American Water Heater Company Improves Warranty Management Operations with Salesforce Service & Support

SAN FRANCISCO - August 8, 2007 - Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], the market and technology leader in on-demand business services, today announced that American Water Heater Company, a leading manufacturer of high-quality water heater products, is using Salesforce Service & Support to improve information management and customer service for its warranty management operations.  Used by support representatives in the company's U.S. and India-based call centers, Salesforce Service & Support interfaces with legacy inventory management and accounts payable systems to create a central hub for all manufacturing, warranty and reimbursement data.  The Salesforce solution provides American Water Heater Company with greater visibility into issues driving warranty calls and support representatives performance so the company can continually monitor and improve both manufacturing and service operations.

American Water Heather Company is one of the 32,300 companies of all sizes, industries and geographies that comprised the salesforce.com customer base as of April 30, 2007. Revenue and subscribers will be recognized as the service is delivered.

"We manufacture more than two million water heaters a year in dozens of models and sizes.  We need to track product details, wholesaler information and customer data so we can properly manage our tank and parts' warranties," said Keith Overbay, supervisor of warranty administration at American Water Heater Company.  "Salesforce provided a flexible way to access our existing data and make all relevant information available on-demand to our representatives in both the U.S. and India."

American Water Heater Co. used the Salesforce Platform, the world's first on-demand platform, to create custom applications to automate previously time-consuming manual processes. For instance, the Account Payable application automatically authorizes payment of plumbing bills on warranty-covered issues, replacing a previously monotonous task. A second application, Return Authorization, generates return authorization numbers for multiple units so wholesalers can be easily credited for servicing warranties. Finally, the Vendors application tracks approved plumbing contractors, including contact information, and links data to records in the company's accounts payable system

"We choose Salesforce Service & Support as our customer service standard because it allowed us to deliver better quality service and improve the flow of information throughout our organization," added Overbay. "In addition, the ability to deploy Salesforce Service & Support easily and with a minimum of training was invaluable."

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