Online CRM

I'm writing this post sitting by the pool in Ko Samui, Thailand looking out across the bay where the locals are fishing in a flat sea from small traditional boats - I'm here for a good friend's wedding. Samui is a little island off in the gulf of Thailand off the southeast coast of the country.

And on this tiny little island in the middle of nowhere sitting by the pool I have my choice of at least 20 different wi-fi hotspots with 24x7 high speed Internet.

Just before writing this I quickly checked Salesforce to look at our sales pipeline and logged into Intacct to check our executive dashboard and to approve expenses reports for my team. Before that I used skype to have a video call with my wife and six year old twins back in Palo Alto.

Just a couple of years ago this would have been impossible. It was unthinkable to access the company financial and CRM systems from outside the office, much less poolside from a remote island in southeast asia. And personal video calls were science fiction.

I can't think of a clearer example of how the combination of on-demand business applications, collaborative technologies and ubiquitous Internet access are going to transform the way we live and work.