Profile: Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM.N)

Salesforce.com, inc., incorporated in February 1999, is a provider of software on demand. The Company provides customer relationship management (CRM) service to businesses of all sizes and industries worldwide. The Company also provides a technology platform for customers and developers to build and run business applications. Approximately 55,400 customers worldwide use salesforce.com to manage their customer, sales and operational data. The Company designed and developed its offering to be an easy-to-use and intuitive solution that can be deployed rapidly, can be customized easily and can be integrated with other software applications. The Company deliver its service through a standard Web browser. Customers who use its enterprise cloud computing CRM service and platform are able to avoid many of the expenses and complexities of traditional enterprise software development and implementations.

The Company flagship Salesforce CRM applications, which help companies better record, track, manage, analyze and share information regarding sales, customer service and support, and marketing operations. Its Force.com cloud computing platform, which allows customers and partners to more extensively customize and integrate Salesforce CRM applications or build entirely new SaaS applications beyond CRM without having to invest in new software, hardware and related infrastructure. The Company also offers the AppExchange, an online directory for SaaS applications, where customers can browse, test-drive and install applications from salesforce.com and its partners.

The Company provides an array of SaaS CRM services, which enable customers and subscribers to systematically record, store, analyze, share and act upon business data, and to help businesses manage customer accounts, track sales leads, evaluate marketing campaigns, and provide post-sales service. The Company offers a mobile version of its service that is accessed by the wireless devices. In Addition, its service is highly configurable in a short amount of time, enabling its customers to tailor its appearance, policy settings, language, workflow, reports, and other characteristics without the use of significant IT resources or consultants. The Company services mainly focus on the following functional areas within CRM is Sales force automation, which is marketed under its brand Salesforce CRM SFA, enables salespeople to be more productive by automating manual and repetitive tasks and by providing them with better, more organized data about current and prospective customers.

Salesforce CRM Partner Networks, provides channel managers with complete visibility into their company’s entire sales pipeline for direct and indirect channels. The Salesforce CRM Partner Networks solution includes a customizable partner portal that makes it easy for its customers’ partners to access leads, register for deals, collaborate on deals, and locate all the information they need in order to be successful. Salesforce CRM Customer Service & Support allows companies to maintain better relationships with their existing customers and more efficiently address a variety of service and support needs, such as advice about products and services, requests for repairs, complaints about faulty goods, and the need for additional goods and services. Salesforce CRM Marketing, enables companies to attract new customers and manage marketing campaigns from initiation through the development of leads that are passed to the sales team.

As of January 31, 2009, the Company offers five principal editions of its service for a fee: Group Edition, Professional Edition, Enterprise Edition, Unlimited Edition, and Partner Edition. Group Edition, which is limited to five subscribers, is targeted primarily at small businesses and workgroups that seek a basic sales force automation solution without the sophisticated features required by larger companies. Professional Edition is targeted primarily at medium-sized and large businesses that need a robust and complete CRM solution but do not need some of the more advanced administrative features and integration capabilities. Professional Edition offers companies a comprehensive CRM suite that business users can use to manage every aspect of the customer lifecycle. Enterprise Edition is designed to meet the complex business needs of large organizations with many divisions or departments. Unlimited Edition is fully featured edition, with exclusive features available only in Unlimited Edition and bundled add-on features included at a significant cost saving over the total price of the individual features. Partner relationship management, provides channel managers with complete visibility into their company’s entire sales pipeline for direct and indirect channels.

The Company offers the AppExchange, an online directory that provides customers a way to browse, test-drive, share, and install applications developed on its on-demand Force.com platform. Partners and developers can offer their applications on the AppExchange directory. This directory gives its users a way to find and install applications to expand their use of the Force.com platform to new areas of customer relationship management. Salesforce.com offers consulting and implementation services and training that complement its CRM application service. Consulting services consist of services, such as business process mapping, project management services and guidance on practices in using its service. Implementation services include systems integration, configuration and data conversion. The Company’s consulting and implementation engagements are billed on a time and materials basis. The Company offers a number of traditional classroom and online educational classes that address topics, such as implementing, using and administering its service. It also offers classes for the Company’s partners, who implement its service on behalf of the customers.

The Company competes with Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, NetSuite, Inc., RightNow Technologies, Inc. IBM Corporation Accenture Ltd., Deloitte Consulting Pivotal Corporation, Sage Group plc and SugarCRM.