Comments on: Closed APIs Suck: An Open Letter to Salesforce

By: Eric Burke

Eric Burke — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well said. A API seems like a horrible thing to cripple for the lower-end versions of a product. I had a similar situation with StarTeam several years ago. They did give us an API, but the JavaDocs were incomplete and they refused to provide source code to the API’s public interfaces and classes. This made it quite difficult to use. It’s not like we asked for source to internal implementation details.

By: Luigi Montanez

Luigi Montanez — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I would talk with your account executive. I work in a shop that integrates Rails apps with Salesforce (our clients are all on Enterprise though), and our account executives have always been reasonable when it comes to addressing the artificial limitations that Salesforce puts on their editions.

By: Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve worked in-depth with the SF API as well as a number of others and agree with you 100%. The irony is that a UI requires so much more hardware, code, and support, than an API. Yet, companies continue to treat APIs like a ‘feature’ rather than what they should be – a minimal requirement.

I recently left a company that charged thousands for its API. The Integration Team had 2 people and the support team had a few dozen. It really made me scratch my head (still does!)

By: Mike Schinkel

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The subject of this blog post was the entire reason I started the “ThoughtsOnSalesforce.com” blog.

Salesforce.com is filled with people especially at the C-level who only ever think about “What’s in it for ME?” and to them, every customer touchpoint is a point at which they can attempt to grab some money off the table instead of realizing how giving some things away can provide a much larger benefit. Sad, because if they were more longsighted they could have become the Microsoft killer; as is I predict they will be little more than a footnote in time.

After over a year with my Salesforce.com-related blog, however, I just got so fed up with Salesforce.com that I sold the blog and moved to SugarCRM, and haven’t looked back.

By: David D

David D — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m so miserable about this (lack of availability of API outside of Enterprise). Have read Mike’s blog and agree. I have a killer app but unwilling to build it if I can only sell it to my customers who are willing to “upgrade” their Salesforce account to get it.

Not sure how firmly the heels are dug in, and I understand having to add value to justify Enterprise pricing …but big opening for competitors.

SugarCRM (whatever that is) … here I come….