Dreamforce 2011 Under Way in Post-PC Era (NewsFactor)

Enterprise cloud-computing company Salesforce.com is kicking off its Dreamforce 2011 event with a keynote address from Chairman and CEO Mark Benioff. Benioff's keynote will outline the company's vision for the social enterprise.

An annual event, this year's Dreamforce is being held at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Salesforce.com expects more than 40,000 people to register and attend some of the 475 sessions featuring more than 700 experts.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is also on deck for the event. Going along with its "social" theme, Metallica will perform at the Dreamforce 2011 Global Gala, followed by an after-party with will.i.am.

The Post-PC Era

This year's Dreamforce will focus on the post-PC revolution. As Salesforce sees it, the post-PC revolution will further accelerate the social enterprise.

There clearly is a rise in companies working to improve the way they collaborate, communicate and share information with customers and employees in the cloud. That rise, Salesforce said, is transforming companies into social enterprises, which it defined as those that build social profiles of customers, create internal social networks, and listen to and engage with customers over the Internet.

"If anyone is positioned to talk about the cloud and the end of the PC era and what is essentially granting access to all your data no matter what device you are working with, Salesforce is," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Salesforce has the experience. They've worked through the bugs. They have succeeded well beyond what many people have either intimated or assumed. As this era of cloud computing continues to grow, I expect them to profit from it."

Social Enterprise in Action

Vala Afshar, chief customer officer at Enterasys Networks, said transforming into a social enterprise has fueled his company's growth, allowing it to operate with agility and deliver the level of engagement that its customers expect.

"We've partnered with Salesforce.com to leverage the cloud, developing customer and product social networks that have redefined the customer experience and our product development process," said Afshar, noting that his company plans to share best practices and hear from experts on how the cloud can continue to change the way the firm operates and deliver business value.

Partners Speak

The Cloud Expo features nearly 300 exhibitors and partners that make up the cloud-computing ecosystem, including Diamond sponsor Accenture and Titanium sponsors Bluewolf, Deloitte, Eloqua and Marketo. Platinum sponsors at Dreamforce include Astadia, BMC Software, Dell, HubSpot, Model Metrics, Pardot, Silverpop, and Wipro Technologies.

Kevin Campbell, group chief executive of technology at Accenture, said the company's participation at Dreamforce is just one component of its commitment to further strengthen its alliance with Salesforce.com and sharpen its focus on delivering innovative uses of cloud computing that drive business value for the enterprise.

"With the largest team of Salesforce.com-trained and certified professionals of any global integrator," Campbell said, "Accenture has worked hand-in-hand with Salesforce.com for more than six years, delivering agile, enterprise-scale, cloud-computing solutions to help our joint clients make the shift to become a social enterprise."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enterprise/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20110830/bs_nf/79996

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