And the Winner is... Salesforce.com

There were no pocket protectors but plenty of self-proclaimed geeks donned tuxedos for the 18th annual Codie Awards last night in San Francisco, where hometown company Salesforce.com took the top spot in two categories. The Codie Awards, presented by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), a Washington, D.C., trade association, is the only peer-recognition awards program of its kind in the industry. The award finalists are judged in two extensive rounds of reviews--first by representatives from the software trade press, mainstream technology writers, and experts in education technology, and finally by voting members of SIIA. This year the Codies honored software excellence in 37 categories that included business, consumer, and education software. Salesforce.com grabbed the Codie for Best Software Service, and for the second year in a row the ASP was named Best Customer Relationship Management Program. Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff took a moment at the podium to thank the SIIA and to mention that his company has gone from sales of "zero to $100 million in 36 months," and that Salesforce.com recently posted it's first quarter ever of profitability. "This means everything to us," Benioff beamed, as he held up the award, which he plans to display at the front desk of the company's headquarters. Competition for the Best CRM Program was stiff, but Salesforce.com's Enterprise Edition captured the award. Other nominees included ACT 6.0 (Best Software), ChannelWave 5.0 (ChannelWave Software), Kana Response 7.5 (Kana Software), KnowledgeBase.net Hosted Edition 2.10 (KnowledgeBase Solutions), and Maximizer Enterprise 7 (Maximizer Software, formerly Multiactive Software). In the Best Software Service category, Salesforce.com's Enterprise Edition again took the honors and Salesforce.com was the only pure CRM solution in the group. Other nominees included CrownPeak Advantage CMS (CrownPeak Technology), HitBox Commerce (WebSideStory), Intact (Intact Corp.), KnowledgePlanet Learning Services Center (KnowledgePlanet), and WebSurveyor 4.0 (WebSurveyor Corp.). Vocus, a Lanham, MD, company that provides marketing automation solutions to public relations and marketing communications groups, was up for two awards, Best Application Service Solution and Best Business Software Product or Service. The three-year old company didn't win either award, but Stephen Vintz, the company's CFO, felt that garnering the attention and recognition of the SIIA was a boost for Vocus. Sounding like an Academy Award nominee, Vintz said, "It was an honor just to be nominated." IBM was the night's most-honored company, with it's IBM WebSphere Commerce Business Edition v5.4 taking the top spot for Best eBusiness Solution, Best eCommerce Solution, and Best Enterprise Portal Platform. There were no pocket protectors, but plenty of self-proclaimed geeks donned tuxedos for the 18th annual Codie Awards last night in San Francisco, where hometown company Salesforce.com took the top spot in two categories. The Codie Awards, presented by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, is the only peer-recognition awards program of its kind in the industry. The award finalists are judged in two extensive rounds of reviews: first by representatives from the software trade press, mainstream technology writers, and experts in education technology; and finally by voting members of SIIA. This year the Codie's honored software excellence in 37 categories that included business, consumer, and education software. Salesforce.com grabbed the Codie for Best Software Service, and for the second year in a row the ASP was named Best Customer Relationship Management Program. Chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, took a moment at the podium to thank the SIIA and mention that his company has gone from sales of "zero to $100 million in 36 months," and that Salesforce.com recently posted it's first quarter ever of profitability. "This means everything to us," Benioff beamed, as he held up the award, which he plans to have on display at the front desk of the company's headquarters. Competition for the Best CRM Program was stiff, but Salesforce.com's Enterprise Edition captured the award, besting such other nominees as ACT 6.0 (Best Software), ChannelWave 5.0 (ChannelWave Software), Kana Response 7.5 (Kana Software), KnowledgeBase.net Hosted Edition 2.10 (KnowledgeBase Solutions), and Maximizer Enterprise 7 (Maximizer Software, formerly Multiactive Software). In the Best Software Service category, Salesforce.com's Enterprise Edition again took the honors, and Salesforce.com was the only pure CRM solution in the group. Other nominees included CrownPeak Advantage CMS (CrownPeak Technology), HitBox Commerce (WebSideStory), Intact (Intact Corp.), KnowledgePlanet Learning Services Center (KnowledgePlanet), and WebSurveyor 4.0 (WebSurveyor Corp.). Vocus, which provides marketing automation solutions to public relations and marketing communications firms, was up for two awards -- Best Application Service Solution and Best Business Software Product or Service. Although the three-year old company didn't win either award, Stephen Vintz, the company's CFO felt that garnering the attention and recognition of the SIIA was a boost for the company. Sounding like an Academy Awards nominee, Vintz said, "It was an honor just to be nominated." IBM was the night's most honored company, with it's IBM WebSphere Commerce Business Edition v5.4 taking the top spot for Best eBusiness Solution, Best eCommerce Solution, and Best Enterprise Portal Platform.