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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Allaying apprehensions of Data Security w.r.t. Salesforce

One of the questions posed to all the business consultants showcasing the versatility of Salesforce CRM to prospective clients ,"is the concern of data security" and the traditional fear of keeping one's sensitive data in the custody of "Salesforce Servers". Assuring the client about the flawless of the security of data becomes a torturous exercise - walking the clients through:-
1. The "Trust Statements"
2. Certification of respective government
3. Global Audit compliance
The jargon involved in these documents is so complicated and lengthy that the actual intent {assuring about of safety of data} is lost on the audience.
My simple explanation to the business team {which occasionally directs the volley of these queries towards the technical team} is to explain the dynamics of "Data Safety" by way of a simple analogy. Here is how it goes - Whenever prospective clients or existing clients are showing their concern about safety of their data, ask them a simple question? Sir/Mam where do you keep your valuables or money, the obvious answer to this query would be a bank. (unless it is ill-gotten) Why do you keep it with bank? As you know your money is safer there and banks are better equipped and legally bound to protect your money and also replace it in case of theft. The same spirit applies to CRMs - they too are legally bound to safeguard the privacy and safety of your data. Since you would not keep your money at home and prefer a bank instead and will not be deterred by the logic that it implies entrusting a third party with your money (as you are assured of its safety) the same logic applies to your "data" by way of corollary when you store it on "salesforce servers". If you want more insight to this please go through:-
1. Safe Harbor statements provided here -http://trust.salesforce.com/trust/privacy/tools/
2. Also the most valuable testimony of our (salesforce crm's ) commitment to data security and  privacy can be provided by existing client base , refer to the link enclosed for more infohttp://trust.salesforce.com.
3. Besides salesforce provides the option of trial runs , one can use the CRM on a trial basis from Appexchange and once assured you can go ahead and subscribe.
Hope this settles the noise around the data security debate vis-avis "The Cloud" (common name of salesforce).