Trust the crazy implementations to prove a platform’s value – such as the oddball project built by Salesforce’s senior director for Cloud Services Tom Gersic.

Gersic connected his car’s onboard computer with a Raspberry Pi; a server-side API logs all messages from the onboard diagnostics in the cloud, and creates a case in Salesforce.com if any fault codes crop up. Salesforce then alerts the car’s dealer to the problem, so they can take the initiative and call the user before he even knows a problem exists!

You don’t have to hitch your Prius to Salesforce to prove the latter’s strength as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Many satisfied Salesforce users content themselves with integrating the platform with their existing business software; a few go further, building new applications from scratch to meet their company’s particular objectives.

Going Beyond CRM to Endless Uses

Salesforce’s ability to connect to many essential business applications lies at the core of its value as a SaaS platform: seamless integration allows on-premise legacy systems and other SaaS applications to leverage Salesforce’s considerable abilities as a cloud-based CRM.

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