Spanning Partners to RSS-Enable AppExchange Applications

Over the past few months I've spoken to a number of vendors providing applications on salesforce.com's AppExchange. In every conversation, I eventually get the same question: "I'd like to add RSS support to my app--how much do you think it will cost?" My answer has always been, "It depends, but building Spanning Salesforce from scratch would cost about $50,000." But last week that all changed.

AppExchange partners can now add RSS feeds to their applications for free.

Salesforce.com's Partner Success Blog carries the announcement:

AppExchange partners can now add RSS feeds to their applications at no cost. Spanning Salesforce delivers RSS feeds of data stored in the AppExchange, including standard objects, custom objects, and custom fields—anything accessible by the API. Spanning Partners will create and host simple custom feeds—for free*—for AppExchange partners wanting to make their applications' data available to their users via RSS. By adding RSS feeds to their AppExchange applications, partners give their users access to data that is constantly-updated and always-accessible online and offline.

(To subscribe to partners' feeds, end users will need to sign up for Spanning Salesforce, which costs $12.95/month or $129.95/year after a 30-day free trial. They'll also need an RSS reader that supports secure feeds, several of which are featured on the Spanning Salesforce site at http://spanningsalesforce.com.)

Interested partners should contact Charlie Wood directly by phone at 512-217-6551 or email at charlie.wood@spanningpartners.com.

* Feeds requiring complex logic may require some paid consulting work.

By adding RSS to their applications, AppExchange partners give their users the ability to track new and updated information as it becomes available. Spanning Salesforce leverages the power of the AppExchange on-demand platform to make it easy.