Salesforce.com

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salesforce.com
Type public company (NYSE: CRM)
S&P 500 Component
Industry On-demand software
Founded California 1999
Founder(s) Marc Benioff
Parker Harris
Headquarters One Market Plaza
San Francisco
Key people Marc Benioff
(Chairman & CEO)
Parker Harris
(Exec. VP of Technology)
Revenue increaseUS$1.657 billion (FY 2011)
Operating income increaseUS$97.50 million (FY 2011)
Net income increaseUS$64.47 million (FY 2011)
Employees Approx. 6,000 (2011)
Website salesforce.com
References: As of Dec 2011.[1][2][3]

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. Best known for its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) product, through acquisitions Salesforce has expanded into the "social enterprise arena."[4] It was ranked number 27 in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2012.[5]

It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the S&P 500 index.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

The Company was founded in March 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a company specializing in software as a service (SaaS).[6] Harris, Moellenhoff and Dominguez, three software developers previously at Clarify, wrote the initial sales automation software.

In June 2004, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol CRM, raising US$110 million.[7] Marc Benioff and Magdalena Yesil were the initial basic connection investors and board members. Other early investors include Larry Ellison, Halsey Minor, Mark Iscaro, and Igor Sill of Geneva Venture Partners.

[edit] Acquisitions

The following is a list of acquisitions by salesforce.com:

  • Sendia (April 2006)[8] for US$15 million in cash[9] – now Force.com Mobile
  • Kieden (August 2006)[10] – now Salesforce for Google AdWords
  • Kenlet (January 2007) – Original product CrispyNews used at Salesforce IdeaExchange[11] and Dell IdeaStorm.[12] Now relaunched as Salesforce Ideas.
  • Koral (March 2007) – now Salesforce Content
  • Instranet (August 2008) – now re-branded to Salesforce Knowledge
  • GroupSwim (December 2009) – now part of Salesforce Chatter
  • Informavores (December 2009)[13] – now re-branded to Visual Workflow
  • Jigsaw Data Corp. (April 2010),[14] - now known as Data.com
  • Sitemasher (June 2010)
  • Navajo Security (August 2011)[15]
  • Activa Live Chat (September 2010)[16]
  • Heroku (December 2010)[17]
  • Etacts (December 2010)[18]
  • Dimdim (January 2011)[19]
  • Manymoon (February 2011)[4]
  • Radian6 (March 2011)[20]
  • Assistly (September 21, 2011)[21]
  • Model Metrics (November 2011)[22]
  • Rypple (Dec 2011)[23]

[edit] Operations

[edit] Current status

Salesforce.com is headquartered in San Francisco, with regional headquarters in Morges, Switzerland (covering Europe, Middle East, and Africa), Singapore (covering Asia Pacific less Japan), and Tokyo (covering Japan). Other major offices are in Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, and San Mateo, California. Salesforce.com has its services translated into 16[24] different languages and currently has 82,400[25] customers and over 2,100,000 subscribers.[26]

Standard & Poor's included Salesforce.com, at the same time as Fastenal, into the S&P 500 index in September 2008, following the federal takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and their removal from the index.[27] In January 2011, salesforce.com was recognized as one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2011, receiving the 52nd spot.[28]

[edit] Criticisms

In November 2007, a successful phishing attack compromised contact information on a number of salesforce.com customers, which was then used to send highly-targeted phishing emails to salesforce.com users.[29][30][31] The phishing breach was cited as an example of why the CRM industry needs greater security for users against such threats as spam.[32]

Salesforce's anti-software logo contradicts the fact that the Salesforce platform is, in fact, software.

[edit] Foundation

The Salesforce.com Foundation donates 1% of the company's resources to support organizations that are working to "make the world a better place."[33] It was officially launched at an event featuring former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, less than a year after the company’s formation. [34]

[edit] Products and services

[edit] Customer Relationship Management

Salesforce.com's CRM solution is broken down into several broad categories: Sales Cloud,[35] Service Cloud,[36] Data Cloud[37] (including Jigsaw), Collaboration Cloud[38] (including Chatter) and Custom Cloud (including Force.com).

[edit] The Sales Cloud

This application runs in the cloud, so the user can access it anywhere through an Internet-enabled mobile device or a connected computer. The Sales Cloud includes a real-time sales collaborative tool called Chatter, provides sales representatives with a complete customer profile and account history, allows the user to manage marketing campaign spending and performance across a variety of channels from a single application, tracks all opportunity-related data including milestones, decision makers, customer communications, and any other information unique to the company's sales process. Automatic email reminders can be scheduled to keep teams up to date on the latest information.

Other activities can be done on the Salesforce cloud. These include using the Jigsaw business data to access over 20 million complete and current business contacts from right inside Salesforce CRM, and designing and automating any process in Salesforce CRM.

[edit] The Service Cloud

The Service Cloud provides companies with a call center-like view that enables companies to create and track cases coming in from every channel, and automatically route and escalate what’s important. The Salesforce CRM-powered customer portal provides customers the ability to track their own cases 24 hours a day, includes a social networking plug-in that enables the user to join the conversation about their company on social networking websites, provides analytical tools and other services including email services, chatting tools, Google search, and access to customers' entitlement and contracts.

[edit] Force.com platform

Main article: Force.com

Salesforce.com's PaaS product is known as the Force.com platform. The platform allows external developers to create add-on applications that integrate into the main salesforce.com application and are hosted on salesforce.com's infrastructure.

These applications are built using Apex (a proprietary Java-like programming language for the Force.com platform) and Visualforce (an XML-like syntax for building user interfaces in HTML, Ajax or Flex).

[edit] Chatter

Chatter, released in June 2010,[39] is a real-time collaboration platform for users. The service sends information proactively via a real-time news stream. Users can follow coworkers and data to receive broadcast updates about project and customer status. Users can also form groups and post messages on each other's profiles to collaborate on projects.

[edit] AppExchange

Launched in 2005, AppExchange is a marketplace for cloud computing applications built for the salesforce.com community and delivered by partners or by third-party developers, which users can purchase and add to their salesforce.com environment. As of October 2010, there are over 900 applications available from over 450 independent software vendors.[40] All salesforce.com partners can distribute applications and solutions on the AppExchange. Applications created on the Force.com platform are installed by salesforce.com customers.

[edit] Configuration

Salesforce users can configure their CRM application. In the system, there are tabs such as "Contacts," "Reports," and "Accounts." Each tab contains associated information. For example, "Contacts" has standard fields like First Name, Last Name, and Email. Configuration can be done on each tab by adding user-defined custom fields.[41]

Configuration can also be done at the "platform" level by adding configured applications to a Salesforce instance, that is adding sets of customized / novel tabs for specific vertical- or function-level (Finance, Human Resources, etc.) features.

[edit] Web services

In addition to the web interface, salesforce.com offers a SOAP/REST Web service API that enables integration with other systems.

[edit] Mobile support

In April 2009, salesforce.com released a slimmed down version of their application for subscribers with BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile devices.[42] In January 2010, salesforce.com started to promote the use of 2D Barcodes (SPARQCode) for exporting contact information to mobile handsets.[43]

[edit] Other

Other technologies allowing more advanced customization of Salesforce interfaces are the in-house technologies Apex (a Java-like programming language and programming platform),[44] VisualForce (a user interface library),[45] and S-controls (Salesforce widgets – these are predominantly based on JavaScript). S-controls are deprecated as of March 2010. It is possible to edit and use existing controls, but no new ones can be created.[46]

[edit] Events

Cloudforce 2011 in Paris with Loïc Le Meur
[icon] This section requires expansion.

The Salesforce.com company organizes worldwide events dedicated to cloud computing. The last major event - dreamforce - was held from 30th August to 2 September 2011 in San Francisco.

[edit] See also

Portal icon San Francisco Bay Area portal
Portal icon Companies portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ CRM Profile | Salesforce.com Inc Common Stock Stock – Yahoo! Finance. Finance.yahoo.com (July 1, 2011). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  2. ^ Yahoo Finance News-Business, May 8, 2008.
  3. ^ "Financial Statements for salesforce.com, inc.". Google Finance. http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:CRM&fstype=ii. Retrieved December 29, 2011. .
  4. ^ a b "Salesforce.com Buys Manymoon". All Things Digital. http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110201/salesforce-buys-manymoon. Retrieved January 20, 2011. 
  5. ^ "100 Best Companies to Work For 2011: Salesforce.com - CRM - from FORTUNE". CNNMoneyl. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/snapshots/52.html. Retrieved December 4, 2011. 
  6. ^ "Salesforce.com's Wizard Was Parker Harris And Team". InformationWeek. January 29, 2009. http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/blog/archives/2009/12/salesforcecoms_2.html. Retrieved February 11, 2011. 
  7. ^ "Salesforce.com IPO Raises $110 million". destinationCRM. June 23, 2004. http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Salesforce.com-IPO-Raises-$110-Million-44252.aspx. Retrieved February 11, 2011. 
  8. ^ Sendia.com. Sendia.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  9. ^ Salesforce buy extends reach to mobile devices, April 11, 2006
  10. ^ Salesforce for Google AdWords
  11. ^ Popular Ideas – IdeaExchange. Ideas.salesforce.com (January 1, 1990). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  12. ^ Popular Ideas – Dell IdeaStorm. Ideastorm.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  13. ^ Whiting, Rick. (February 3, 2010) Salesforce Adds Business Process Development To Force.com. Crn.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  14. ^ Salesforce.com acquires Jigsaw for $142 million. ZDNet (April 21, 2010). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  15. ^ "Salesforce.com Brings Navajo Into Camp to Boost Cloud Security". http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/08/30/salesforce-com-brings-navajo-into-camp-to-boost-cloud-security/. 
  16. ^ Salesforce Buys Enterprise Chat Startup Activa Live. TechCrunch (September 24, 2010). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  17. ^ "Salesforce.com Buys Heroku For $212 million In Cash". http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/08/breaking-salesforce-buys-heroku-for-212-million-in-cash/. 
  18. ^ "Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts". http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/salesforce-buys-email-contact-manager-etacts/. 
  19. ^ Salesforce buys Dimdim for $31 million, bolsters Chatter collaboration. ZDNet (January 6, 2011). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  20. ^ Salesforce Buys Social Media Tracker Radian6 For $340M. Forbes (March 30, 2011). Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
  21. ^ [1]
  22. ^ [2]
  23. ^ "Salesforce Acquires Rypple For Social Employee Performance Management". InformationWeek. http://informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232300731/salesforce-acquires-rypple-for-social-employee-performance-management. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  24. ^ Finley, Klint. (December 8, 2010) Read Write Web. Read Write Web. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  25. ^ Amount of customers. Salesforce.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  26. ^ "History of Salesforce". Salesforce Programmers. Digital Marketing Solutions, LLC. http://salesforceprogrammers.com/article467-History_of_Salesforce_.html. Retrieved July 4, 2011. 
  27. ^ Martin, Eric (September 9, 2008). "Salesforce.com, Fastenal to Replace Fannie, Freddie in S&P 500". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=abSHUiBFprac&refer=us. 
  28. ^ "100 Best Companies to Work For 2011: Full list – from FORTUNE<". Fortune. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/full_list/. Retrieved January 20, 2011. 
  29. ^ Espiner, Tom (November 7, 2007). "Salesforce tight-lipped after phishing attack". ZDNet. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-threats/2007/11/07/salesforce-tight-lipped-after-phishing-attack-39290616/. 
  30. ^ Patrizio, Andy (November 7, 2007). "Salesforce.com Scrambles To Halt Phishing Attacks". InternetNews.com. http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3709836. 
  31. ^ McMillan, Robert (November 7, 07). "Salesforce.com customer list stolen". IDG News Service. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/6058/salesforcecom-customer-list-stolen/. 
  32. ^ Berlind, David (November 6, 2007). "Phishing-based breach of salesforce.com customer data is more evidence of industry's need to act on spam. Now.". Berlind's Testbed (blog). http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=880. 
  33. ^ "About Us". Salesforce Foundation. December 15, 2011. http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/about. 
  34. ^ "Gen. Colin Powell Is Part of the Force". destinationCRM. November 27, 2009. http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Gen.-Colin-Powell-Is-Part-of-the-Force---58063.aspx. 
  35. ^ Lager, Marshall. (February 10, 2009) Salesforce.com Expands the Cloud to Sales. Destinationcrm.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  36. ^ Salesforce.com Launches The Service Cloud, A Customer Service SaaS Application. Techcrunchit.com (January 14, 2009). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  37. ^ Salesforce Integrates Jigsaw – Refining Contact Data. Gigaom.com (September 1, 2010). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  38. ^ Diana, Alison. (June 22, 2010) Salesforce.com Launches Chatter Collaboration Tool. Informationweek.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  39. ^ Salesforce Chatter Now Available to the Public. Mashable.com (June 22, 2010). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  40. ^ Salesforce Applications, October 8, 2010
  41. ^ Stubblebine, Tony (November 13, 2006). "An Introduction to Salesforce.com's AppExchange". O'Reilly Network. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/11/13/an-introduction-to-saleforcecoms-appexchange.html. 
  42. ^ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Salesforcecom-Introduces-Mobile-Lite-for-iPhone-Blackberry-Windows-Mobile-404052/
  43. ^ "2D Barcode (SPARQCode) – Contact Exports". force.com. http://sites.force.com/blogs/ideaView?c=09a30000000D9xo&id=087300000007BDDAA2&returnUrl=/apex/ideaList%3Fc%3D09a30000000D9xo%26category%3DAppExchange%26sort%3Dpopular. Retrieved February 25, 2010. 
  44. ^ Apex Reference. Wiki.developerforce.com (June 11, 2009). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  45. ^ VisualForce reference. Wiki.developerforce.com (June 11, 2009). Retrieved on July 12, 2011.
  46. ^ S-Control Deprecation. Wiki.developerforce.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2011.

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