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Bluewolf: Barking at the Moon

I know I was down on the Salesforce Certification initially and I caused nigh-irreparable damage to the super-masculine cleft at the cusp of my jutting Romanesque jaw as I thought about it, and eventually I came around after some gentle prodding from the community, my peers, SF, and… well… everyone…

And led in aptly by that, but followed by as brutal segue: Bluewolf, the makers of such awesome slogans as “Success. Guaranteed.”, and purveyors of quality training (loved by all!) have just opened four more Salesforce Certified training centers; three on the tech heavy west coast and one in stunning Las Vegas!

Fortunately for Salesforce professionals, you do get to take the certification home with you… so what happens in Vegas won’t… stay in Vegas?

Okay it was a groaner, read the official news release and please come back to Salesforce Times tomorrow.

Weekend Update: Appirio ascendant

Jane you… errr…

A few months ago I nabbed a story about a company running solely on cloud systems and Salesforce.com.  Here we have another darling of SaaS rising into the clouds.  After recieving some nice bank from Sequoia Capital at the end of July, things seem to going very well indeed for Appirio.  Strange though, Appirio gets all this money and then goes to lower cost cloud infrastructure?  Hmm.  They must employ a wise dutchman: “the art is not in making money, but in keeping it.”

Smart cookies.  Here’s the link to the InfoWorld article.

Commentary on commentary: Google Chrome

So somebody (Mary Hayes Weier) with a bit more journalistic gusto over at InformationWeek picked up on the same question I did a few days ago: will Google’s new web browser Chrome help or hinder the burgeoning SaaS world?  My opinion was help, Mary is not so optimistic and she goes into some good detail on the subject.

I’ve basically dropped Firefox like a bag of hammers for Chrome but living with Chrome’s eccentricities is starting to wear on me, still, I have never used a faster browser with a better ability to recover from the many issues it suffers from.  (Example: It took me five tries in Chrome to get this post to come out of Wordpress properly.  It took me five times longer than one failure in Chrome to do it right once in Firefox.)

Maybe it’s time for vendors to just stop supporting one of the crappier browsers, like…

Anyway, check out Mary’s article here at information week and if you’ve had a chance to use Chrome with Salesforce please let me know how it’s working out for you!

Triple chocolate Force.com

I had to fight not to throw a ton of ice-cream and sugar-based puns into this. The Haagen-Dazs Shoppe Company is a small business that utilized a proto-force.com to engineer the Salesforce.com platform-as-a-service technology to suit their specific needs, allowing them to better organize their burgeoning chain of shops.  It’s good to see Force.com getting more of a workout! Read more here and check out the official news here. 

Google announces Chrome

While not strictly in the vein of Salesforce and SaaS, I think Google’s comic-book announcement about Google Chrome, their new browser offering, is sort of big news for everyone in the No Software world.

Admittedly, there is one piece of software that almost all (not counting mobile, etc.) SaaS needs: a browser.

If Google can bring to the public and enterprise worlds a browser with multiple processes instead of just tabs, extensive pre-beta and live testing via Google’s massive infrastructure for browsing webpages, an in-built “browser task manager”, and a bunch of other fun sounding perks, well… how fast can we all switch from IE to that? Are SaaS companies and Salesforce.com partners going to adapt fast enough to get all of their apps to run in Chrome?

In my experience with SaaS products, IE is king, all of the developers rush to get their new product running on IE first, and then maybe a few months later they’ll test it in Firefox, if I’m lucky. If Larry Dignan at ZDnet is right then this could be the materialization of a beautiful partnership between Google and Firefox to bring down Internet Explorer. Interesting times.

Labour day Salesforce update

Phew, after nearly a week of time off for me I thankfully haven’t missed much.  Well, I say that hoping that everyone reading this knows fully that I am not Steve McWhirter, to whom huge things occurred this week.  Many months ago Salesforce.com flickered a glimmer of it’s glorious No Software light into the bleak Asian software landscape and now with a champion at the leading edge of it’s torrent of evangelist-consultants, there is nothing left to stop them!

Alright, got a bit carried away there.  So far the best stuff I’ve dug up for this Labour day monday consists of;

- Lawson Software’s CEO picking a fight on the internet.
- A blogger compares Salesforce skills to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Great post, I guess this is developer humour?
- Salesforce to meet with Citigroup again at their tech conference.  Remember what happened last time Salesforce met with Citi?

More as it develops this week!

Dell wields Force.com

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.

Thursday’s news was too depressing

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.

Salesforce.com Produces Record Fiscal Second Quarter Results

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.

InStranet, so important they bought it.

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.

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