CODA to stress test the Salesforce platform
Salesforce.com is finally getting beyond its CRM roots. At Dreamforce Europe in London on May 7th, CODA is launching CODA 2go, an enterprise accounting system built on the Force.com platform and integrated with the Salesforce CRM application. CODA 2go will handle revenue and financial management and procurement.
CODA is claiming that 2go will be the "most functionally advanced on-demand accounting application available." At this point there aren't many comparables. Workday has entered the ring. NetSuite offers financials as part of its on-demand suite, and recently added real-time management and consolidation capabilities for companies that are multinational or have multiple subsidiaries.
The enterprise giants SAP and Oracle have not yet launched multi-tenant, on demand solutions for financials. SAP's Business ByDesign, an on-demand suite for the mid-market in private beta, will cover financials and multiple industries.
CODA 2go will be a real test of Salesforce.com's notion of a platform-as-a-service (Force.com). It's a large-scale, transaction-oriented application, which is a step beyond the forms-oriented roots of Salesforce.
Dan Farber is editor in chief of CBS Interactive News, which includes CBSNews.com and CNET News. He has more than 25 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. E-mail Dan. 
