In medieval warfare, it was not uncommon for military campaigns against strategic strongholds to last for decades. Defenders built fortifications designed to endure long sieges and withstand heavy bombardment.

Aggressor forces required fortitude, belief, patience, military knowledge and ammunition in sufficient quality and quantity to deliver relentless assault.

Commanders of the protagonists wait for a particular moment. That moment when the first chink in the defender’s armour is exposed. A moment when it becomes apparent that the strategy is working and the probability of success increases dramatically. The moment when the defenders suddenly become very vulnerable.

Salesforce is very good at investment analyst relations and communication. Too good some say. Detractors suggest that Salesforce is an overpriced stock and the investment community not sufficiently diligent as to the downside risks.

Regardless of analyst assiduity, a chink in the Salesforce armour has opened and it’s apparent that the defenders are a little more concerned about open source CRM competitors than has previously been the case.

In an article by Empire Investments, there is a lengthy defence of proprietary software and a comparison of Salesforce’s strengths against open source.

Why is an investment analyst writing about open source CRM? Why now?

Reading between the lines, is Salesforce building fortifications and defences against the open source CRM assault? If so, and perhaps unsurprisingly, a strand in their strategy is being delivered through the investment community.

There are many reasons to build defences including assault threats that are tangible.

At SuiteCRM we have been saying for years that Salesforce are very vulnerable. Their product is commoditised, overpromoted, over-hyped and over-priced.

We know from the projects that we’re doing that Salesforce is losing clients to SuiteCRM and that enquiries from large companies are increasing.

Some projects are migrations and some are green field. What they all have in common is that they recognise the value of open source is not just in the gulf in Capex and Opex, but also in the freedoms that open source delivers and the associated agility that it brings to their operations when compared to Salesforce.

The siege started years ago. The walls are starting to crumble. But the best commanders are patient.