All for One, and One for All

For all the discussion of people, processes, and technologies, what matters in the end is results. That’s why, every month in the pages of CRM, we take the time to focus on several case studies describing companies that have solved their real-world problems by producing hard-number results.

Typically, we balance each issue’s case studies, casting a wide net for sundry CRM deployments in a variety of industries, across various departments and sizes of organizations. 

This month, however, we’ve taken a special approach, 

in honor of our cover story spotlighting Salesforce.com’s 10th anniversary. (That special report opens on page 21, but you can find material in all of this month’s columns and departments related to the software-as-a-service pioneer.) Users of Salesforce.com’s offerings are hardly a rarity in our Real ROI section, or even among the CRM Elite winners we celebrate each year in the CRM Market Awards and CRM Service Awards. (You can find an expanded library of those case studies and award winners online at http://sn.im/nov09-issue.)

As the company’s Force.com platform has matured, 

however, users realizing benefits not only through Salesforce CRM, but also through the third-party applications plugging into Salesforce.com implementations, have appeared on our radar screen with increasing frequency. 

The three companies profiled on the following pages—Ingres, The Sant Corp., and Comcast-Spectacor—represent only the thinnest sliver of the (at last count) 63,200 customers relying on one aspect or another of Salesforce.com’s offerings. We’ve assembled this particular trio within the parameters of any issue’s Real ROI section: Each of these Salesforce.com users came at the software from a different direction, within very different industries, and with very different goals in mind.

What they all share—and what many Salesforce.com and other on-demand CRM users recount—is an abiding commitment to maintaining and expanding their relationships with customers through a form of technology that enables them to be flexible, nimble, and responsive.  —The Editors of CRM magazine

Compensation Management with a Real Payoff
Faced with a homegrown sales compensation initiative in need of upgrading, Ingres turns to Xactly for an option atop a Salesforce.com platform.

Be Nimble, Be Quick
Secret of My Success: The chief information officer of Ingres pulls back the curtain to explain the process.

Selling to the Sales Experts
The Sant Corp. discovers the value of combining sales expertise and Salesforce.com’s sales force automation.

Buzzer Beater
Comcast-Spectacor helps its two Philadelphia sports teams score by integrating Salesforce CRM with an existing Eloqua marketing solution.

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For the rest of the November 2009 issue of CRM magazine — a look back at the first 10 years of Salesforce.com — please click here.

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