Salesforce.com Nabs CompuCom

When trying to win new technology customers, some might argue it is more difficult to meet their meticulous technology demands and therefore close the sale, but not Marc Benioff, chairman and chief executive of Salesforce.com. The CRM hosting company said it inked a deal with CompuCom Systems Inc., a Dallas-based technology consultant and systems integrator with over 300 application developers. "It's an easier sale, because technology companies understand the benefits [of a hosted solution] and they understand the risks associated with client-server computing," Benioff says. With 56 services centers and 3,800 employees around the United States, CompuCom, which garnered $1.8 billion in sales last year, needed a centralized CRM solution to provide a real-time repository for information from each region when tracking and managing customers and prospects. Since implementing the solution, CompuCom has been able to track and access results and opportunities on demand, customize reports by region, customer, or other need, and tailor the system on the fly. The deal closed in March, Benioff says. Since then, the company went live with the Salesforce.com solution in less than one month. Salesforce.com is not stopping there, Benioff assures. "You'll see some very large announcements shortly," says Benioff. When asked whether any of those announcements might include a customer win with over 1,000 users - an accomplishment Salesforce.com has yet to achieve since launching it Enterprise Edition suite of applications in February, Benioff responded, "Yes." In its short two-year history, Salesforce.com has already garnered over 4,700 customers and more than 70,000 users for its online CRM solution. A handful of Salesforce.com new clients are former Siebel clients, claims Benioff, who cites price and performance as incentives for choosing a hosted solution.