Salesforce.com is recognized as a leader in enterprise cloud -based computing and they have just announced a major deal that will bring many government agencies into the era of social network sharing. The contract will bring the latest social and mobile technologies to U.S. federal, state, and local agencies. It will provide a one-stop source where they can find, try and deploy cloud apps that meet their unique and different needs.
A major component of this deal is that Salesforce deliver the solutions in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The deal propels these government agencies into the 21st century and allows them to stay up to date on innovations and upgrades in the data management and applications industry and do so without compromising security.
Vivek Kundra, executive vice president of emerging markets at Salesforce.Com comments on the deal:
“The bureaucracy of legacy government IT is preventing agencies from embracing innovative technologies that deliver immediate value,”
“We must end the era where government spends millions of dollars and waits years for IT projects that never work. Now, salesforce.com offers a solution the government needs to break down barriers to innovation and eliminate wasteful IT spending.”
John Conley, executive director of Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority also comments on the deal with Salesforc.com:
“We are committed to providing quality services that deliver value for Colorado taxpayers and simply make government work better,”
“Salesforce.com’s cloud technologies, including applications on AppExchange for Government, are helping us increase efficiency and provide a more responsive government that delights the constituents we serve.”
Michael Togyi, President and CEO of BasicGov, a provider of licensing, permitting and enforcement apps adds his sentiments about the partnership:
“AppExchange for Government provides a great opportunity to develop and deliver apps for government with the social, mobile and trusted capabilities of the Salesforce Platform,”
“We are excited to be one of the first partners to leverage the app marketplace to help our customers transform government for the social era.”
Dennis Wall, senior vice president at Cloud Sherpas adds to the sentiments:
“The social revolution represents an amazing opportunity for companies like ours to help government transform for the social era,”
“We’re excited about the Salesforce Government Partner Accelerator Program as we continue to build our business deploying salesforce.com’s social, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies.”
This looks like it is going to be a powerful asset for our government institutions. I think it has always been a problem for government to keep up with the fast paced technology sector, and this partnership will provide a valuable resource for our ruling body to draw from to that end. Once the these new tools are available, there will also need to be investments in training for people who should be aspiring to get the most mileage out of them.
Our ruling class is composed of many members who were around long before these advances and the new system might be met with some resistance. It will be interesting to see how it integrates into the way they do business.