Salesforce.com Hits 100,000

Salesforce.com announced today that it now has more than 100,000 subscribers using its hosted CRM solutions. The company says it now provides full, on-demand CRM functionality to more than 7,400 firms. The company also reported that it gained a larger number of subscribers in the past quarter than in any previous quarter, signing deals with large enterprise like DoubleClick and Analog Devices. "We now have more than 100,000 users actively using the product," says Cary Fulbright, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of new market and brand development. "Among traditional CRM vendors, you'll see that a lot of licenses are sold, but are not currently being used." Fulbright adds that the milestone lends even more credence to the ASP model and its scalability. "For all the people who said the model couldn't scale, 100,000 users is proof that we can run all the functionality of a CRM system with the highest levels of uptime and reliability," he says. "With customers in nearly 100 countries, we needed a truly global CRM solution to fully leverage our customer base," Tim Wright, CIO of Geac, a global enterprise software company for business performance management, said in a Salesforce.com statement. Geac recently signed a $500,000 global agreement with Salesforce.com to automate over 200 sales and marketing professionals. "We have now successfully consolidated a number of global CRM systems into salesforce.com S3 to provide on-demand access to customer data and critical functionality from any location in the world," Wright added. The announcement is just another testament to the growing popularity of hosted CRM solutions. A recent survey by the Aberdeen Group found that 35 percent of survey respondents already use hosted CRM products, and 85 percent of respondents said they would evaluate hosting as they enter the market for CRM solutions. "The growth of the hosted market has accelerated with increasing adoption of on-demand solutions by large companies," Sheryl Kingstone, program manager for CRM strategies at The Yankee Group, said in the Salesforce.com statement. She added that Salesforce.com has made such a mark on the CRM landscape because the ASP model can offer low TCO, low risk, and powerful functionality.