The rapid time to value and infrastructure independence offered by cloud computing is winning over even the most cynical IT professionals despite the concerns about the security, customization, and integration capabilities required for a successful CRM implementation. The cloud computing platform option, also known as platform as a service (PaaS), is turning IT professionals into superheroes. With cloud computing, maintenance tasks are eradicated and business users gain the capability to perform basic customization tasks on their own, thus freeing IT to focus on innovations with revenue potential. This is why cloud computing is central to the future of software.

Salesforce CRM solutions are perfect for businesses of any size and offer unique benefits, including:

The Cloud Computing Platform

The cloud computing platform model and the Force.com platform as a service in particular offer many benefits compared to traditional on-premises CRM software.

• Cloud computing delivers unprecedented time to value. The cloud computing platform from salesforce.com, Force.com, minimizes the risks involved in implementing CRM business applications: There is no need for an up-front capital investment, significantly shortening the path to CRM success. It usually takes less than a month to implement Salesforce CRM, with deployment time rarely exceeding 3 months. In comparison, traditional client/server software installations typically require 12 months or longer. According to a recent study by Triple Tree and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), platform-as-a-service deployments are as much as 50 to 90 percent faster, with a total cost of system ownership reduced by a factor of five to ten compared with traditional software.
• Less expensive to start with, and even more affordable in the long run. It's not hard to understand why a multitenant, cloud computing solution is less expensive because it requires less initial outlay. There is no hardware to purchase, scale, and maintain, and no operating systems, database servers, or application servers to install. Furthermore, there is no need to invest in consultants and staff to manage it all, and no on-premises upgrades. But the even bigger story is the long-term savings you can achieve. Gartner estimates that as much as two-thirds of IT resources are spent just on maintaining infrastructure and dealing with software updates—both of which are eliminated with cloud computing. A cloud computing platform also has fewer hidden costs: a comprehensive 5-year total cost of ownership (TCO) study for a 50-seat project considered several often hidden costs, including needs analysis and internal downtime. The study revealed the TCO of an on-premises CRM solution to be 2.5 times higher than an equivalent cloud computing platform.
• Upgrades are easy with cloud computing. Customers running applications on a cloud computing platform benefit from instant deployment of software upgrades, ensuring that all users are always on the latest version. Because customizations and integrations are consistently maintained during upgrades, change management discussions can focus on taking immediate advantage of the new features and innovations available with each release.
• Platform as a service (PaaS) promises better service delivery. Thanks to the tremendous economies of scale inherent in cloud computing and salesforce.com's commitment to always-on availability, the Force.com platform as a service can provide much higher service levels than what most companies are able to achieve on their own. We employ peerless technologies, policies, and procedures to deliver complete customer peace of mind about security at the facility, application, and network levels; to ensure maximum uptime and continuous availability; and to maintain a customer performance record few companies can hope to match. See the proof for yourself at http://trust.salesforce.com.
• Cloud computing is much more scalable. Successful businesses are changing and growing all the time: Businesses add employees, process increasing numbers of transactions, launch new products and services, and engage in mergers and acquisitions. Any number of factors like these can dramatically and suddenly alter business needs in a short space of time. Traditional enterprise software is expensive to scale due to the complexity and cost of scaling each layer of hardware and software, often requiring messy system replacement and data migration. Customer-specific systems developed with J2EE, .NET, or open source tools are similarly difficult to scale because of inherent infrastructure issues and unpredictable business requirements. In contrast, Force.com, the cloud computing platform from salesforce.com, easily grows, scales, and adapts with your changing business.
• Customization is greatly simplified with a cloud computing platform. Users of on-premises CRM applications have no choice but to wait weeks or months for even minor modifications to be made. The Force.com platform as a service was expressly designed for easy customization of the user interface and data objects, so that even non-technical business users can tailor the system in a few minutes. Freed from the burden of minor customization requests, the IT team can focus on more advanced customization tasks, such as associating objects with specific behavior patterns that can be triggered by a wide range of CRM system events.
• Cloud computing is easier on administrators. With the Force.com platform as a service and Salesforce CRM software as a service, system administrators can tailor processes and define how data can be viewed by specific departments and work groups within the company—all while ensuring that users can access only the data they are authorized to see.
• True value and innovation are nurtured by cloud computing. By simply eliminating many of the problems traditionally associated with building business applications, the cloud computing platform model frees development time, enabling greater focus on solutions that deliver real benefits to the business. Salesforce.com supports developers with a wide range of tools and development resources. These include a point-and-click customization tool, toolkits for the most popular development environments, and Apex Code, and the Force.com programming language. The Force.com community has enjoyed a rapid growth in popularity, resulting in hundreds of innovative platform-as-a-service solutions available to customers via the Force.com AppExchange, salesforce.com's popular marketplace for preintegrated, software-as-a-service applications.

The Premier Platform as a Service: Force.com

The platform as a service from salesforce.com, Force.com, is not simply the technology behind Salesforce CRM applications. It's also the quickest way to build and deploy other enterprise software applications. Tasks that would previously have taken months can now be carried out in just days or weeks, thanks to a flexible cloud computing platform model. Force.com is unique in speeding innovation through a powerful, yet easy-to-use cloud computing development model. Applications can be rapidly put together with clicks, components, and code, and then instantly deployed to salesforce.com's platform as a service.

As the CIO of a Fortune 1000 company observed, "Today we spend 63 percent of our time and budget on servers, and just to keep the lights on—that is pure cost, no business value. With Force.com, we can outsource the infrastructure and focus on creating innovation and real business value."

• Developers and IT professionals love the Force.com platform as a service. Force.com means freedom from endless rounds of infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, and scaling. By eliminating thankless, routine tasks, this model gives the experts more time to focus on core development work and initiatives with true business value.
• ISVs love the Force.com platform as a service, too. Force.com doesn't just help ISVs get products to market quickly through easy and rapid development; it also gives them a marketing and distribution channel. The Force.com AppExchange puts ISV solutions in front of thousands of highly qualified businesses seeking cloud computing solutions.