Don’t get me wrong…Salesforce.com’s “Sales Cloud” and “Service Cloud” are top-notch. But I’m a developer, so I’m all about the Custom Cloud. If you’re just tuning in, Custom Cloud represents the Force.com development platform that makes the rest of Salesforce.com hum. With it, you can customize Salesforce.com to your heart’s content. Or, you can build brand new applications that have nothing to do with sales or customer service.

So… what to do with this readily available platform? After all, if you’re a Salesforce.com customer (EE or higher), you already own it. I’ve never had a client that didn’t have an application wishlist, but I’m here to offer 5 ideas to get those creative juices flowing.

PC/Software Tracking: I’ve seen many flavors for this type of app over the years…usually in Excel but sometimes more sophisticated. The common theme: who has what equipment, where is it, and what’s on it. Start with an Equipment object (Name, Type, Serial Number, Status, Notes) and then an Assignment object (Equipment, User or Contact, date assigned).

Get fancy and add a Software License object (Name, Vendor, # Licenses Purchased) and link it to Equipment via an Equipment-Software object (Equipment, Software License, status).

Employee Training: “Hey, Kevin. I see you haven’t been to Dreamforce for the past two years. I think you should sign up this year. I already see that Mike and Amber are going.” Pretty simple. Create a Training Event object (Name, Date(s), Description, Cost) and a Training Attendance object (Training Event, User or Contact, notes).

Hey, while you’re at it, add an approval process on the Training Attendance object so employees can ask to go to an event and a manager can approve (did I mention that the Approval Process engine is already included).

Budget Tracking: Follow the money! I can’t tell you how many spreadsheets I’ve encountered that track corporate budgets. “Hey, Jerry. Just fill out your budget expenditure spreadsheet template for the week and send it to Bob. He’ll merge it into the department template and sent it to Mary.” Shudder. How about this: a Project object (name, status, dates, owner). Then a Budget Line Item (Project, Type (salary, travel, equipment, etc), Amount, and Status). Finally, a Project Payment object (Project, Budget Line Item, Amount, Date, Paid To).

Add some roll-up summary fields and Field History tracking (yep…included) and you have a dashboard that Mary could only dream of. Of course, this one might get tricky. You could always look *cough* here instead. (Chatter integration coming soon! Grin.)

Lease Tracking: Maybe you own apartment units and all you need to know is who’s leasing what, when did it start, and when did it end. Spreadsheet? No! How about this. Apartment Unit object (Name, Unit Number, Building, Status (inhabitable, uninhabitable), Address). Then add an Apartment Lease object (Apartment Unit, Account, Start Date, End Date, Rent, Security Deposit, Notes).

Homesite Management: Whether you’re a homebuilder (big or small) or a land developer (or both), keeping track of your inventory of homesites can be cumbersome. Track it in Force.com! A Homesite object could store Address, Status, Description, Square Feet, Easements, Zoning requirements, Lot improvements and whatever else you could imagine.

Maybe you could create workflow rules to automatically create some tasks on each homesite (get zoning approved, request water/sewer connections, etc)…oh yes, workflow rules are also included.

There’s something important to note here: Not one of these examples requires coding. All can be done with just clicks-not-code object/field/user interface creation. But, if you want to go beyond the standard user-interface and features, Apex code, custom triggers, and Visualforce user interface features are always available. Your choice.

And one other thing. Before you get started on any app, check out the AppExchange. Your solution may already be for you. Force.com Labs is a great place to start.

So I’ve broken a blogging rule: always provide lists of 10. I only have 5. Why? I’m a consultant and I need to get back to work. How about this: leave a comment and tell me what application you would build. I would start with that list of Excel spreadsheets sitting on file servers and jumping from inbox to inbox.

And if you don’t have/need Salesforce.com, you can get Force.com as a standalone platform. Start with the Free Edition and go build something today. Coding optional.