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Salesforce.com Doubles Australian and New Zealand Business in 18 Months

Salesforce.com Doubles Australian and New Zealand Business in 18 Months

Independent Research Shows that Business Growth is Underpinned by Acceptance of Cloud Computing Model


SYDNEY, Australia – 26 February 2009 – Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, has announced 18 months of record growth in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) highlighted by increasing adoption of its cloud computing services amongst ANZ small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises. The company gained 1,000 customers within its first four years in ANZ, and subsequently has taken just 18 months to double this number to more than 2,000 customers.

This growth is underpinned by a growing acceptance of its cloud computing model in ANZ according to recent research. The study, undertaken by ACA Research, found that Software-as-a-Service (applications delivered via the cloud) is an established technology with more than 39 percent of organizations currently using some form of SaaS in their organisation .

Aaron Katz, Area Vice President Corporate Sales Asia Pacific, salesforce.com said, “During the past 18 months we have seen widespread adoption of the cloud computing model as companies begin to realize the benefits it can deliver - particularly in the areas of increasing business performance, delivering operational efficiencies and freeing up internal resources. When salesforce.com first launched in ANZ, it was as much about educating people on the cloud model as it was about the benefits Salesforce CRM can bring; that changed in the past 18 months as it became much more accepted.”

“Given the current economic situation, we’re seeing Australian and New Zealand businesses take a more stringent approach to justify their IT spend. This means there is an increased demand for faster implementation cycles and less capital expenditure which has driven a surge in interest for cloud-based services,” continued Katz.

According to the research findings, more than 50 percent of respondents said they would switch to a cloud computing model to achieve lower total cost of ownership (TCO) or higher return on investment (ROI).

Growth Across All Business Sectors

Salesforce.com’s growth in ANZ has been across a range of business sectors. New customers signed in the three months ending 31 January 2009 include AAMHatch, Canon Australia, Elsevier Australia, EW Cox, Kronos, Media Monitors, Shepparton Newspapers and St George Bank.

Kelvin Maude, Advertising Manager from regional publisher Shepparton News, opted for a cloud computing approach to his CRM technology to increase the newspaper’s competitive stake in the industry.

“The advertising market is increasingly cluttered and competitive. We needed to manage our contact cycles and sales team activity effectively to ensure resources were directed appropriately and opportunities were not passing us by. Salesforce CRM gives us the tools to manage our business knowledge and keeps critical relationships on track.”

“Cloud computing quickly became a key criterion for us when we considered the potentially high cost and inconvenience of on-premise software delivery. We were sold on the savings in IT support and systems upgrades by moving into the cloud,” continued Maude.

Brian Nicholls, General Manager, from the spatial information technology company AAMHatch, chose Salesforce CRM for its ease of implementation and capital expenditure savings.

“Security of information, speed of implementation and cost effectiveness from an IT perspective drove AAMHatch towards Salesforce CRM. We were able to get Salesforce up and running almost overnight without having to budget for an IT rollout over eight sites in Australia.”

“Salesforce CRM’s flexibility means that individuals, teams and executives – who all have different information needs – can access customer and company information easily. For example, our mining clientele has operations all over the world and having Salesforce in the cloud enables our sales team and project managers to work together in a more coordinated way and provide a better service to our customers,” continued Nicholls.

About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. 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 Force.com AppExchange marketplace available at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.

As of January 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 55,400 customers including Allianz Commercial, 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.

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