We have spent some time updating http://developer.financialforce.com to make it even easier to use and even more helpful.

This is where users and developers both on and off the Force.com platform can access the FinancialForce.com business API for its core features. Useful for those with Apex, Java or C# backgrounds and those sporting the recent Salesforce Developer certifications, we have created this site to help those wanting to get more from the FinancialForce online accounting application. 

It includes:

• A series of sample integrations and mash-ups we have created to give inspiration to others including Facebook and Google Apps integrations.
• FinancialForce Accounting customisations
• Best practice guidelines and specific API examples

We have also added a code scheduler feature using new features of the Spring ‘10 Force.com platform release. It allows us to schedule any Batch Apex enable functionality. Batch Apex can easily wrap the FinancialForce Bulk API’s.

FinancialForce.com users can now easily manage business and customer accounts anytime, anywhere

FinancialForce.com has launched iPhone and BlackBerry clients for FinancialForce Accounting, the first and only enterprise-class online accounting application on the Force.com cloud computing platform.

Features of the mobile client include:
• dashboards for accounting information, such as bank balances, overdue customer invoices and amounts owed to suppliers.
• query access to invoices and credit notes.
• logging of calls, notes and conversations with customers and suppliers.
• the ability for both sales and accounting teams to assign, collaborate and complete tasks related to both CRM and accounting data.

In a guest post on TechCrunch, Marc Benioff of salesforce.com talks about why enterprise software should take its cues from Facebook and become more social.

In it he asks why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?

Typically, social networking tools and business have been kept very separate. The fact that many bosses have banned the use of these tools and labelled them unproductive has not helped. But like anything, it’s about how they are put to use. The technology behind sites like Amazon is impressive and is something all enterprise software vendors can learn from. So, the question is – how can we repurpose these tools, based on the kind of technology we are all used to using in our personal lives, to enhance our work lives?

Cross department communication is still a problem in the workplace. We still work in silos at our individual workstations despite in many cases spending our personal lives socialising online. Actions are often delayed if someone is out of the office and not accessing email, which is still the communication tool of choice. Many companies are making good use of tools like Instant Messenger, but what if we could extend those benefits for more advantage? If Chatter and similar enterprise tools can help overcome this and some of the problems related to antiquated software that many companies still rely on, based on the kind of technology we all know and love, that has got to be a good thing. Then if department specific processes can be built in aimed at specific and only relevant groups, it has to be a no-brainer.

At FinancialForce.com, we are looking at how we deliver extra advantage to our customers using these tools. From the perspective of an online accounting software vendor that speaks salesforce, we believe that as more and more businesses grow their presence on sites like Facebook, there are integration opportunities to enable better collaboration with business for finance related processes. We’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks so watch this space…

Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs, has released a new technology report emailed to subscribers last week, titled ‘Techtonics: Unstoppable shift to SaaS continues’. It confirms the rise in popularity of SaaS and highlights the areas where utilization is increasing.

The diagram below shows that accounting and billing is the 3rd most popular area for SaaS adoption at 49%. Interestingly, the report also says that it has been the biggest growth area since April 2009 at 20%, ahead of call center automation and eRecruitment.

cnet.com covers the report and provides a few highlights:

•An “SaaS first” policy is being enacted in the majority of small and midsize businesses. Goldman’s survey highlights that 58 percent of respondents always consider an SaaS option when making an application purchase decision. At total of 39 percent prefer an SaaS option, if available.
•Web conferencing and sales force automation continue to rank as the most utilized SaaS applications; accounting and billing shows significant improvement, underscoring broad acceptance in all application areas.
•Accounting and billing, call center automation, and eRecruiting were the largest gainers, with 20 percent, 18 percent, and 17 percent increases, respectively, from April 2009.
•Data warehousing, supply chain management, and product life cycle management require more customization, or are more embedded within the core of a company than cloud applications. They are also utilized by a smaller group of individuals, which could impact the time to, or volume of, deployments.
•Amazon.com is used by 67 percent of the survey respondents. It is clearly the out-in-front leader, despite being a “newcomer” to enterprise IT. For internal clouds, VMware’s leadership remains pronounced, with 83 percent of respondents using its virtualization technology.
•Platform-as-a-service layers are gaining momentum, dominated by Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2, service, with 77 percent of respondents choosing EC2 as a preferred partner, well ahead of Google
•Forty percent of respondents indicated that they would be more likely to use SaaS solutions in a weaker economy, due to perceived total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits