We all do business in the cloud, yet two key questions need to be continuously brought up, reviewed and discussed: 1) What are the practical next steps to further your company’s presence in the cloud? and 2) How best can you work efficiently and effectively for your company using cloud technologies? The answers to these questions are to first and foremost look to maximizing your Salesforce CRM investment.

Learn more about Salesforce and engage with the salesforce community to learn what others are doing. Second, look for apps and cloud solutions that meet your specific needs. Is your current expense tracking system cumbersome? Would a more accessible documentation management solution or an electronic signature solution help to streamline and manage your groups contracts? Chances are whatever your need is, there is a cloud solution that can be integrated into your salesforce org.

Third, use Salesforce as the “glue” for these apps and solutions. Reviewing your organization’s business processes from a Quote to Cash perspective, you will find very quickly that there are many solutions in the market that can be integrated with Salesforce. The result: In a short time, you can improve your Quote to Cash process and build a solution using best-of-breed cloud apps.

(This posting is a recap of our presentation at the Chicago Salesforce Usergroup meeting in March 2012)

Build Social Applications with the Force.com Toolkit for Facebook
@metadaddy
A third release of Force.com Toolkit for Facebook, now allowing you to write a social application for Facebook in Apex Code and deploy it as Force.com Site, a customer portal, or a VisualForce page running in an org.

Format Salesforce Data Time Fields in Excel
@sfunearthed
Different ways to format Salesforce DateTime fields in Excel.

Multi File Uploader for Salesforce
@TehNrd
Upload multiple files to Salesforce at one time with the first release of Multi File Uploader Tool.

New and Updated Developer Documentation for Spring ’12
@forcedotcom
Developer documentation on developer.salesforce.com and database.com are now updated to reflect the new Spring ’12 Salesforce release.

Monday AM Admin: Get your Chatter-cation
@MikeGerholdt
Get your organization more excited about using Chatter with these insights and suggestions.

This week, Delivered Innovation co-hosted an event at the ITA, “State of the Cloud: What Business Executives Need to Know.” The presenters included Brad Desent of Apex Consulting, Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, and our own CTO, Mike Topalovich. We were impressed by the outcome of the event, and received positive feedback from our attendees. If you would like the run down of the event, click the link below. Thank you to everyone who attended!

• State of the Cloud Event Recap

Salesforce.com recently announced an alliance with Deloitte, one of the largest consulting firms in the world. The goal of the alliance is to provide, “multinational companies with software, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.” Deloitte can also help salesforce.com increase their presence in the cloud computing market share by having access to Deloitte’s large customer base, comprised mainly of large enterprises. Deloitte’s customers are looking to “work more effectively and more efficiently,” and the possibilities with cloud computing and Salesforce might just be the key.

• Salesforce.com to Widen Cloud Computing Reach with Deloitte Partnership

Cloud computing is very cost effective, but also comes with a lot of risk and security worries. With these in mind, how are higher education institutions implementing cloud computing? Currently, United States’ universities implement the cloud for three essential reasons: to lower the cost of hardware and maintenance, expand access to research and academic outputs, and grant access to Web 2.0 applications for students and teachers.

• Cloud Computing: Its Benefits, and How it is Implemented by Universities

Before deploying a cloud service, it is important to asess the risks and ask the right questions. CloudTweaks offers a few important questions to ask that will help you get you started: Who is managing my data? What access controls are in place? Is the data secured? Where is the data actually located? Are they here to stay? Each of these questions will give you a better idea where your data is going, how it is being kept secure, and what would happen to your data if the company shuts down or is acquired by someone else.

• Security Questions to Ask Your Cloud Service Provider

There is a great discussion in LinkedIn regarding marketing automation in Salesforce, Stephanie Kimball posted the question to the Salesforce Power Users Group: “Looking for a great email marketing software that integrates with Salesforce, we are currently using Exact Target and are not happy with it. Any suggestions?” The discussion has over 40 participants, with Exact Target, MailChimp, and Marketo in the lead for most suggestions. If you have any input, post your thoughts through the link below.

• Looking for a Great Email Marketing Software that Integrates with Salesforce

Force.com Streaming API and Chrome Desktop Notifications
@abhinavguptas
How to set up PushTopics and get real-time chrome desktop notifications.

REST API Cheat Sheet: It’s Only Cheating if You’re Taking a Test
@forcedotcom
Force.com added a REST API cheat sheet to their library of cheat sheets.

Tip: Using Decimal Class with Strings in Apex
@abhinavguptas
Try storing your queried number field as a specific Type(Decimal) in a local variable, which will save you from any accidental code API version upgrade from breaking the existing code.

Sinatra, Force.com and Heroku- In Perfect Harmony
@metadaddy
A cookbook recipe that shows how to call the REST API from a Ruby Sinatra app.

Advanced Reporting and Dashboards in Salesforce: Google Visualization with Visualforce
@sfunearthed
Get started with Google Visualization API’s.

Join our CTO, Michael Topalovich, and 10k other Salesforce enthusiasts at this year’s Cloudforce on March 15 in San Francisco. This year’s theme is (you can probably guess it) the Social Enterprise! Expect to hear guests from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Accenture, and Burberry discuss how they are taking advantage of the Social Enterprise , as well as register for 40 breakout sessions, attend the Expo, and network with thousands of professionals. Use the link below to register today.

• Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour

Salesforce.com is home to over a million applications running on Force.com, Database.com, and Heroku. These platforms are all targeted towards a specific type of application: Force.com for developers who are creating data-centric applications similar to CRM, Heroku to run custom apps that can be rewritten in multiple languages, and Database.com for unifying Force.com and Heroku under a common set of cloud services. According to Byron Sebastian, CEO of Heroku, the reason why salesforce.com is so successful in the cloud is not the type of cloud platforms offered, but rather, because salesforce.com “allows them to concentrate on building the application rather than worrying about managing the servers the application runs on.” If you need Force.com application help, let us know and we might be able to help.

• Salesforce.com: A Million Cloud Apps and Counting

Have you voted for Delivered Innovation’s two panels at Techweek? If not, what are you waiting for?

• Techweek 2012- Vote for Delivered Innovation!

Deloitte has formed an alliance with salesforce.com to “provide multinational and international companies with the software, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.” Paul Clemmons, Principal at Deloitte and leader of their cloud market offering and emerging solutions line, will be the lead in the global alliance. Deloitte argues that their clients are looking to work more effectively and efficiently, and a switch into cloud computing and salesforce.com will represent the solution catalyst.

• Deloitte Partners with Salesforce.com

Results for salesforce.com’s fiscal 4th quarter and full year 2012 financial results will be released on February 23, after the market closes. The company plans to host a conference call at 5:00 PM eastern time to discuss the financial results with the investment community. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the salesforce.com Investor Relations website at www.salesforce.com/investor.

• Salesforce.com Announces Timing of It’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Financial Results Conference Call

Our “State of the Cloud 2012: What Business Executives Need to KNow” event at the ITA is this upcoming Thursday, February 16! Our CTO, Mike Topalovich, is excited to join in on the cloud panel next to Brad DeSent of Apex Consulting Group, Inc., and Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, to discuss the evolving cloud computing landscape. The event is free, and held at the ITA (200 S. Wacker, 14th floor) starting at 9am on Thursday, February 16. Register using the link below, and we’ll see you there!

Salesforce: JavaScript Remoting- A Different Way of Thinking
@wesnolte
A few examples of how JavaScript remoting differs from “normal” Apex and Visualforce.

Create Custom Objects and Fields with Spring ’12 Schema Builder
@metadaddy
Video outlining the new features in Schema Builder Spring ’12.

Mobile SDK Webinar Recording and Code
@cloudysan
The Mobile SDK webinar is now available for viewing; learn about the current mobile landscape, their strategy going forward, and how to use Mobile SDK to develop really awesome mobile apps.

APEX Trigger to Prevent Duplicate Object Records
@SalesforceGirl
Duplicate records and contacts is a huge Salesforce no-no, use this trigger to prevent them.

Detecting the sObject Type of Id’s from Ambiguous Fields
@SalesforceGirl
How to accurately check if you are dealing with a User or a Group sObject in the OwnerId field.