Tag: Salesforce.com

Software Revenue Rose 4.8% Last Year

The PC market is in a funk, with PC manufacturers scrambling to find a way to make desktop and notebook PCs relevant within the new reality of mobile tablets and smartphones. That doesn’t mean, however, that the software companies providing the applications for the PC market are headed the same way. As businesses and consumers push forward with their already-capable PCs, software sales are still growing.

Market research firm Gartner today released a new report showing that global software revenue hit $407.3 billion during 2013. This is up 4.8% from the $388.5 billion the industry earned during 2012.

Though it is clear that the software industry is enduring the hardware shift of the past few years, software itself is also undergoing a major transition. According to Gartner this shift involves companies that are both supporting existing traditional software infrastructures while rolling out new cloud-based solutions and pioneering other subscription-based services. Even many of those PC hardware companies that are struggling to hold back the rising tide of mobile devices are re-configuring their business models to rely more on enterprise software and security services.

“The software market has been changing shape over the past five years, and cloud is driving the bulk of this change as software vendors acquire and provide applications and infrastructure technology to support the cloud and the internet of things (IoT) movement,” said Joanne Correia, research VP at Gartner. “A clear indicator of this is that for the first time we have a pure cloud vendor in the top 10.”

The cloud vendor Correia referenced is Salesforce.com, a customer relationship management (CRM) company that provides businesses with cloud-based CRM solutions. Salesforce ranks tenth on Gartner’s list of the top ten software vendors of 2013 ranked by revenue. The company saw its revenues increase by over 33% year-over-year in 2013, up to $3.8 billion.

The list is led by the perennial heavyweight of the software business, Microsoft, which grew software revenue 6% to hit $65.7 billion in 2013. They are led by Oracle ($29.6 billion), IBM ($29.1%), SAP ($18.5 billion), and Symantec ($6.4 billion). Another heavily cloud-based business, VMware, rose to eighth place on Gartner’s list by increasing revenue 14.1% to $4.8 billion in 2013.

March 31, 2014
Salesforce.Com Acquires ChoicePass

Today, ChoicePass, the employee reward site, announced that it is going to be acquired by enterprise solution provider, Salesforce.com.

There haven’t been any financial details of the deal disclosed at this time, but the ChoicePass website will be shutting down by the end of June.

Apparently the two companies share the same entrepreneurial spirit and passion for employee recognition. The acquisition will extend the company’s reach and integrate their capabilities into the already broad list of enterprise solutions currently available to Salesforce.com customers.

Here’s what ChoicePass had to say on their blog site:

“We started ChoicePass with a vision to change the way organizations reward their employees. Since launching our Perks product, we’ve found that there is massive demand from businesses for innovative ways to manage employee engagement, rewards and incentives. It has been an amazing experience for us to work with such great companies, partners and of course, people.”

“Today, we’re delighted to announce that the ChoicePass team will be joining salesforce.com. We share the same vision and passion for employee recognition, as well as our entrepreneurial spirit.”

“We want to thank the ChoicePass community – members, partners, investors, advisors, vendors and merchants – for using and supporting ChoicePass! We have been on an incredible journey thanks to you and look forward to helping companies connect more than ever before with employees across the social enterprise.”

Earlier this month, Salesforce.com also acquired Buddy Media in an effort to break into the social listening and marketing arena. ChoicePass and Buddy Media are just a few components of Salesforce.com’s increasingly comprehensive business and enterprise solutions portfolio.

June 19, 2012
Buddy Media CEO Dispels Fear with Video on VSD

Yesterday, we brought you the news that enterprise cloud computing giant, Salesforce.com, intends to acquire Buddy Media. It’s great news for Michael Lazerow, chairman and co-founder of Buddy Media who will be on the receiving end of the near $690 million deal.

Now we are hearing from Lazerow in a totally different capacity. In a very recent YouTube video of his own creation the successful media creator addresses his struggle with a lifelong heart condition (VSD) that rendered him lifeless several times, only to be saved by multiple surgeries and advanced medical technology.

Interestingly, Lazerow doesn’t speak a word in the video. The entire narrative takes place on his iPad in what appears to be his home office. It’s obvious he is overcome with joy over the success of Buddy Media and the overwhelming deal he has just made with Salesforce.com making him a billionaire.

The overarching theme is living without fear and how meeting death head on (literally) allowed him to see no need for fear in the way he lives his life. It’s an interesting way to celebrate success, but also a different side of business that we don’t often see. Take a look at his video and decide what you think about life’s struggles and people’s ability to make a difference.

June 5, 2012
Salesforce.com to Acquire Buddy Media

Enterprise cloud computing company, Salesforce.com has entered into a deal with social media platform provider, Buddy Media, to acquire their company and pay them almost $690 million in cash and common stock.

Salesforce.com hopes to have the acquisition of Buddy Media complete before the end of October this year.

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com comments on the acquisition of Buddy Media:

“Salesforce.com now has the number one players in social listening and marketing – Radian6 and Buddy Media,”

“With CMOs surpassing CIOs in spend on technology within the next five years, our Marketing Cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity.”

Michael Lazerow, co-founder and CEO Buddy Media comments on the power of joining with Salesforce.com:

“Buddy Media’s mission is to eliminate the current state of anarchy in social marketing,”

“With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketers will be able to unify their efforts to better organize their teams, optimize their social programs and deliver real business results.”

Marcel LeBrun, SVP of Salesforce Radian6 also comments on the addition of Buddy Media’s unique addition to the Salesforce portfolio of solutions:

“Social media has caused the biggest transformation in marketing since the Mad Men era, causing CMOs to completely re-think their strategies,”

“By bringing together market leaders Radian6 and Buddy Media, we are doubling down on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud to provide CMOs with the ability to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle.”

Here’s some financial data on the impact to Salesforce.com from the acquisition of Buddy Media:

Q2 FY13: Given an expected fiscal third quarter close date, this transaction is not expected to have any material impact to salesforce.com’s fiscal second quarter FY13 revenue or EPS results, previously guided on May 17, 2012.

Q3 FY13: Salesforce.com expects to provide revenue and EPS guidance for its fiscal third quarter FY13, including the effects of this transaction, when it announces results for its second fiscal quarter, ended July 31, 2012.

FY13: The acquisition is expected to increase revenues by approximately $20 million to $25 million, and to reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately $0.14 to $0.15 in the second half of the year ending January 31, 2013 depending on the final acquisition date. To reflect the impact of this acquisition, the company is updating the full-year guidance it provided on May 17, 2012. Specifically, the company now expects FY13 revenue in the range of approximately $2.990 billion to $3.025 billion, and FY13 non-GAAP EPS in the range of approximately $1.45 to $1.49.

Non-GAAP EPS excludes the impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based compensation, amortization of purchased intangibles from acquisitions, and the amortization of debt discount on the company’s convertible senior notes, as well as the tax consequences associated with these items. The financial impact of the acquisition on a GAAP basis cannot be estimated until the allocation of the purchase price is completed following the closing of the acquisition. However, salesforce.com currently expects that the dilutive impact of the acquisition to EPS will be significantly greater on a GAAP basis than a non-GAAP basis.

Buddy media brings along social media marketing accounts from giants like Ford, Hewlett Packard, L’Oreal and Mattel. They currently serve over 1000 customers and provide campaigns on platforms like Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedin.

June 4, 2012
Salesforce to Acquire Buddy Media

Enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce is set to acquire Buddy Media, the makers fo social enterprise software. The purchase would augment Salesforce’s enterprise offerings with a ready-made solution for social media brand management.

The news was first reported by All Things D, which cites unnamed sources as saying the two companies have agreed to terms of the sale, though the purchase is not yet final. Buddy Media will be bought for more than $800 million, a bid by Salesforce that evidently beat out a lower one by Google.

Salesforce is an enterprise cloud computing company whose mission is “the end of software.” To that end, the company provides numerous cloud solutions for businesses, including Sales Cloud sales force automation, Service Cloud customer service support, and Radian6 social media monitoring, which Salesforce acquired las year. The company is beating earnings estimates and rising in prominence as one of the top cloud solutions companies in the U.S. It has also recently updated its Chatter cloud collaboration service to include real-time messaging.

Buddy Media specializes in Facebook advertising. It manages a brand’s total social media presence on Facebook, maintaining pages, app, ads, and offers. The company also manages brand image on other social networks such as Twitter and Google +. Buddy Media claims to have eight of the top ten global advertisers as clients. Earlier this year Buddy Media appointed a new president to the company, Susan St. Ledger.

With Facebook now public and desperately trying to raise revenue forecasts, it makes sense that Buddy Media would be a hot commodity. With this acquisition, Salesforce is positioning itself to be the middleman between advertisers and Facebook. And with both Radian6 and Buddy Media, Salesforce is now the go-to solutions company for social media advertising.

(via All Things D)

May 30, 2012
Salesforce Updates Chatter With Real-time Messaging

Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company, announced today that it will be updating Chatter, its social networking app and platform, with real-time instant-messaging capabilities and screensharing. The announcement came on the Salesforce Company Blog, where Peter Coffee, vice president and head of platform research at Salesforce, touted Chatter as “game-changing.” He stated that Chatter Messenger and Chatter Screensharing allow users more opportunity to work “in the app” full time. From the blog post:

Today’s announcement of Chatter Messenger and Chatter Screensharing adds new power to what we already call “the engine of the social enterprise,” in the words of Senior VP and Chatter General Manager Kendall Collins. Ever since Chatter first went into general release, going on two years ago, it’s steadily taken on new capabilities that have made other tools seem increasingly irrelevant; Messenger and Screensharing add real-time facilities that further extend the rich Chatter portfolio of threaded conversations, object-following updates, in-line processes, and secure external customer groups that combine to break down silos and add value to other IT assets.

VentureBeat, through an interview with Collins, reported on some of the details of the new features. According to VentureBeat, Chatter Messenger will launch around the time of Dreamforce, Salesforce’s cloud computing business conference scheduled for mid-September. Messenger will be integrated with Chatter and won’t require an extra download. Chatter Screensharing will only be tested in a closed beta during the third quarter of 2012, and has no official target date.

(via VentureBeat)

May 22, 2012
Salesforce.Com Unveils the Government Cloud

Salesforce.com is recognized as a leader in enterprise cloud -based computing and they have just announced a major deal that will bring many government agencies into the era of social network sharing. The contract will bring the latest social and mobile technologies to U.S. federal, state, and local agencies. It will provide a one-stop source where they can find, try and deploy cloud apps that meet their unique and different needs.

A major component of this deal is that Salesforce deliver the solutions in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The deal propels these government agencies into the 21st century and allows them to stay up to date on innovations and upgrades in the data management and applications industry and do so without compromising security.

Vivek Kundra, executive vice president of emerging markets at Salesforce.Com comments on the deal:

“The bureaucracy of legacy government IT is preventing agencies from embracing innovative technologies that deliver immediate value,”

“We must end the era where government spends millions of dollars and waits years for IT projects that never work. Now, salesforce.com offers a solution the government needs to break down barriers to innovation and eliminate wasteful IT spending.”

John Conley, executive director of Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority also comments on the deal with Salesforc.com:

“We are committed to providing quality services that deliver value for Colorado taxpayers and simply make government work better,”

“Salesforce.com’s cloud technologies, including applications on AppExchange for Government, are helping us increase efficiency and provide a more responsive government that delights the constituents we serve.”

Michael Togyi, President and CEO of BasicGov, a provider of licensing, permitting and enforcement apps adds his sentiments about the partnership:

“AppExchange for Government provides a great opportunity to develop and deliver apps for government with the social, mobile and trusted capabilities of the Salesforce Platform,”

“We are excited to be one of the first partners to leverage the app marketplace to help our customers transform government for the social era.”

Dennis Wall, senior vice president at Cloud Sherpas adds to the sentiments:

“The social revolution represents an amazing opportunity for companies like ours to help government transform for the social era,”

“We’re excited about the Salesforce Government Partner Accelerator Program as we continue to build our business deploying salesforce.com’s social, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies.”

This looks like it is going to be a powerful asset for our government institutions. I think it has always been a problem for government to keep up with the fast paced technology sector, and this partnership will provide a valuable resource for our ruling body to draw from to that end. Once the these new tools are available, there will also need to be investments in training for people who should be aspiring to get the most mileage out of them.

Our ruling class is composed of many members who were around long before these advances and the new system might be met with some resistance. It will be interesting to see how it integrates into the way they do business.

April 25, 2012
SalesForce Launches ChatterExchange, Centers “Entire Strategy” Around Chatter

Back in November, Salesforce announced its Chatter product, which it referred to as Facebook for the Enterprise. It launched in private beta in February, and now Chatter is set to become integral to the very core of what Salesforce has to offer. I spoke with Kraig Swensrud, senior vice president, product marketing at Salesforce.com ahead of the announcement, who tells WebProNews, "Chatter is at the center of our entire strategy moving forward."

Cloud 2

Swensrud explained this concept of "Cloud 2", which is an internal term the company has been using, and basically refers to the next generation of cloud computing, which stems from the rise in general social media use and mobile/smartphone use, where people are accessing the Internet more from their pocket, as opposed to their desktop. Salesforce sees its strategy as "accelerating the market shift" to Cloud 2, which it says is "inherently social, collaborative and delivers real-time access to data and information across new mobile devices."

Swensrud tells us that since the company formed in 1999, they’ve been taking many of the leading trends on the web and applying them to the enterprise. Chatter is simply an extension of this. In fact, Swensrud says the company’s mantra now is along the lines of "Why doesn’t all enterprise software work like Facebook?"

Milestone

One announcement Salesforce is making today is that Chatter has achieved a new milestone of 500 companies in its private beta, with another 1,000 companies on the waiting list, and it will be coming to all customers later this year.

With the Force.com platform, users began using Facebook-style collaboration technology, Swensrud says, and users started thinking, "why don’t we have the same-style collaboration in all business apps – not just CRM app – basically, anything that runs inside of a company?"

That’s why Salesforce is allowing companies to build Cloud 2 apps with Force.com, Swensrud says. It will run all over the web and have all the features of Chatter. Companies can "Chatterize" any app they build with Force.com – Cloud 2 apps.

20 companies are going live with such apps right away.

AppExchange2 and ChatterExchange

Salesforce today is also introducing AppExchange2, a new version of its market place for cloud business apps, with a new category of social enterprise apps – the ChatterExchange, which will include the apps from the 20 companies and others that get built in the future. This can be found at appexchange.com/chatter

Service Cloud Goes Chatter

A big part of Salesforce’s announcement is that Salesforce.com’s Service Cloud 2 is going Social with Chatter. The company has extended the Chatter private beta to more than 250 Service Cloud 2 customers. Salesforce says that in combining the Service Cloud and Chatter, companies can boost productivity gains by empowering service agents with new capabilities for:

– Monitoring Priority Cases: Service agents can stay on top of high priority cases, updates to critical knowledge articles, and the latest product updates

– Locating Expertise: Service agents can follow experts across their organization and instantly get help from other agents, other departments, or from across the company

– Real-Time Case Collaboration: For high priority cases, service supervisors can assemble the best expertise and information to close complex cases faster

– SLA Management: Salesforce Chatter proactively can alert service agents of upcoming service level agreement milestones that they must meet

– Sales-Service Alignment: Service agents and sales reps can share the latest case and opportunity updates for their customer to ensure good service means good business

Swensrud says the companies in this private beta range in all sizes and across industries, with the largest being in the Fortune 500. ServiceCloud2, he says allows companies to not only communicate with customers via social networks and search engines, but when they receive customer inquiries, they can now use Chatter to work with all the departments within the company to sort things out.

Salesforce Chatter will be included in all paid editions of Salesforce CRM and Force.com. Service Cloud 2 is available now and pricing starts at $65 per user per month. AppExchange 2 and ChatterExchange are live today, and customers should contact partners for pricing and availability of their applications.

April 8, 2010