Salesforce.com will shutter its task app Do on January 31, 2014. The app is one of many that enables teams including small businesses to coordinate a wide variety of tasks via mobile device.
Do allows teams to share task lists, organize projects, track contacts and attach files to task lists or other project information.
In an announcement to its community recently, the Do Team explained:
“Here at Do, our customers have been the driving force behind our mission to change the way people work together. While the last two years have been an incredible journey, we’ve made the tough decision to discontinue the Do service on January 31, 2014.”
Do was the reincarnation of Manymoon, a project management application. Salesforce.com has had a strategy of renaming products with common one-word domains. Other Salesforce products include Desk.com, Work.com, Data.com and even Force.com. Somehow, though, the name Do.com never caught on.
Part of the problem Do faced is the sheer number of these tools already on the market. There are literally dozens of task apps, collaboration tools and project management apps — with lots of crossover of functionality and purpose. A few include Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce’s other management tool Chatter, and tools like Campfire and Asana. We noted 20 project management tools back in 2010 and the list was by no means complete even then.
In a field test of Do earlier this year, a CITE World author opined the app just wasn’t as intuitive as some other apps on the market.
Do Prepares for Shutdown
Members of the community have been told an exporting tool will be ready by November 15 for anyone interested in exporting their data out of their Do account.
Current members can continue using the app until the end of January if they wish and may even add new members and to existing groups, projects and tasks. However, registration for new users has been closed.
All data remaining on the Do servers will be deleted shortly after shutdown January 31, 2014. In other words, get your project data from Do.com before January 31, 2014 or it may be lost forever.
Image: Salesforce
I really liked do.com chances, their shutdown doesn’t make a lot of sense indeed. For those interested, At Producteev we’re working on a seamless way to move your tasks.
Competition from literally dozens of task apps with lots of crossover of functionality causes Do to shutdown soon. It is not easy to make money and be profitable in this red ocean business.
Understanding that businesses need to be dynamic…I still believe Salesforce should have thought twice before entering an already saturated market and then offering their solution as the go forward solution.
Loyalty is a two way street and if Salesforce want loyal customers then Salesforce needs to show loyalty in return.
Salesforce offers some very powerful tools but their seemly Laissez-faire or casual approach to announcing, bringing to market, and terminated products does little endure commitment in return – and for a SaaS provider, commitment is everything.
That’s just sad. But with the amount of task organization apps out there, it is really quite hard to compete. Take Basecamp for example, it is already taking a great amount of the market. Again, the missing element here is the USP. Sure, it is a task management app but what can it do that other apps cannot?
Yeah true. Well Said. yes it is a USP for competitor that are drawback for some.
It is sad that Do is shutting down.
I agree with the comments on this article. It’s a really tough business, your software needs to be robust, and easily adaptable, as more choice to consumers, means business owners demand more features and more automation.
If anyone is looking for an alternative, try triggerapp.com. Our app is being built thanks fo user suggestions, and it’s going exceptionally well. 🙂