Article from The Portland Press Herald by Jay Greene of The Washington Post.
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.
Read the entire article at The Portland Press Herald.
Image Credit: By KAZ Vorpal (Flickr: Declaration of Independence, with Firearm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
Regarding this Salesforce diktat, the following thoughts/questions come to mind:
1. Concerning their seeming change of stance, it might be interesting to discern EXACTLY what written agreements say, respecting Salesforce’s dictating to the users of it’s software.
2. Regarding this Camping World, supposedly a very large player,I have no recollection of ever seeing or hearing mention of them before, which seems somewhat strange.
3. Costs aside, advising Salesforce of where they might shove their software might prove money well spent. Push coming to shove, are there no other suppliers of suitable software?
This should surprise no one as most tech giants are already opposed to the 1st Amendment. So now it’s the 2nd and if Democrats have their way, the 5th … also some will soon be needing it!
I never knew Camping World sold guns. At least they didn’t some years ago when I had my motor home. But it doesn’t matter. Who is this Salesforce that is putting into the business of Camping World. Maybe they should just mind their own business. The Chairman and CEO or Camping World, Marcus Lemonis should tell them to stick it where the sun does not shine. Mr. Lemonis stood up to the City of Statesville, NC last week when they told him he was in violation of the city ordinance of flying a large flag. Camping World’s flag is 40 x 80 feet. The city backed down when Mr. Lemons adamantly refused to take it down. I hope he does the same with this Liberal company and I hope many others follow suit and puts this company out of business.
In America you may sell me a product, but you cannot tell me how to use it. This is what freedom means.
It’s always “might makes right”
You’ll have to figure the worth and the cost and go for it in the courts, if it comes down to it. I would hope there is an alternative company for Camping World to do their bidding with!
I’m a member of Camping World, and have been to many of their stores all over the country. I have never seen them advertise or display guns, in stores, or online or in mailings…. this doesn’t smell right.
As to the tech software company, I hope it is on the ropes soon, but I seriously doubt if any of the gun businesses will pay any attention to them. IMHO
No different than street level extortion.
So Salesforce is engaged in extortion of it’s users among other crimes.