with it comes moronic decisions like buying Minecraft after it has no further growth potential, and porting random linux applications like SSH to windows.

--
Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:18 · Score: 0
  
  This is a new redmond, and with it comes moronic decisions like buying Minecraft after it has no further growth potential... .
  Dude, you do realize that eight year old kids are born every day.
2. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Major+Blud · 2017-03-21 06:23 · Score: 1
  
  I'd be hesitant to call Azure a failure....it's above Google in market share and isn't that far behind Amazon:
  https://www.skyhighnetworks.co...
  I'm not sure that Surface was ever geared to be a direct competitor with iOS or Android given it's price point. Surface RT maybe a failure, given that MS pulled the plug on it, but in general it's been a success:
  http://pocketnow.com/2016/02/0...
  
  --
  If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
3. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by freeze128 · 2017-03-21 06:31 · Score: 1
  
  Microsoft store - I was just at the Mall of America, and the Microsoft store is JUST FINE.
  
  Oh wait. Did you mean the Microsoft store for buying apps on your windows device? That's fine too.
4. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by neilo_1701D · 2017-03-21 06:40 · Score: 1
  
  Azure: failed to compete with aws/ec3/rackspace.
  And yet we're seeing an uptick in Azure installations for Dynamics 365 for both new clients and existing AX2012 clients.
  I guess it depends on what you mean by "compete", but Azure has already become a critical piece for many, many companies.
5. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Paco103 · 2017-03-21 06:52 · Score: 2
  
  Those poor mothers. . . .
6. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:02 · Score: 0
  
  MS store in Green Hills Mall in Nashville typically has 1/4 the number of people as the Apple Store which is directly below it.
7. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:02 · Score: 0
  
  Azure has cannibalized a lot of MS's existing Exchange, Office, etc. customers by moving their products from the desktop to the cloud, or back-office to the cloud. Whether it's attracting non-MS customers, who can say?
8. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Billly+Gates · 2017-03-21 07:18 · Score: 1
  
  I bet the Surface has sold as many if not more Android tablets. They are quite popular outside of slashdot which seems to be in their own world.
  
  --
  http://saveie6.com/
9. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:20 · Score: 0
  
  Zune: Failed
  Phone: Failed
  Store: Mixed Bag; Apple also has Best Buy kiosks
  Surface: Success
  Bing: Clear #2 (not that it means much)
  Azure: Very Clear #2 (and this does mean something)
  Azure's problem is that, even though it's the definite #2 in cloud computing, it's technically inferior to AWS. It's amusing that you mentioned Rackspace as a competitor because, as someone employed a company that deals with cloud users on a daily basis, Rackspace doesn't even come up: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud do though (and in that order). And it's ec2, not ec3.
  How it can be thought that porting SSH to Windows is somehow bad simply goes to show how non-technical you really are.
  Also, for what it's worth, SalesForce is a garbage platform akin to Blackboard in education. They're on top because they do everything, but not because they do anything particularly well. Hopefully this type of competition will change that, but I do not have high hopes.
10. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by BronsCon · 2017-03-21 07:31 · Score: 1
  
  microsoft store: failed to compete with apple store and was rolled into best buy as a kiosk
  Right next to the Apple kiosk in the Best Buy down the street from the mall with the Microsoft Store in it, which happens to be across from the Apple Store. In case you missed it, my point is that they both have both.
  
  microsoft surface: failed to compete with iPad or android.
  Mostly because it's not trying to; it runs a full desktop OS and is intended to replace desktop/laptop functionality on the low- to mid-end, with some useful tablet functionality mixed in. I don't use a Surface, myself, but I did just invest in a similar platform from Dell for my company; seems to be working well thus far.
  
  Azure: failed to compete with aws/ec3/rackspace.
  It's almost a completely different offering than the rest. Yes, there's some overlap in virtualized hosting and load balancing, but Azure does offer services the others do not, just as Amazon offers their own unique services; I'm not sure WTF ec3 is, I think you meant EC2, which is AWS, and Rackspace doesn't really offer anything unique of their own. In fairness, I thought like you do until I looked at Azure a month or so ago. While I wouldn't use it for all of my needs, I did find a place for some of what it offers (Azure AD and a handful of related services, for example) in my organization. Those are things I, quite simply, can not get from AWS/EC2 or Rackspace.
  
  This is a new redmond, and with it comes moronic decisions like [...] porting random linux applications like SSH to windows.
  SSH on Windows has been my primary use case for Cygwin for years, and I know I'm not alone in that. The fact that it's less random and more a full install of Ubuntu makes it all the more useful. Throw in XMing and, since Microsoft was actually responsive to complaints about things not working quite right early on, and fixed most of the issues in a single release, you can run most any CLI or GUI Linux application that you could run in a native Ubuntu install, right in Windows. I do wish they'd do something to make file sharing between Windows and Windows/Ubuntu a bit less completely-fuck-your-access-from-either-platform-y, but there are workarounds for that and the offering is still very much beta, so meh.
  
  Everything else, though, you pretty much nailed.
  
  --
  APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
11. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by thegarbz · 2017-03-21 08:14 · Score: 1
  
  microsoft surface: failed to compete with iPad or android. ...
  Azure: failed to compete with aws/ec3/rackspace
  Nimbius failed to understand the point of some of Microsoft's products and thus thinks they failed even though they have been a roaring success.
12. Re: given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 09:29 · Score: 0
  
  You win the Internet for the day.
13. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 10:13 · Score: 0
  
  I'd be hesitant to call Azure a failure....it's above Google in market share and isn't that far behind Amazon:
  https://www.skyhighnetworks.co...
  Azure had stagnant adoption until they allowed Linux hosts.
  I imagine that's not exactly the way Microsoft wanted Azure to succeed.
14. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 10:42 · Score: 0
  
  Ah, the good ole "This new thing unlike these old things won't work because those old things didn't work out spectacularly." argument.
  I remember it well from my days in philosophy class.
15. Re:given their track record, i doubt it. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 12:07 · Score: 0
  
  I haven't owned an MS operating system since the 90s, but their hardware seems good. I know I hear from other linux people that the Surface stuff is really nice. I do have an MS keyboard and I'm very happy with it.
  There is no way that they're selling "more" than android tablets though, android tablets start at $50 brick-and-mortar retail!
Salesforce? Linkin? What? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 05:45 · Score: 0

How about some background? Flash-forward? What is this about?
Oh frabjous. . . . by Salgak1 · 2017-03-21 05:54 · Score: 2

. . . . now, instead of MANUALLY getting spammed for GenericCo's latest Miracle Product, now they'll systematize it.
LinkedIn will become even LESS useful to the typical professional. At this rate, it'll be all sales types and keyword-spamming recruiters in a few years. . .
Hint: not EVERY transaction or networking event has to be pointed towards sales or recruiting, but that does seem to be the way LinkedIn is developing. . .
1. Re:Oh frabjous. . . . by Major+Blud · 2017-03-21 06:53 · Score: 1
  
  LinkedIn will become even LESS useful to the typical professional. At this rate, it'll be all sales types and keyword-spamming recruiters in a few years. . .
  So, you mean even MORE useful to the typical professional?
  
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  If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
Re:Salesforce? Linkin? What? by Jhon · 2017-03-21 05:58 · Score: 1

"How about some background? Flash-forward? What is this about?"
Microsoft is more than just "windows".
Hope that helps.
First of all. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:04 · Score: 0

What the holy fuck does Salesforce even do?
1. Re: First of all. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:06 · Score: 0
  
  I think its a glorified rolodex
2. Re: First of all. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:32 · Score: 0
  
  ...that can spam
3. Re:First of all. by xevioso · 2017-03-21 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know. They are certainly building a very nice tower in downtown SF, right near where I work. At the very least, 2 decades from now people will know of the Salesforce Tower, just as they know of the Transamerica Pyramid, and yet not know what either of those companies do.
4. Re: First of all. by fizzup · 2017-03-21 11:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Salesforce tracks sales opportunities, clients, contacts, products, prices, defects, competitive intelligence, product requests, sales tasks, and documents. It also offers an instant messaging application.
  Salesforce helps maintain a consistent sales process. It has a reporting system that lets you analyze your pipeline and bookings. The reporting system is good for tracking current sales performance of individuals, product lines, and companies. It's good for evaluating the likelihood of meeting bookings targets in the current month, quarter, or year. In a business, it's important to track bookings because they are a leading indicator for future revenue and, to a lesser extent, costs. You can also use salesforce to help create sales forecasts and targets for future years.
Don's worry by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 06:44 · Score: 0

MS just grounded the last 20 (200?) big things they bought withing almost no time, so why do you think this would be anything else this time?
LinkedIn is doomed, just like Nokia, Skype, Windows Phone, and tons of others..
So basically by guruevi · 2017-03-21 07:18 · Score: 1

Microsoft purchased LinkedIn so it could take all it's contact information and sell them to their customers and they beat Salesforce to the punch doing it. Look at me playing the world's tiniest violin.

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Pricing? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 07:46 · Score: 0

I'm tired of companies rolling out that new products that will revolutionize your business, but intentionally hide the fucking cost. I don't want a demo; I want transparent pricing, announced at the same time you announce the shit is for sale.
MS Press Release by losfromla · 2017-03-21 07:56 · Score: 1

This was about as blatant a press release as I've ever seen. I guess slashdot has to whore itself out somehow to pay the bills. Aren't sponsored links supposed to be a different color so we know to avoid them?

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linkedin now a phone, mail and email spam engine by rubycodez · 2017-03-21 07:57 · Score: 1

Don't let Microsoft profit off you and give your contact info to phone, mail and email spammers, overwrite your linkedin account with nonsense, then drop it a few weeks later.
Netscaped by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 09:27 · Score: 0

Goodbye salesforce suckers.. ;)
This is all hype by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-21 12:45 · Score: 0

This is all hype. It takes a lot to build a CRM ecosystem. Salesforce has been investing in companies that build the core business systems that make up the corporate technology stack. SF has made some mistakes, but it's acquisition focus on technology that provides core business functionality makes sense. LinkedIn is a great data source, but will fall short as a CRM application.
So in other words... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-03-22 11:32 · Score: 0

...it's a glorified Rolodex?