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Dell wields Force.com

August 25, 2008

So a quick update here.  Out of the big finance announcements last week came news that Dell has sign a 3-year deal to build it’s business apps in Force.com.  Dell already uses Salesforce.com for all it’s CRM needs and now they’re taking the time to invest in Salesforces’ gifted-if-maturing Force.com cousin.

Check out the story at ZDnet and CIO.com.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Thursday’s news was too depressing

August 22, 2008

Okay, I think we’ve all heard more than enough about the Salesforce (CRM) stock slipping on Wednesday when their earnings report was great, but not spectacular, and earnings being diluted by the acquisition of “awesome guys” InStranet.

It’s been an ugly slog through blog after blog of doomsayers and crybabies sensationalizing a price-slip.  Well to them, I say I am a big picture person, and if I had bought CRM stock a year ago I’d still be up 41%.  I’m also not a financial analyst, so what do I know?

For some more inspirational stories: look here or here.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Salesforce.com Produces Record Fiscal Second Quarter Results

August 20, 2008

That’s right folks, SFDC has passed the $1 Billion a year mark.

Here’s the official release (now head over to Google Finance and watch CRM take a jump!):

First Ever Software as a Service Company to Exceed $1 Billion Annual Revenue Run Rate

- Record Revenue of $263 Million, up 49% Year-Over-Year

- Operating Cash Flow of $53 Million, up 53% Year-Over-Year

- GAAP EPS of $0.08, up 167% Year-Over-Year

- Record 4,100 New Customer Additions; Total Customers Now 47,700

- Total Cash and Marketable Securities Increases $326 Million
Year-Over-Year to $823 Million

- Company Announces Strategic Acquisition of InStranet, Inc. to
Accelerate Growth in Salesforce CRM Customer Service and Support

- Company Raises FY09 Revenue Guidance to $1.070 – $1.075 Billion

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the market and technology leader in Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), today announced results for its fiscal second quarter ended July 31, 2008.

“By becoming the first ever Software as a Service company to achieve an annualized revenue run rate of one billion dollars, our second quarter performance is a milestone for salesforce.com, and for the cloud computing industry, ” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO. “Our largest customers are increasingly becoming the best examples of what is possible using the power of our growing portfolio of Software as a Service applications and our emerging Platform as a Service.”

Salesforce.com delivered the following results for its second quarter fiscal year 2009:

Revenue: Total Q2 revenue was $263.1 million, an increase of 49% on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 6% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Subscription and support revenues were $239.7 million, an increase of 50% on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 6% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Professional services and other revenues were $23.4 million, an increase of 41% on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 5% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
Earnings per Share: Q2 GAAP diluted earnings per share were approximately $0.08, including approximately $19 million in stock based compensation and approximately $1.3 million in amortization of purchased intangibles related to previously announced acquisitions. For the basis of Q2 GAAP EPS calculations, there was an average of approximately 126 million diluted shares outstanding during the quarter.

Cash: Cash from operations for the fiscal second quarter was approximately $53 million, up 53% year-over-year, and seasonally down 37% from Q1. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at approximately $823 million, an increase of approximately $73 million from Q1 and up approximately $326 million from July 31, 2007.

Deferred Revenue: Deferred revenue was approximately $480 million as of July 31, 2008, an increase of 49% on a year-over-year basis and up 2% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

Customers Additions: During the quarter net paying customers rose approximately 4,100, a company record, to approximately 47,700. Compared with the year ago quarter, net paying customers have grown by approximately 12,400.

InStranet Acquisition: Earlier today, salesforce.com announced the acquisition of InStranet, the leading provider of knowledge management technology for business to consumer call centers. The addition of this innovative technology will increase the momentum of Salesforce CRM Customer Service and Support in a growing market, which is currently estimated at $3.4 billion by Gartner (Gartner, Market Trends: CRM Software, Worldwide, 2007-2012, March 31, 2008). Salesforce.com’s acquisition of InStranet closed on August 4, 2008, for approximately $31.5 million, which includes the assumption of $4.2 million in cash on InStranet’s balance sheet.

Guidance: As of August 20, 2008, salesforce.com is initiating guidance for its third quarter, fiscal year 2009. In addition, the company is updating its revenue and earnings per share guidance for its full fiscal year 2009.

Q3 FY09: Revenue for the company’s third fiscal quarter is projected to be in the range of approximately $273 million to approximately $274 million. Excluding the effect of the InStranet acquisition, the company’s EPS outlook is $0.08 to $0.09. Including the effect of the InStranet acquisition, estimated at $0.02 for the third quarter, the company is issuing guidance that its GAAP fully diluted EPS will be in the range of $0.06 to $0.07. The GAAP EPS estimate also includes the effects of stock based compensation and the amortization of purchased intangibles. For the third fiscal quarter, stock based compensation expense is expected to be approximately $20 million, and the expense associated with amortization of purchased intangibles, including that associated with the acquisition of InStranet, is expected to be approximately $2.0 million. For purposes of the Q3 GAAP fully diluted EPS calculation, the company is expecting an average diluted shares count of approximately 127 million shares, and a GAAP tax rate of 48%.

Fiscal FY09: The company is raising its full year revenue guidance it provided on May 21, 2008, with revenue now expected to be in the range of approximately $1.070 billion to approximately $1.075 billion. Excluding the effect of the InStranet acquisition the company’s EPS outlook has improved to $0.34 to $0.35, from its prior guidance of $0.33 to $0.34. Including the effect of the InStranet acquisition, estimated at $0.05 for the full year, the company is updating its fiscal FY09 GAAP fully diluted EPS guidance to be in the range of $0.29 to $0.30. The GAAP EPS estimate includes the effects of stock based compensation and the amortization of purchased intangibles. For the full fiscal year 2009, stock based compensation expense is expected to be approximately $83 million, and the expense associated with the amortization of purchased intangibles, including that associated with InStranet, is currently expected to be approximately $6.6 million. For purposes of the fiscal year 2009 GAAP fully diluted EPS calculation, the company is expecting an average diluted share count of approximately 126 million shares, and a GAAP tax rate of 48%.

Quarterly Conference Call
Salesforce.com will host a conference call to discuss its second quarter fiscal 2009 results today at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. A live audio webcast of the conference call, together with detailed financial information, can be accessed through the company’s Investor Relations Web site at http://www.salesforce.com/investor. In addition, an archive of the webcast can be accessed through the same link. Participants who choose to call in to the conference call can do so by dialing domestically 866-901-SFDC or 866-901-7332 and internationally 706-902-1764. A replay will be available at (800)
642-1687 or (706) 645-9291, passcode 59172236, until midnight Eastern Time September 5, 2008.

About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). The company’s portfolio of SaaS applications, including its award-winning CRM, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that customers manage and share business information over the Internet. The company’s Force.com PaaS enables customers, developers and partners to build powerful on-demand applications that deliver the benefits of multi-tenancy across the enterprise. Applications built on the Force.com platform, available at http://www.force.com/, can be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a few simple clicks via salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace available at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
As of July 31, 2008, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 47,700 customers including ABN AMRO, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, Sprint Nextel, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM”. For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call
1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

“Safe harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements about expected revenue and GAAP earnings per share for the third fiscal quarter of 2009 and the full fiscal year 2009, and our expected tax rate, stock based compensation expense, amortization rate, and shares outstanding, the achievement of which involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.

The risks and uncertainties referred to above include — but are not limited to — risks associated with possible fluctuations in our financial and operating results, rate of growth and anticipated revenue run rate; errors, interruptions or delays in our service or our Web hosting; breaches of our security measures; the financial impact the acquisition of InStranet and any future acquisitions; the nature of our business model; our ability to continue to release, and gain customer acceptance of, new and improved versions of our service; successful customer deployment and utilization of our existing and future services; competition; various financial aspects of our subscription model; the emerging market in which we operate; our ability to hire, retain and motivate our employees and manage our growth; changes in our customer base; technological developments; regulatory developments; unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate; and fluctuations in the number of shares we have outstanding, the price of such shares, foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates.

Further information on these and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our Form 10-Q that will be filed for the quarter ended July 31, 2008 and our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2008. These documents are or will be available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of our website at http://www.salesforce.com/investor.
Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Copyright (c) 2008 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the “no software” logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Introducing: The Funnel Principle

August 20, 2008

And now for a sales book every salesperson should read:

The Funnel Principle: What Every Salesperson Must Know About Selling

There’s two things I immediately liked about The Funnel Principle, a sales book I recently read by international sales consultant and expert Mark Sellers:

  1. I could begin using many of the concepts immediately
  2. I could apply many of the new concepts using our existing CRM: Salesforce.com

To simply say I enjoyed Mark’s book would be an understatement. Frankly I couldn’t put it down and afterwards, I went through it,  jotted down all the major points and began working on implementing his ideas into our own funnel – the ideas are practical enough that in most cases you can begin using them right away.

One of the key questions the Funnel Principle continually gets the reader to ask himself is the fundamental question: “What’s my funnel’s ability right now to close enough business to hit my quota?” One of the main points of the book is that in order to properly answer this question (upon which your sales success rests), you need accurate insight into the value of your funnel at any given point in time. The problem is that the traditional methods of funnel valuation come up short and produce unrealistic measurements for sales people and managers.

The reason traditional funnels under perform is that they focus on selling acitivities instead of how customers buy and where the customer is in the buying process. To solve this problem Sellers introduces the Buy Cycle Funnel. The BCF is a process that defines your sales funnel according to how your customers buy and provides you with insight into where a particular opportunity is at in the funnel at any given time.

Each stage in the BCF is defined by customer commitment. What this means is that instead of determining what stage an opportunity is at based on your last activity (e.g send proposal), opportunities move down the funnel based on commitments customers have made – you never leave an interaction with a customer open ended – there is always a commitment of some kind made in order for the opportunity to progress.

If you’re used to the traditional model of funnel valuation and management, the ideas in The Funnel Process may take a little getting used to at first – change is always tough – but the value in Seller’s message is clear: if you can more accurately gauge the value of your funnel then you can focus your time and energy on the activities that are needed in order to achieve your quota at any given point in time.

The Funnel Principle is one of those books that should be in every top performer’s library. Ideally sales people will read it and combine the new way of valuing and managing their funnels with a proven sales process for maximum effect.

Thanks for the wisdom and for a great read Mark!

To learn more about The Funnel Principle, visit Breakthough-Sales.

Written by admin · Filed Under Features 

InStranet, so important they bought it.

August 19, 2008

Salesforce buys potential and by acquiring InStranet Salesforce.com has not only bought more potential than you can shake a stick at, but a proven, effective, heavily-tested and in-use SaaS app.

It’s called Dimensions and if it winds up doing the things my imagination thinks it could, one day it may be your best friend.  Dimensions manages and sorts a company’s knowledge base so when a customer hits your website with that day’s sticky wicket or sketchy widget, it can sort through the 95% of database information that is useless to that one individual customer and sort right down to the facts that will satiate him.

It was described to me as InStranet’s “secret sauce”, what sorts, searches, and identifies what the customer is looking for using the client’s CRM data to make information amazingly accessible.

How about a comparison?  Head over to this travesty, and type in “office won’t open”.  If they were using InStranet combining all of Microsoft’s data about my copy of windows, what updates I’ve taken from Windows Update, perhaps asked for some machine specs, when was the last time I performed maintenance, as well as my Dell support history… well, it might find something of actual use for me, maybe even, the right answer!

I saw it with my own eyes, I know it works!

See more here, here, or here.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Look out for Wednesday: Earnings

August 18, 2008

This is just a quick note to anyone who’s interested in the finance side of Salesforce.com (CRM).  If you’re not already aware, earnings are due out this Wednesday and The Motley Fool says they are expected to triple.

Call your brokers before the bell guys…

The Motley Fool’s week ahead.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

SaaS, foibles and saving graces

August 15, 2008

Tim Phillips has written a good piece at a hardware review site that showcases some of Saas’ more endearing qualities while at the same time peppering it with a bit of cautious scrying.

The opening section more that sets the tone for the whole article; an oxygen explosion blows up your entire office including servers and the next day 60% of your people are sitting at the IT manager’s house using his wifi and back at work?

He talks about the cloud, Saas as a developing offering and industry, and the pros and cons therein.

Have a read.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

SFDC: Humility shattering pat on the back

August 15, 2008

The CRO magazine has just published a big article on Salesforce.com and Mark Benioff.

CRO? It stands for “Corporate Responsibility Officer” and is a magazine that chiefly focuses itself on topics like business ethics, leaders in philanthropy, social responsibility and the rest of that warm and fuzzy area of corporate giants giving back.  Even though we all know these companies do charitable acts just to be selfless, I think CRO Mag is doing a nice thing by writing about and highlighting what these companies are doing.

Come on, doing a good deed is one thing, but when people start thanking you for doing something nice anyway, it’s just so much better.

1/1/1 is a good one. (get it?)

The article is long so get a cup of tea and check it out here and here’s a more recent article from the Financial Times on a similar topic.

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Salesforcetimes.com: What’s in store

August 13, 2008

We’re 10 months old this month! Truth be told I hadn’t realized it had been that long since I started the site – it’s been an interesting ride. What started out as a small blog for Salesforce.com consultants has turned into a news portal for all things Salesforce and force.com. Over the past ten months I’ve made interesting friendships (mostly web based) with people from around the globe and I’ve learned a thing or two about running an news portal / web based community.

One of the harder lessons I learned through this process was that once you get started you better be committed or you’re going to waste a lot of time. The challenge with sites like Salesforcetimes.com is that it can take a lot of work to keep them running, especially on days when you don’t want to write or are short on ideas. Luckily I’ve had some great help from people in the community and with Mike recently joining the team to write regularly the site has been able to power forward despite some of my short comings.

10 months can be a long time on the web and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time building the site is that you need to keep growing and changing and moving along with the times. With that in mind, we have some changes planned in the upcoming weeks that we’d like to tell you about.

Here are a few of the things you can expect to see:

  • A new look and feel to the site. Some of the sections, such as the events section, did not take off as expected and we’ll be shutting them down. The new site will be more of a blog format rather than a traditional newspaper layout and we hope this will contribute to better usability and make the site easier to read and easier on the eyes.
  • New content. I can’t let the cat entirely out of the bag on this one just yet as we still need to test a few concepts we’re working on. The main point is that we’re looking for ways to move beyond the standard daily news postings you’re used to. There’s a lot more information out there we believe we could get our hands on for you and we’re working on a plan to get it and serve it up.
  • New methods and placements for advertisers – not much to explain here – if you need exposure to Salesforce.com some of the smartest, tech savvy companies and people on the web we want to help you get in front of them ways that make sense.
  • New relationships: we’re always on the hunt for new people and ideas. If you think you might be able to contribute and if there’s a way we can help you at the same time, get in touch.

I think that’s it for now. Stay tuned!

- Adam

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

Salesforce.com & Force.com updates from around the web

August 13, 2008

Salesforce related stories from around the web:

Written by admin · Filed Under Salesforce.com News 

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