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Salesforce launches Web-based CRM 
Wednesday, May 02 2001
by Rory Kelleher


A new on-line customer relationship management service has been launched by
Salesforce.com in Ireland.



"We believe that the Internet has democratised enterprise software and that
companies no longer have to tolerate risky, expensive, difficult-to-use software
that takes months and years to install and offers little or no return on
investment," said John Appleby, managing director of Salesforce Europe.

Appleby said, "At any time, and especially in the current environment,
companies want a fast return on investment and no risk."

The new service has converted CRM software, traditionally implemented and managed
in-house, into an on-line product managed by Salesforce.com.

The company said the new service includes sales force automation, customer
support management and marketing automation components for a monthly subscription
fee of EUR55 (IEP43.32) per user, per month. Training, customer support,
upgrades, and updates are included in the monthly fee.

Appleby said, system now provides a complete CRM (customer relationship
management) service providing a customer perspective that is visible across the
whole organisation.

The system allows tracking, reporting, analysis and forecasting for sales,
marketing and support organisations at a fraction of the cost of traditional
client/server CRM systems. All departments share visibility into every aspect of
customers and prospects and can access it wirelessly through WAP phones, PDAs or
pagers.

Salesforce believes that the traditional software model is unsustainable.

The company said it believes that in future, most software will be delivered as a
service via the Internet with no major up front implementation, licensing,
maintenance or consultancy costs.

Appleby said the announcement was not a software release but released companies
from the need to buy software.

The company, which was founded by former senior Oracle executive Marc Benioff has
raised over USD62 million to date.

Private investors include Oracle President, Larry Ellison and Ted Waite chief
executive of Gateway.

Salesforce said more than 26,000 organisations worldwide have registered to use
the company's on-line sales force automation service which is integrated in the
new offering.

European clients include Soft-ex, Digital Channel Partners, Performix
Technologies, MadgeWeb, Magic Button and Berlitz.