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Tony S.Tony S. 

SF3: Will it always require API?

I noticed that Maildrop doesn't require API but SF3 does. My company has the Professional level of Salesforce so we don't have API as part of our package.

Two questions ...

1. Will SF3 still require API once it is out of Beta and available via AppExchange?

2. I saw a post by Simon that says you can buy API access a-la-carte from Salesforce but when I called them the sales rep said that isn't an option. Can anyone confirm that they have done this without having to upgrade to Enterprise or higher?

Thanks!
SuperfellSuperfell
Although always is an awful long time, the current status is that it'll require API access even when the beta is finished.
ShanghaiDrewShanghaiDrew
Yes, you can license the API with Professional Edition.  Our company had done so but I had to push them to provide it.  Salesforce sales reps are trained to push all customers to Enterprise Edition and Salesforce is constantly limiting functionality of professional edition to force the issue. 

Much of the functionality they have stripped out of Professional Edition is, IMHO, very basic (some standard security settings, field level security, profiles, read-only report access, offline edition, export/backup, etc.) and it is very annoying that the company implements such a strategy which simply penalizes the smaller companies such as ours who can't justify shelling out the additional $$ to upgrade to Enterprise edition. 
SuperfellSuperfell
BTW, SF3 is still beta (and I'm not sure when that might change), for some folks it does what they want, for others it does not, I'd highly recommend you sign up for a free developer edition account so you can fully try out SF3 before paying for API access. (goto http://www.salesforce.com/developer/ and click the "get a free developer edition account")
joelstewartjoelstewart
Can you explain what you mean "you can license the API with the Professional Edition"?

I am planning on going with the Professional Edition of Salesforce.com but would really like to use SF3 as well. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Joel
MosheMoshe
Simon,
I am new to both SFDC and MAC (used Windows and ACT in the past), so I hope this is not a too novice question: Is there a way to sync Mac OS address book with SFDC? I tried SF3, but I am afraid my version (Group addition) is blocking it. As I know group addition does support synchronization with MS Outlook, I guess there's a way to do this with MAC OS Mail. Is there?

Thanks,

Moshe
SuperfellSuperfell
No, you need API access. (Outlook edition works because it has api access even if your salesforce.com account does not, this facility is only available to certified partner applications, which is an expensive process)