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Tech giant brings software to a gun fight
Washington Post ^ | May 30, 2019 | Jay Greene

Posted on 05/30/2019 6:43:24 AM PDT by reaganaut1

SAN FRANCISCO — On its website, Salesforce.com touts retailer Camping World as a leading customer of its business software, highlighting its use of products to help sales staff move product. A Camping World executive is even quoted calling Salesforce’s software “magic.”

But behind the scenes in recent weeks, the Silicon Valley tech giant has delivered a different message to gun-selling retailers such as Camping World: Stop selling military-style rifles, or stop using our software.

The pressure Salesforce is exerting on those retailers — barring them from using its technology to market products, manage customer service operations and fulfill orders — puts them in a difficult position. Camping World, for example, spends more than $1 million a year on Salesforce’s e-commerce software, according to one analyst estimate. Switching to another provider now could cost the company double that to migrate data, reconfigure systems and retrain employees.

The change in Salesforce’s acceptable-use policy shows how a technology giant that is mostly unknown to the public is trying to influence what retailers in America sell and alter the dynamics of a charged social issue. While Salesforce is hardly a household name, it is a dominant provider of software and services that help businesses manage their customers. With roughly 40,000 employees and a market value of nearly $120 billion, it has become a behemoth in San Francisco. Its branded skyscraper also towers over the city as the tallest building and a major landmark.

But its decision to force its position on guns on retailers did not sit well with some industry advocates. These types of rules are “corporate-policy virtue signaling” and discriminate against gun owners, whose rights are protected by the Second Amendment, said Mark Oliva, public affairs director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade group.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; guns; salesforce; software
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Software vendors should not try to dictate how their customers -- the ones who are paying -- run their businesses.
1 posted on 05/30/2019 6:43:24 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

If I refuse to bake a cake for a queer...


2 posted on 05/30/2019 6:47:33 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: reaganaut1

Salesforce HQ is in San Francisco, nuff said.


3 posted on 05/30/2019 6:47:46 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: reaganaut1

Too bad we don’t have any laws on Anti Trust anymore, otherwise they could be in big trouble for this.


4 posted on 05/30/2019 6:50:07 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: DUMBGRUNT
in San Francisco. Its branded skyscraper also towers over the city as the tallest building and a major landmark.

The branded skyscraper, NEVER opened and has been closed for some time because of structural failures. That is the brand I recall.

5 posted on 05/30/2019 6:50:57 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: reaganaut1

That’s a winning business model.


6 posted on 05/30/2019 6:51:35 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to says)
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To: reaganaut1

And it also depends on whether the customers own or lease the software (or license). If it’s considered a purchase and one party wants to come back and attach additional terms, they can eff off.


7 posted on 05/30/2019 6:54:03 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: reaganaut1
Now it's Stop selling military-style rifles, or stop using our software.

What next will these self-assigned masters of society deem offensive?

This is so wrong - and should be illegal.

A company spends millions to stand up a software installation, then to be blackmailed by the software company?

8 posted on 05/30/2019 6:55:38 AM PDT by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
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To: reaganaut1

It was the Salesforce CEO who personally oversaw and led the anti-RFRA attack in Indiana as he had just setup shop there and used his leverage to bully compliance by the government.

He’s gone on to state (and act upon) that CEOs must dictate and enforce social policy even against the desires of the people and has coordinated locally, nationally and globally with other CEOs to enact their social policy.

He’s evil incarnate.


9 posted on 05/30/2019 6:56:31 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: reaganaut1

Keep an eye out for 4-6 months from now, severe security breeches in Salesforce.com.


10 posted on 05/30/2019 7:01:36 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is The I read in the papers.)
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To: reaganaut1

Any vendor that issues an ultimatum to a customer should be fired immediately. Any manager who would tolerate that needless business risk, the same.


11 posted on 05/30/2019 7:04:30 AM PDT by thoughtomator (The Clinton Coup attempt was a worse attack on the USA than was 9/11)
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To: reaganaut1

Is this like Disney’s edict to the State of Georgia?


12 posted on 05/30/2019 7:05:43 AM PDT by GOYAKLA (Winning not whining!)
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To: reaganaut1

Google what Marcus Lemonis said in the aftermath of Charlottesville

And you’ll want to avoid him and CampingWorld as well as SocialistForce

Including his fake reality show on cnbc


13 posted on 05/30/2019 7:06:52 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (Pussie Smollett, Mizzou, campus fake nooses, fake "protests" FAKE EVERYTHING Hey CNN? lol)
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To: Skywise

And the company is just short of a cult. I know people who work there and others who have trained in SF software at their Indy facility. It is spooky. You have to buy totally into the company culture, Ohana, supposedly the Hawaiian word for family. Really pushes the inclusive/diversity mantra. Doubt a straight, white guy could get a job there.


14 posted on 05/30/2019 7:16:16 AM PDT by redangus
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To: reaganaut1

Salesforce is a great tool.
BUT . . .
That was then.

There are lots of options today that did not exist even three years ago.

Dump em.


15 posted on 05/30/2019 7:16:34 AM PDT by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Would make an interesting court case wouldn’t it?


16 posted on 05/30/2019 7:17:03 AM PDT by redangus
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To: reaganaut1

Conservatives really need to Learn to Code.

and run Banks and Universities

The culture war is now also a tech & financial war


17 posted on 05/30/2019 7:17:50 AM PDT by Pollard (If you don't understand what I typed, you haven't read the classics.)
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To: reaganaut1

Camping World should immediately switch to a new software and ban Salesforce employees from their stores.


18 posted on 05/30/2019 7:17:52 AM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: Macoozie

That’s a problem for software companies like SF. They don’t have a high price of entry for competitors. Someone who understands the CRM software basics could start a new company and steal a sizable chink of SF market fairly quickly. SF bought the software from a local startup called Exact Target. Bought the company for millions to kill the competition.


19 posted on 05/30/2019 7:21:10 AM PDT by redangus
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To: Pollard

We have a winner.


20 posted on 05/30/2019 7:22:10 AM PDT by redangus
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