The Wet Edge As R&D

File this under the “hey-didn’t-I-just-talk-about-that” category. A few days ago I posted about BizDev 2.0 - The Wet Edge. In it, one of the assetions was that not only was business development enabled by APIs but so was R&D.

Salesforce.com yesterday provided some semblance of proof for this thinking. Their AppExchange, an API-driven marketplace that enables applications to be plugged into Salesforce.com’s applications, purchased on of the hosted applications. Woodrow (who I’ve only first discovered today) has more:

At the time, I wondered whether AppExchange was as much a chance for salesforce.com to outsource R&D and cherry pick tuck-in technologies (and people) as it was about driving near-term revenues and creating a platform.

I then asked if SfDC was using AE as a way to outsource R&D efforts; and whether they would use their considerable currency (i.e., their stock) to make acquisitions of the “best and brightest” developers and products on AE.

• Ismael wholeheartedly agreed and iterated that SfDC should be doing this; it's good business and a great way to build up an ecosystem in a cost-effective manner
• Charlie suggested that SfDC is doing a "fantastic" job of cultivating even the smallest ISVs
• Dennis noted that SfDC has already bought two ISV partners, and agreed its likely a continuing strategy

The Ponderings of Woodrow: Salesforce.com leverages AppExchange as outsourced R&D...acquires Kieden

technorati tags:bizdev2.0, r&d, salesforce.com