We at edocr.com has put a lot of faith on salesforce.com and it is no surprise from our recent tweets that we are pushing hard on marketing of Cloudforce 2010 Conference taking place on 7th September in London.

Our first encounter with salesforce.com was in April 2009 on the morning of Cloudforce Conference in London. I was gutted for not being part of it. I was impressed by the live broadcast of the event and how quickly Marc Benioff, founder and CEO, responded to my email on the same day. Since then, we have built a great relationship between the two companies, especially at European level.

It was natural for us to consider salesforce.com as the first CRM application to integrate for exporting sales leads from edocr.com. Through our virtual exhibitions for salesforce.com, we have continued to build channels for their customers and partners on edcor.com.

Been an avid user of Twitter since 2007 (Twitter was introduced to me by James Governor of Redmonk when bunch of us blogged on behalf of SAP Sapphire in 2007) I have been thinking of how to make use of salesforce.com more effectively. Why do we need to build details of a contact when someone may have already entered that information to salesforce.com? Why cannot we share this information whilst safe guarding confidential and private data?

These days, especially if you are in marketing, most details about you could be found on the Internet. I use Salesforce.com with Gist.com and Salesview to achieve intelligence on contacts, which anyone can obtain. Instead of spending time duplicating the same, what if we can share the contact details openly? Would this not be the ultimate twitter for CRM?

Interested? How would this work? A tick box next to each contact could allow you to share with partners or open up to all salesforce.com customer base. At present, partners can share salesforce contacts but I am looking for much more openness here.

Do you share our views? Are you happy to share your contacts database? Love to hear your thoughts.

Let me start by apologizing to you about recent down times you had to experience this month. We are taking measures to improve the reliability, whilst continuing to offer new innovative services.

We plan to relaunch edocr.com with additional services on 1st September. edocr.com at its very basic level offers a document publishing, distribution and interactivity platform. We have been developing ways to share the intelligence on your documents, which we plan to offer by 1st September. Pricing plans will be strengthened with following options:

+ Individual: £15 per month - aimed at freelancers and micro-businesses with single user account
+ Business Starter: £25 per month with 5 user accounts, e.g. Salesforce.com
+ Business Essential: £75 per month with 10 user accounts with Intelligence and Document Distribution Control
+ Enterprise - pricing on demand - branded and tightly integrated to CRM, ECM/DMS etc

We will continue to offer FREE accounts for those who wish to upload less than 100 documents, or simply to access document content. Don't worry, we will not force you to upgrade or delete your accounts if you have more than 100 documents.

We have also experimented with developing an OpenSocial Widget, which will allow your documents to be displayed on third party applications. This is currently available free on iGoogle. See instructions for installation. We plan to develop this widget further so that you could share documents on social networks such as Ning. We can also develop this widget to suit your specific application. Please get in touch for a quote if interested.

We have continued to improve on Alexa rankings since the start of the year, and stand close to beating the 50,000th largest website globally (3 month average).

If you use Salesforce.com, you can now now export sales leads from edocr.com directly into your salesforce.com account. We will be in touch with you individually leading to the relaunch to speak to you in detail about upgrading your account.

Wishing you a great weekend

Best regards

Manoj Ranaweera,
CEO edocr.com
+44 7769734491
@manojranaweera @edocr

We are developing a widget, based on OpenSocial standard, to allow easy access to edocr.com from third party applications, both in terms of uploading documents/pdfs as well as embedding document thumbnails from edocr.com into third party applications.

If you wish to test the widget in development, please follow the instructions below:

1. Visit http://www.google.com/ig and log in or create an account.
2. Click "Add stuff" near the top right hand corner.
3. Click "Add feed or gadget" at the bottom of the left hand menu.
4. Insert the following URL "http://www.jtwheeldon.com/edocr/gadget_0.41.xml" and click add
5. Let the gadget load and return to the iGoogle homepage.

Once the widget is loaded on iGoogle page, it will look like

Please enter a registered username to see the corresponding thumbnails.

Here is the widget for our partner, cazoomi

Disclaimer: Please note this widget is currently in development so may not function correctly. At this stage of development, please click on any link to open the corresponding document. Clicking on thumbnails result in corresponding document being opened inside the widget with very little control. The more documents a user account has, the longer it takes to load the thumbnails.

We would very much appreciate your thoughts on any aspect of the widget. Many thanks in advance.

One of the problems that seem to have incurred since introduction of the pop-up window is that some of the documents have become invisible, especially to those who published them. Our team has worked tirelessly to identify the problem and I have been advised today that it has been resolved. It is possible that you may have not experience this problem, but to be on the safe side, we would like to request you to revisit your account.

If you suspect that some of your documents are missing, please get in touch with us immediately, so that we could try our best to resolve it immediately.

You might be pleased to know that we have disabled the annoying pop-up window, which forced everyone to login to view documents. We introduced the pop-up window with the intention of capturing intelligence on document views, which increased the value we provide to our fee paying customers. However, this had a detrimental impact on search engine results, so at the end, we had to make a decision to disable the pop-up window.

Image source: photobucket.com

If you have registered your account recently, you may have already seen the following email visibility options on your profile page. If not, may we request you to visit your account to select the desired option. Withholding consent means you will not be able to view certain documents where publisher has requested your email address in exchange for you accessing their content.

Select "My Account" from top right hand menu, above "Upload" green button, then select "EDIT" tab followed by "Profile". Scroll down to the bottom of page to see "Email Visibility" options.

"Allow publisher to view my email address" means you are giving edocr Ltd the consent to pass your email address to publishers of documents you have viewed or interacted with. Over the coming weeks, publishers with paid accounts will be able to download details of who viewed their documents including email addresses where consent is given. Where no consent is given, they will only be able to interact with you through built-in private messaging. No email address will be issued without your consent.

You will see the above message where consent is not given. Please be assured that we do not share your email addresses with any third parties including our partners without your consent. And the consent given above is for publishers of documents only and not for sharing with partners.

If you have any concerns about your email address been shared with publishers, please get in touch through usual channels.

Image source: Problogger.net

This article is inspired by a private tweet I received just now, which simply said "Can't see the value..." when I queried a prospective customer "What's stopping you use edocr.com for your group and the subsidiaries?".

I am the first to acknowledge that not everyone will buy a product irrespective of how good it is. But I like a challenge. Let me know by the end of this short article, whether you agree or disagree with me.

Value of Social Networking

Do you see the value of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube? I assume you do. Each of these channels allow you to collaborate in slightly different ways, but with the same end point in mind, i.e. spread knowledge, improve your products and services, and ultimately generate new business.

1. Twitter - short messages for real-time collaboration.
2. Facebook - conversations through multiple objects from messages to pictures and video, almost a final destination, aggregating conversations from elsewhere.
3. Youtube - conversations around video.

Of course, there are many other channels offering conversations around a different object, e.g. Flickr around images.

edocr.com is about conversations around documents/pdfs. We do not discrimate what type of documents you upload from brochures, case studies and whitepapers to operating manuals and annual reports. As long as they are not confidential, edocr.com is the place for document related conversations.

Document Distribution

You could get a document distributed through limited number of ways, irrespective of how hard you try:

1. Printed - post or hand over at meetings, exhibitions and seminars.
2. Email to a known list of recipients.
3. Make it available through your website.

We like to be the 4th way of distributing a document. Let's take a look at a document on your website. This is most likely to be a link on a web page.

Lets say that you tweeted the url to the web page where the document link exists. Let's track my actions (and most likely yours):

1. I saw the link
2. Clicked and visited the web page
3. Found the document link among others and down loaded the document

This is probably where a typical visit would end. Let's explore the same scenario on edocr.com

1. I saw your tweet and the link
2. Clicked and visited the web page which has the document displayed prominently and no other documents or non related text.
3. I can now read on line (use full screen if I wished), download, book mark to over 200 social networks, email to a list of addresses, leave a comment, rate, add my own tags to make it easier to find next time, or simply drop a private message to you (the publisher).

Item (3) makes it much easier to distribute and have a conversation, all without leaving the link I clicked from Twitter. At the same time, search engines starts indexing your document, which means the document is now found through search engines, social networks and edocr.com through tags, document directory and business pages (the document can be listed against your company profile among all your other documents, fully categorised).

If you like us even more, you could simply use us as your main hosting provider for documents, and embed them on your website (thumbnail), blog or e-newsletters.

Beyond the Value of Exposure

In addition, we could provide leads of who actually look at the document. Email addresses will only be released with user consent. You can determine how you would like to expose your documents, e.g. top documents available only to those giving consent.

Ranking of documents on edocr.com is determined by the level of user interactivity. See how your document performs against your competitors. Let others know that they can track your new documents through RSS feeds.

Do you still think there is no value in our service? We are very happy to receive your constructive criticism.

Image source: biojobblog.com

Below is a list of tips to improve your document being found through search engines, third party sites such as social networks and on edocr.com

1. Document Title: Ensure document title is more than two words, descriptive enough to justify content, and without hyphens or underscores (SEO)
2. Twitter: Set your twitter details for auto-tweeting (distribution)
3. Source URL: Edit document page to add your source URL (distribution)
4. Duplicates: Remove any duplicate documents to improve indexing by search engines (SEO)
5. Tags: Add all relevant keywords as tags to improve being found on edocr.com (distribution)
6. Category: Select the most appropriate document category. Request new categories to suit your needs (distribution)
7. Bookmark: Bookmark to as many social networks as possible, and request your colleagues and friends to do the same (distribution)
8. Email this: Send document link to relevant colleagues and friends by adding their email addresses. Upgrade to edocr Essential to email to large lists (distribution)
9. Rate: Rate your own documents and request your colleagues and friends to do the same.

These are simple to implement. If you want traction for your documents, make sure you implement the above 9 points. Give us a shout if you need more information on any of the above points.

The general belief is that this year's election will be won by TV debate, but the impact the Internet will make should not be underestimated after the successful campaign run by Barak Obama during the last US presidential election. On the forefront of Internet campaigns, you find YouTube, Twitter and Facebook used by each of the main political parties to complement their own websites. Given that these are US products, one wonders why no British technology company has emerged as a key contender for social debate during the UK elections, which started today.

We are proud to bring your attention to edocr.com, a British tech company run from one of the two key campuses for science in the country, i.e. Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, which has also emerged as a favourite drop-in location for campaigning politicians. edocr.com allows knowledge to be shared easily across the Internet through documents/pdfs. As we do not compete with YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, we would like all the contending political parties to consider us in their campaigns to spread their policies across the Internet. After all, documents/pdfs remain the main instrument in capturing details from one page to hundreds of pages, we believe strongly that we could provide a significant input to educating the UK electorate on what each party stands for during this election.

To kick start, we have setup a profile for each of the three main parties; at Labour Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats, and have started a dialogue to handover these accounts. Tune to #UKElection2010 for new documents or set your reader for RSS Feed.

May you have the best information possible to make an informed voting decision!

Few weeks ago, I wrote about possible ways to integrate with Salesforce.com. The options explored included:

1. Traditional web-to-lead forms
2. API, especially as edocr.com is based on OAuth and salesforce.com now has OAuth capability
3. App Exchange

Since then, after much dialogue with salesforce.com employees, customers and partners, we have come to the conclusion, that App Exchange is the way forward for edocr.com. Having prepared edocr.com for lead capture over the last three months, we are now ready to start the integration work. Whilst the development team is busy with integration, I would like to share my thoughts on how we would price the benefits arising from new functionality.

edocr Essential

edocr Essential, our unmanaged service is priced at £250 per annum, making it viable for both small and large businesses. When we priced this basic offering, it was difficult to guess what the right price would be. As far as I know, there are no magic formulae in terms of pricing a product. Yes, certain factors can influence, but at the end of the day, you go with with your gut feel. I would be keen to hear how you have priced your SaaS application.

edocr Essential's value proposition is based on Exposure. Sales leads are based on prospects contacting you. It provides a one-stop-shop for all your documents. Documents uploaded by employees with accounts are displayed against your company profile fully categorised with company information and employee information. And the company can be listed against all applicable categories on the business directory. Each document can be distributed through mail lists, tweeted and bookmarked to over 200 social networks by you, your team or anyone coming across your document. Documents are accessible through search engines, social networks (when bookmarked) and edocr.com.

edocr Managed is basically outsourcing above to edocr Ltd or its partners so that your account can be professionally managed.

edocr Enterprise provides tighter integration with your applications in addition to providing a white label proposition.

Sales Leads Capture

The sales leads capture is almost ready. The current development project, LC&SFI (Leads Capture and Salesforce.com Integration), started as one project, but it is increasingly felt as two. And therefore, makes sense to split as follows:

- Sales Leads: The ability to access and download who looked at your documents, giving you pre-qualified sales leads. The assumption here is that if someone viewed your document, s/he will be interested in your products and services. The quality of the lead is not part of this offering, but I can foresee us offering behavioural based sales leads in the future, perhaps in 2011. You will soon be able to download leads in CSV format
- Integration with Salesforce.com: After month's of research, we decided today that the best way to integrate with Salesforce.com is through AppExchange. I was excited when I heard that Salesforce.com supports our chosen API standard, OAuth, but I believe it would be messy, if we had taken this approach, especially as we would have to develop an advanced version of edocr API that will only be available to paid customers.

Pricing Thoughts

Thoughts on pricing is as follows:
1. edocr Essential at £250 per annum (firmed)
2. Sales lead capture at £250 per annum (discussion stage)
3. Integration with Salesforce.com £250 per annum. (discussion stage)

So total cost to use edocr.com with full integration with salesforce.com would be £750 per annum. Seems still too low to get medium to large companies excited. Please note that there is no real basis for £250, it's just what we came up with, and seems to be a nice figure to increment. As I said earlier, no scientific thought process has gone into pricing. And all our pricing include fair usage with no real restrictions on number of documents, hard disk space, loading, no. of employee accounts, etc.

We may also introduce a one time fee for setting up, perhaps around £100 mark. Additionally, hourly and daily consultancy/advisory fees will be available soon to get the most out of edocr.com.

Your contribution

We are very much in the dark with pricing. At the end of the day, our success depends on getting this right. Our gut feel is that the pricing is too small to attract larger companies. We believe in offering a fair price for the services rendered with a reasonable margin. We would welcome any thoughts, advice, comments you may have.