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FirstRain and The World of Digital Business Intelligence

YY is a Keynote Speaker at the 2012 Semantic Technology and Business Conference

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On October 17th, 2012, our amazing COO, YY Lee will speak at the Semantic Technology and Business Conference. Her session, “Expanding Your Horizons: Using Cross-Domain Semantics to Deliver Higher Impact Intelligence“ will present how FirstRain has tackled the challenge of delivering customer intelligence across many different business domains. The session takes place at 9:30am-10:00am at the Grand Ballroom.

The Semantic Technology and Business Conference takes place from October 15th-October 17th in New York City. The conference will host numerous sessions from diverse experts in many industries, as well as an expo hall exhibiting the newest semantic and big data tools and developments. For more information, email me at jlevi@firstrain.com.

FirstRain India Takes On the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon

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The day of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, September 30th 2012, finally arrived; the pinnacle of lots of hard work (or not so hard) for thirteen Rainmakers. The alarm bells rang at 3:45 AM on Sunday morning. It may have crossed our minds to hit the snooze, but the excitement of the marathon was enough to drag us out of bed.

The night before the big day was tough. Most of the participants were nervous, with the fear of not completing the race on time (or at all) weighing on us. We loaded up on both sleep and hydration, downing 4-5 liters of Gatorade in the 24 hours leading up to race day. Well in advance of the starting time, participants lingered near the course with running bibs pinned to their t-shirts and timing chips fastened to their shoes. Some listened to music to relax their minds. The morning was cool and breezy. Varun and Priyankar were the first of the Rainmakers to reach the packed venue. The DJ’s music filled the morning air as people stretched their sleepy muscles and fit in last minute exercises. At last, amid many speculations, our MYSTERY RUNNER was revealed. Nobody could have guessed our mystery runner was Gaurav Chauhan, who had been following a very secret regimen of workouts and an office diet of carrots, almonds, sprouts and apricots.

We gathered at the starting point, where people of all ages had turned up for the mega event. Moving forward wasn’t easy, as thousands of people with the same idea shoved and pushed their way through. The weather gods were not generous at the race’s 6:40 AM start time. As we reached India Gate, the scorching sun made every step more difficult. But each Rainmaker’s mind was consumed by only one thought: to complete the race. From the first stride, a sense of team spirit and competitiveness drove the Rainmakers. In a moment of pure concentration captured by event cameras, Varun and Mohammad Athar ran side by side for a full minute, but didn’t notice each other until reviewing the marathon photos after the race. Along the way, Rainmakers were encouraged by each other, motivated by the sheer number of other runners, and supported by well-organized event facilities. Cooling tunnels, oranges, water points, energy drinks, mobile toilets, and cold sponges at various places aided Rainmakers toward their destination.

Sanjay Shankar, a dedicated competitor from the beginning, finished the race with an impressive 13.10 miles in 2:27:29. His impromptu victory dance at the finish line was caught on camera and acquired Facebook fame. His enthusiasm spoke for all of the competing Rainmakers, who finished the race with complete participation.

Close to 32,000 people, including athletes and celebrities, turned up for the race. The spirit of the marathon is alive and well among Rainmakers. This year thirteen of us competed in the race, and we hope to see our numbers grow next year.

And the winner is …

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And the winner of the FirstRain ‘be the carrot’ iPad contest is … Talitha Baker from Invisible Children! She came in first with over 600 Facebook Likes and 75 retweets (in fact, that was her winning count as of our Friday evening deadline—but as of this morning, Talitha’s Carrot pic has more than 800 FB Likes and over 80 retweets)! Great job Talitha on ‘Being the Carrot’ and rallying your networks to help you win. It was quite a battle between the close second-place finish of George Messiha at Citrix, who had over 520 Facebook Likes!

And thanks again to EVERYONE who participated in this fun contest. And of course, if you’d like to hear more about how FirstRain gives you the “carrot” to drive Salesforce adoption by delivering customer intelligence to your company’s major account sales and marketing teams–and makes your entire team as knowledgeable about your most important customers as your top performers already are, drop me a line!

360 Degrees of Excellence: How GE Capital Drives ROI Through Customer Intelligence

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If you didn’t get to hear the Dreamforce session where GE Capital’s Sales Excellence leader, Steve Kozek, discussed their challenges in increasing the customer expertise of their sales reps and driving CRM adoption and engagement, we have now posted a highlights video on our YouTube channel. We think you will find the value in hearing GE Capital’s experience in solving these problems!

If you are interested in seeing the full video of the session please email us at sales@firstrain.com

The Campaigns to Win the ‘Be the Carrot’ FirstRain iPad are off to a Great Start!

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Dreamforce 2012 may officially be over, but we’re still having some fun that’s rolled over from last week’s big conference! During the event, we encouraged attendees to stop by our booth and “Be the Carrot”, posing for a picture in our FirstRain carrot photo op—both to have a bit of fun and to win a free iPad.

Now, all the participants’ carrot photos have all been tweeted out from our FirstRain Twitter account and have also been placed into our “Be the Carrot” Facebook album on the FirstRain Facebook page—they are quite entertaining so make sure to check them out!

The winner will be whichever ‘Carrot’ gets the most retweets and/or Facebook ‘Likes’ for their picture, and many people’s campaigns are now in full gear to win that iPad! One contestant already has over 250 Facebook Likes! And if you’re a participant who hasn’t yet started your campaign, don’t despair, you still have a couple more days to encourage everyone—colleagues, friends and family—to spread the word and get as many people as you can (no robots, please!) to go retweet and Facebook-Like your photo by 5 PM PT, Friday, September 28th, the contest deadline. Whoever receives the most retweets and/or Facebook Likes by that time will win the iPad!

We will announce the winner at the end of the week, so make sure to retweet and Like your favorite photo!

Look, Up in the Sky: it’s a Bird! It’s a Plane … it’s FirstRain Performinator!

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The past few weeks have been extremely busy and exciting as we prepare for Dreamforce, which is now only a week away! But today, I have some other exciting news to share, the launch of our new solution—the FirstRain Performinator!

Performinator is our newest solution for delivering strategically tuned customer intelligence for major account sales and marketing teams right into their existing CRM, social enterprise platforms, smartphones and tablets. Performinator helps your entire team of sales and marketing pros understand their customers’ business as well as your superstars do. And for the thousands of early-adopter users who are already getting FirstRain Performinator today, it’s the ‘carrot‘ that gets your people engaged in and drives value from your CRM and platform investments. Don’t YOU want to ‘Be the Carrot‘? ;-)

Most sales and marketing teams don’t have the time to gather the deep knowledge of their customers and end-markets that’s needed to really challenge their customers, uncover opportunity and spot risks. FirstRain already delivers the right intelligence to help solve this challenge, but with Performinator we make it so easy, and so well-tuned to your customer markets that each of your users are transformed (no phone booth required) into your company’s go-to experts on your most significant customers.

In fact, at Dreamforce next week, leaders from GE Capital and FirstRain will be discussing the new solution and how they are embracing the carrot. If you’re interested in attending the session and learning more about Performinator, you can do so here.

Superman may use his super powers to fly, but Performinator uses its powers to transform your sales and marketing teams!

Girly Geeks in Force at Dreamforce

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I can’t think of a better way to start a major conference then attending a conference sponsored networking event. From day one you are able to network and make connections with others, who can heavily influence the value you ultimately get from the conference.

On the eve of Dreamforce, Monday September 17th there will be a ‘Women in Tech’ event hosted by GirlyGeeks and the Salesforce.com’s Women’s Network (open to all Dreamforce attendees and Salesforce.com employees).

This networking event is sure to rally in many passionate, energetic and career driven women and certainly all the Girly Geeks at FirstRain are looking forward to meeting them all, as we kick off Dreamforce 2012.

Events like these are great opportunities to come together to network, share your own personal experiences, and hear some of the challenges and experiences women have faced in order to build their careers. In addition to networking and ‘cocktailing’ time, attendees will hear from:

  • Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, President, Commercial/SMB Business Unit, Salesforce.com
  • Geraldine Gray, Senior Consultant, Appirio & Founder of the GirlyGeeks

Plus a special panel session moderated by Jill Rowley, Director of Key Accounts, Eloqua. The panelists will share their career stories and take questions from the audience. Panelists include:

  • Rachel Thornton, Vice President, Dreamforce, Salesforce.com
  • Penny Herscher, CEO, FirstRain
  • Sarah Friar, CFO, Square
  • Sheila Jordan, SVP of Communications and Collaboration IT, Cisco Systems
  • Deepa Patel, President, Halak Consulting

We are very happy that Penny was invited to be part of the panel, because as a FirstRain Girly Geek, I know the benefit of her daily dose of inspiration, guidance and fortitude, that I am sure will come across in the panel. As many of you know, Penny is very passionate about the opportunities and challenges that women in technology encounter on a daily basis. She actively shares her thoughts on her personal blog as well as on the Huffington Post. Earlier this year Penny participated on a panel at Yahoo! on the myth of the work-life balance and spoke at TEDx Gunn High School on how coding is the new literacy.

Want to learn more or attend the Women In Tech Event? If you are a Dreamforce attendee or Salesforce.com employee, visit the Girly Geeks Dreamforce Chatter Group and then RSVP here (email me if you need a code: dbarbosa@firstrain.com).

And don’t forget, Dreamforce is only 10 days away and all of FirstRain is working hard to get #DF12ready! Most of the team will be present, whether they are at our booth (#1626!), wandering the expo and hosting meetups (interested in meeting up with us? Email us at DF@firstrain.com) or checking out the GE Capital Session–we are gearing up for a fun week!

Image|Flickr| Elizabeth Thomsen

What to Expect, When You Don’t Know What to Expect at Dreamforce 2012

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This is my first year attending Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference and I am very excited. As a first timer, I wanted to make sure I was prepared, so I turned to Twitter and Dreamforce Chatter to find out the scoop on what to expect. Here are the top 10 tips I’ve compiled to help you (and myself!) get ready for Dreamforce 2012.

1. Wear comfortable shoes, this is the most talked about recommendation on social media right now! You spend almost all day on your feet, so take care of them. High heels may look great on Day 1, but your body will regret it on Day 2 if you can barely stand…

2. Bring an extra battery! From session hopping to coordinating meet ups with your iPhone you are bound to battery power. Make sure to bring your charger (there will be charging stations) or buy an extra long battery to ensure you aren’t without power halfway through the conference.

3. Flag that full session! Didn’t get to register in time for a session you are dying to attend? Don’t fret, Salesforce is now allowing you to go to the Agenda Builder and “flag” each full session. If you flag the session in the Agenda Builder, Dreamforce will notify you when they add an additional session. For example, to find out more information on how to flag the hot GE Capital “360° of Excellence” ROI session, do so here.

Another option—just show up! Most likely there will be some “no-shows”. Go early! It’s first come, first serve.

4. Stay out late and meet people! There will be a lot of cool, interesting people at the restaurants and bars around the Moscone Center ready to chit chat. It’s a great way to network and learn about new products.

5. Don’t overload on sessions! There are tons of great sessions you are dying to see (like FirstRain’s, of course!) but scheduling back-to-back sessions will leave you with very little time to explore the expo. Limit yourself and be mindful that sessions are at different buildings.

6. Party time! Interested in checking out the social scene after the Moscone Center closes? Check out this App for up-to-date events happening at Dreamforce.

7. Bring Layers! Never been to San Francisco before? SF is a layering city. September may be one of our warmest months, but depending on the micro-climate on that particular day—or of that exact block—you may experience a whole range of temperatures. Bring a sweater (or two).

8. Take advantage of San Francisco’s coffee and donuts! Blue Bottle Coffee is just a couple blocks away and Philz isn’t too far. SF has a Starbucks on every block, but these coffee houses brew each cup individually. Caffeine is a necessity to keep yourself energized throughout the conference. And If you are planning on staying out late, make sure to visit Bob’s Donuts on Polk street. They are open 24 hours but make donuts fresh at around 10pm. You won’t be disappointed, they are fantastic. I’m a regular!

9. Be organized! Map out all the sessions you are attending and the booths you want to visit. This year, a lot of the sessions are held outside of the Moscone Center at nearby hotels. Familiar yourself with the area prior to the conference.

10. Make sure to check your social media and talk to DF alumni! Stay active with #DF12 and Dreamforce chatter for new recommendations while the conference is happening. As well as reach out and talk to DF alumni! Many of the FirstRain team are Dreamforce veterans and are helping me get #DF12ready.

And for those of you attending Dreamforce12, you can check out the full thread where I compiled all these great ideas, if you want even more great tips (and special thanks to Jeff Grosse for so many terriffic suggestions).

You Had Me At Hello. Smiling That Is.

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Dreamforce season is upon us! Attendees and Salesforce.com employees are talking about what they are wearing and not wearing (I really hope not!) to the event, the Dreamforce party app is hopping, SaaSy videos are going viral, animated gifs are turning up everywhere,  sessions are filling up fast and rumors are flying around.

So what are we doing in preparation? Well, some hard work of course as we coordinate our booth (#1626), our customer session [360° of Excellence: How GE Capital Drives ROI Through Customer Intelligence], our team schedules and our client appointments—but also some fun, because that is how we roll here @FirstRain …

If you’ve been following @FirstRain or Penny, Ryan or myself on Twitter, you may have noticed we’ve been tweeting out about our new customer intelligence Tumblr:  “You Had Me At Hello, Letters to Marc Benioff“, with a couple new posts a day.

So what exactly is it? You Had Me At Hello are letters directly from Penny to Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com’s CEO. They are ‘penned’ in Penny’s own voice—no marketing content editor behind the scenes—and are what our COO, YY Lee, recently called “like passing hallway notes between two CEOs”.

We have had a lot of positive feedback from our customers (including many who are mutual customers with Salesforce.com), along with many ”thanks for making me smile.” This ticks off our #1 objective as we all continue to be manically busy trying to prep for Dreamforce, deliver our updated AppExchange offering, work on a couple of new client SFDC implementations and continue to drive value to our customers rolling out tools like Sales Cloud.

Here are some highlighted posts from the Tumblr in the last week that might also make you smile:

To read the rest of the posts go to  #UHadMeAtHello! Read it, Tweet it, and Submit Your own Letter to Marc if you are so inclined.

View the full archive here.