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          The very idea of relinquishing control of critical business applications to an outside vendor was once considered out of the question.  The mindset in which business applications must be launched and maintained within an organization has changed with the success of companies like Salesforce.com.  In today’s business environment, more companies are embracing the hosted application concept as part of their internet strategy.  The term “on-demand application” has recently been coined to describe the model of renting software to businesses over the Web for a monthly fee; and at the forefront of this new model is Salesforce.com.   

          In a relatively short period of time, Salesforce.com has been able to capture a large share of the on-demand CRM market.  The result has been more than financial success.  This new software model is also transforming the software industry. The purpose of this paper is to describe the business strategy of Salesforce.com and provide a critical analysis of the company’s business model.

Company Overview

Mission and Background

          The mission of Salesforce.com is to render the traditional software technology and business model obsolete by delivering on-demand application. The goal of the software solution is to reduce cost, resources and time of investment associated with enterprise software.  Founded in March 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA.   The company is a legal form of S-Corporation.  In June 2004, the company went public and it is currently trading under the ticker symbol “CRM” (Yahoo! Finance, 2006).  Salesforce.com competes in the Business Software Industry, focusing on the Customer Relationship Management sub-category.  The company is considered the leader in delivering software-as-service (Salesforce.com, 2006).

Business

          The heart of Salesforce.com offering is the online customer relationship management solutions. The majority of the company’s revenue is derived from this online application. From financial point of view, the company appears to be in great shape.  The company has been consistently delivering revenue far beyond expectations of Wall Street. The user growth has been impressive. As of July, 2006, Salesforce.com has over 500,000 active paying users. To put it into perspective, in 2001, there were less than 25,000 users.

          In the quarter ending July, 2006, Salesforce.com achieved sales of $118 million.  This represents a 64 percent increased compared to the same quarter prior year, in where the company posted revenue of $71.9 million.  While the company did post a net loss of $145,000, down from year-earlier earnings of $5 million.   On a per-share basis, the company broke even as it earned 4 cents a diluted share in the comparable period last year. Excluding the costs of stock options and other items, the company would have posted a profit of 6 cents a share (Page, 2006).

          The short term prospect of the on-demand CRM market appears strong.  With 44 percent of the market share, the company strongly believes it has just scratched the surface.  As a sign of confidence, the company raised its financial projection for fiscal 2007, predicting its bottom-line performance would range from break-even to a net loss of 4 cents a share. Without expenses for stock options and other items, Salesforce.com pegged its yearly profit at 19 cents to 21 cents a share. It predicted revenue of between $488 million and $493 million for the fiscal year (Page, 2006).

Personal Critique of Business

Although the company has high expectations, I believed Salesforce.com should be able to achieve these goals if the macro economic condition remains strong and the company continues to execute its strategy.  The market condition appears to be on the company’s side as more companies are finding the hosting solution attractive.  More companies now view CRM as a necessity and Salesforce.com solution attracts customers due to the promise of low cost. 

Products

Products and Services

          In a typical organization, vital information are scattered across different systems and departments which creates bottleneck and inefficiency.  Consider a scenario where the Sales Organization is able to easily access customer service issues and Customer Support Organization is able to view Sales notes. The result would be improved customer relation.  A CRM solution can bridge departments by allowing companies to better manage customer information.  Imagine calling your telephone company to inquire about a billing problem and not having to repeat yourself every time you are transferred to a different department. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? If properly implemented, a CRM should increase internal communication which should result in higher customer satisfaction and increase productivity.

          The flagship product of Salesforce.com is the on-demand CRM which encompasses software to assist Sales, Marketing, Service and Support.  The main difference about the solution is it is offered over the internet as oppose to the traditional desktop application.  Users need not download or install any additional application.  All that is needed is a browser, which comes standard on 99 percent of computers. In addition to the CRM solution, Salesforce.com also provides complementary products which help customers integrate with business application such as Microsoft Outlook and backend legacy systems (Salesforce.com, 2006).

          Another revenue generating service offered is the company’s Professional Services Organization.  While Salesforce.com solution does require less investment compared to the traditional software, there are situations where customization is needed.  This includes porting data from legacy systems, customizing the user interface and integrating the services to existing systems.   For these situations, Professional Services is available. Moreover, Salesforce.com also offers Educational and Support services. 

Product Uniqueness

          Five years ago, the main differentiator was the availability of the solution via the web.  What separates Salesforce.com from its competitor today is the reputation the company has built over the past seven years.  While the company did not pioneer the concept of CRM, Salesforce.com was among the first companies to begin offering CRM solution over the internet. As a result, the company has been able to retain its first mover advantage over competitors.  Over the last seven years, customers have been able to establish itself as the leader.  Customers have come to rely on the services as part of their company’s internet strategy.  Salesforce.com solution has become the de facto product of its kind.  The reputation is backed by industry awards. For example, Salesforce.com was recently awarded “Technology of the Year” from InfoWorld, “Top 100 innovation of 2006” from Business Week and other credible media outlets (Salesforce.com, 2006).

          Another unique proposition is the comprehensiveness of the solution.  This company not only provides the CRM service, but array of other products and services that complements one another.  The bottom line is Salesforce.com offers a complete CRM solution at a relatively low cost.  The latest initiative of Salesforce.com strategy is to provide customers with a platform that allows for improved integration. For example, In October, 2006, the company unveiled a new technology initiative that will allow customers to write their own software code for its business-applications service provided via the Internet, allowing them to run customized code on the company’s servers (Page, 2006).

Personal Critique of Products and Services

It is critical for Salesforce.com to continue separating its offering from competitors.  In the long term, this might be the only advantage it has to maintain its market position.  By providing products which essentially ties customers to the Salesforce.com platform, the customer will make it very costly for customers to switch. This is an excellent lock-in approach.

The CRM Market

Market Definition

          The on-demand CRM Services is the primary market in which Salesforce.com competes.  While this market is a niche market, the growth potential is huge.  As previously stated, the overall CRM market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2010.  According to a recent study by Info-Tech research group, the market is growing faster than the traditional CRM model and should continue to take share away from the likes of Oracle and Siebel (Grandy, 2004).

          As of August, 2006, AMR Research indicates Salesforce.com holds 44 % of Hosted Customer Management Market.  This puts Salesforce.com in the top 10 of overall Customer Management vendors along side Oracle.  AMR Research also concluded that, “Boosted by the continued contribution from hosted software vendors, the (overall) customer management applications market showed substantial growth for the second straight year. Hosted revenue, primarily from the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, continued to act as a catalyst with 60 % growth in 2005 and beyond” (Salesforce.com, 2006).  The majority of the Analysts covering the on-demand CRM sector currently believe the market has not yet reached the saturation phase and a double digit growth is within reach in the foreseeable future (Swarfs, 2006).

Personal Critique of on-demand CRM industry

The influx of new entrants, increasing power of buyers, strong rivalry and substitutes appears to have made the on-demand CRM industry appear unattractive.  There will likely be a shake out in the near term as companies seek to take their positions.  Increase merger and acquisition is likely possible in the next two years.

Customer Profile

          The ideal customers are the fortune 2000 companies looking to establish a better relationship with their respective customers, but do not wish to invest in deploying an in-house solution.  These companies also have the need to quickly deploy and may not have the resources within the organization to support a CRM solution.  Other characteristics of the ideal customer is the need to share information between different departments,  standardize processes to better identify and track new opportunities, scalability, ease of use, and  remote accessibility.  These companies are looking for an alternative method of software management.  They are motivated by the low cost and reduced the time to market.  

          A typical CRM deployment could easily cost in the upwards of $300,000, plus the cost of ongoing support and maintenance.   In contrast, the cost of Salesforce.com subscription is $25-$125 per user a month depending on the contract.  In comparison to the traditionally software deployment, the upfront cost is significantly less (Swarfs, 2006).

          Salesforce.com targets a wide range of customers of various industries and sizes.   These customers range from small firms with several users to larger customers such as AOL, Nokia and AMD to name a few.  According to Salesforce.com, there are currently 24,800 active customers.  Customers span across different industries including Health Care, Hi-Tech, Financials and etc. (Salesforce.com, 2006). 

Personal Critique of Customer profile  

          During the dot.com bubble, many companies collapsed during the dot.com bubble due to undiversified customer base. The diversification of customers will help reduce risk in the event of a downturn in a specific industry. It appears Salesfore.com has not overlooked this important lesson.  Moving forward, Salesforce.com must put more emphasis on targeting larger customers to sustain its revenue growth.  Given the acceptance of renting software is now part of mainstream business, there should be less resistance within the larger Enterprises. 

Revenue Model

          Salesforce.com revenue model is primarily based on the subscription model. The more users the company is able to add, the more revenue.  The products are offered in different packages, such as professional, enterprise and unlimited edition.   The enterprise edition is geared towards the larger company that requires advanced features.  The professional edition targets the smaller customers with fewer needs.   Once the package is sold, customers pay a monthly fee for the usage of Salesforce.com.  As of July 2006, there are over 500,000 active users.  On average, a typical user subscription will generate around $800 annually for the company (Salesforce.com, 2006). Based on this figure, the company should be generating $400 million in revenue per year.  The goal is to add 50,000 users per quarter.

          The secondary revenue source is derived from the company’s Professional Services.  These services include consulting, training and ongoing support.  Based on the company’s projection, a typical 150 user deployment project could bring in as much as $50,000 in consulting, training and support.  However, these numbers are probably on the conservative side since it is published on the company’s web site (It is in their best interest to publish conservative cost numbers to protect the low cost image).  The actual cost deployment cost is likely higher.  Nevertheless, if the company is able to achieve its goal of adding 50,000 users per quarter, this would mean the Professional Services organization is contributing about $16.6 million per quarter to total revenue.

Strategy

          In an effort to retain the technological lead and grow the subscription base, Salesforce.com has chosen innovate and lead.  Through innovation and controlling the market direction, the company hopes to retain its market position.  To differentiate itself, Salesforce.com continues to release new offerings and product features designed to increase customer value.  In an effort to provide continued application scalability and performance, the company has also beefed up its data center investments.  Leveraging off the company’s established infrastructure, Salesforce.com is now attempting to branch into other areas.  The recent announcement in respect to allow companies to run custom application on the Salesforce.com platform is an example (Page, 2006).

Personal Critique of Strategy

Salesforce.com is engaged in two strategies, run and lock-in. The run strategy comprise of providing new products and services. This helps maintain the technological gap between its competitors.  Delivering products and features that fits the needs of the customer is what it is all about.  For this reason, a run strategy is vital to its continued success.  At the same time, Salesforce.com is also making attempts lock-in the customers.  This is evident by their AppExchange products which is an Application Program Interface (API) that allows customers to build on the company’s platform. If this strategy is successful, it will help maintain the company’s revenue stream as customer switching cost will be high.

Competitors

          The largest competitor is Siebel, now a unit of Oracle.  In the late 1990s, Siebel Inc. was the undisputed leader in the CRM space; considered the “Cadillac” of CRM solution due to their high prices and sophisticate features. However, as the dot.com started to fail in Spring of 2000, Seibel’s market share also declined as companies cease investing in sophisticate solutions that required a lot of capital.

          While Oracle has a late start in respect to the on-demand CRM, the company is making significant investment through its Siebel division.  Oracle recently released a similar on-demand CRM solution via www.crmondemand.com.  The service is aggressively being promoted by Oracle.  Glancing over these two sites, one can hardly distinguish between the homepage of Salesforce.com.  The technology gap between Oracle’s CRM on-demand and Salesforce.com appears to be shrinking.  By all account, the Oracle CRM solution is as comprehensive.  Oracle’s offering is certainly a strong alternative.

          Another strong competitor is RightNow Technologies.  While RightNow is a smaller competitor, the company has been in the business since 1997.  RightNow offers similar services such as on-demand CRM for Services, Marketing, Sales, Voice and Analytics.  The company also provides Professional services to help customers integrate the technology with existing legacy system (RightNow.com, 2006).   While Salesfore.com should be on the look out for RightNow, the company does not appear to be an immediate threat.  In fact, it would not be surprising if Salesforce.com acquires or merge with this company in the near future to better compete with Oracle.

          For the time being, Microsoft is an indirect competitor.  In July, 2006, the company introduced Microsoft Dynamics CRM—a plan that now includes on-demand capabilities (Ferguson, 2006).  The impact of Microsoft entering the market remains to be seen, but anytime Microsoft enters any market, there are valid reasons to fear.  The fact that Microsoft controls the Windows Operating System (OS) is the main reason.  It has been a common tactic of Microsoft to use their monopoly to over take competitors.  In the short term, Microsoft is not a threat, but could be a major player in about two years.

Risks

          As an Application Service Provider, Salesforce.com business is dependent on the internet’s performance and stability.  For the most part, the internet’s performance is out of the control of any organization.  Problems such as backbone failures do occur often and poses a great risk to the company’s ability to conduct business.  While some of these network failures are not the fault of Salesforce.com, if it happens often, customers could begin to question their on-demand CRM strategy.

          The fact that Salesforce.com is a single product company in a niche market presents a significant risk.  As with any niche market, the point of saturation could easily be reached.  However, given the market is still fluid and emerging; it should be awhile before the market reaches the mature phase.  Salesforce.com ability to release complementary products designed to expand the core product and services should provide an edge over competitors in the near term.

          As more competitors enter the market, competition will intensify.  The influx of competitors will mean more choices for customers. There is a risk the company will need to drastically lower its prices in order to retain and attract new customers.  If the company is forced into a price war, this could erode the profit margin.  Moreover, since the main source of revenue is from subscription, a price war could endanger the company’s bottom line.

Opportunities

          Salesforce.com has the opportunity to take advantage of its large customer base by exploring the possibility of advertising revenue. With over 500,000 active users visiting the site on a daily basis, Salesforce.com can easily monetize this traffic.  One possibility is to partner with Yahoo!, Google or MSN to provide search, sponsored listing or other services on the Saleforce.com site.  Given the traffic is basically guaranteed, advertiser should find the proposition appealing.  Consider providing users the capability to customize their login page with news feeds and various other services similar to the major portals.  To make it appealing for users, Salesforce.com can offer discounts for allowing advertising on their login page.

          The majority of enterprise still has yet to embrace the idea of renting software for security or other reasons.  However, many companies have accepted the concept of on-line application. There is a huge opportunity to sell to these companies.  Consider building a product which replicates the Salesforce.com environment, but it is installed within the enterprise so these customer can also benefit from the on-demand CRM model.  This market is huge and should not be overlooked.

          With an already established infrastructure, Salesforce.com has the opportunity to expand its product offerings to include other services besides CRM.  One possibility is to expand into Business-to-Business (B2B) area.   Leveraging the company’s experience in CRM and ASP experience, minimal investment is required to expand into new services.  In respect to B2B, Salesforce.com could potentially provide a mediating technology that allows buyers and sellers to improve the value chain.

Management Team

          Salesforce.com management team is comprised of industry veterans with vast experiences in their respective roles. The executive management includes the following members (Salesforce.com, 2006): 

[A] Chairman and CEO: Marc Benioff.  Mr. Benioff, founded the company and has over 25 years of experience in the software industry.  His belief that on-demand applications can democratize business technology by delivering immediate benefits to companies of all sizes at reduced risks and costs remains strong today as in 1999.

[B] President, Worldwide Sales and Distribution: Jim Steele.  Mr. Steele joined Salesforce.com in October 2002 from Ariba Corporation, where he served as executive vice president of worldwide sales.  Mr. Stele brings over 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience to his new role at Salesforce.com.

[C] President, Worldwide Operations: Jim Freeland.  John Freeland joined Salesforce.com in October 2005 as president of worldwide operations. Freeland brings over 25 years of enterprise experience to his role at Salesforce.com, in which he oversees the company’s Successforce portfolio of services and business alliances.

 [D] CFO: Steve Cakebread. Mr. Cakebread joined Salesforce.com as the company’s chief financial officer with over 25 years experience in the financial industry. As CFO, Cakebread reports directly to Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff and is responsible for overseeing saleforce.com’s global financial initiatives as it moves to the next level of delivering software as a service.

[E] EVP of Technology: Parker Harris.  Parker Harris founded Salesforce.com along with Marc Benioff, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez in the spring of 1999. As Executive Vice President, Harris oversees the development of all software for Salesforce.com.

[F] EVP, Law, Policy, and Corporate Strategy: Kenneth I. Juster.  Ken Juster joined Salesforce.com in January 2005 as executive vice president of law, policy, and corporate strategy. His duties include overseeing legal matters, corporate development, global public policy and strategy, human resources, risk management and security, internal audit, worldwide real estate and facilities, and procurement.

Financial Analysis

Stock and Investment Evaluation

          The state of the company’s financial growth is strong. Since the company went public in 2004, Salesforce.com has been able to consistently grow its top and bottom line. For simplification, the Total Revenue and Net Income are as follows (all numbers are in thousands) (Yahoo Finance, 2006):

Simplified Income Statement

Year             2006             2005             2004

Total Revenue          309,857         76,375            96,023

Gross Profit               240,731         142,921         78,750

Net Income               8,474               7,346             3,514

          Revenue growth has been impressive.  At the end fiscal year 2006, the company achieved almost 400 percent revenue growth compared to 2005.  This growth is staggering and represents a strong growth market.  The revenue growth is offset by high operating expense, which resulted in only $28.5 million in actual profit for 2006.  The net income in 2006 is also deceptive as the cost of stock option expense is deducted.  The actual “net income” would have been much higher if not for the accounting changes.

          The closing price of Salesforce.com (CRM) stock on October 13, 2006 is $40.98.  At current price, the stock is trading with a P/E or 254.53 and a market value of $4.6 billion.  By every valuation measurements, this stock is overvalued as the market value dwarf the book value.  The book value since 2004 is below:

Simplified Book Value

Year             2006             2005             2004

Book Value    196.3 M          145.1 M          (46.2) M

          Investor should exercising caution when buying positions of Salesforce.com.  The valuation of this stock represents a very high expectation.  Even if the company is able to meet its earning guidance, this might not be sufficient to sustain its current value.  With high valuation, the company needs to handily beat its forecast.  While the on-demand CRM market is a growth market, the current valuation leaves no room for errors.  As new entrants enter the market, the profit margin could decline. Bottom line is the stock is risky at the current level.

Appraisal of Business Model

          The following section explores and analyzes the business model of Salesforce.com.  Using Porter’s Five-Forces and evaluating the components of the business model, we hope to determine if the company’s business model is viable in the long term.

Positioning [Medium] – Porter’s 5-Forces

The rivalry of the competition is high.  The threats from Oracle, Microsoft and smaller rivals will continue to put pricing pressure on Salesforce.com.  As the industry progress towards the mature phase, pricing will become a major factor as competitor will attempt to lure customers using prices.  Moreover, the reputation and product features of competitor will likely improve, thus further decreasing the differentiation factor.

The power of the suppliers is medium. As with any ASP provider, maintaining excellent relations with the respective backend system providers is crucial. If relationships are soiled with the backbone providers, Salesforce.com may run the risk of losing the capability to resolve problems in an efficient manner. While there are various substitutes the company can explores in terms of back-end suppliers of software and hardware, the cost of switching technologies is quite high. As a result of this lock-in factor, Salesforce.com my not always hold the upper hand in price or contract negotiation.

The power of the buyers is high. As more competitors enter the market place, there are more choices available. Choices will provide customers the power to negotiate terms in their favor.  Buyers will hold more power as product differentiation becomes less of an issue.  Other factor such as customer service will play a much greater role is differentiation.

The barrier to entry is high.  To enter the on-demand CRM market requires significant resources, know how, and capital.  However, because the potential reward is significant, the market will likely see new entrants.  Moreover, the software industry is moving more towards the online model, which adds mean there will be more direct and indirect competitors.

The substitutes are high. While the hosted model of renting software is gaining traction, the majority of the Enterprise has yet to embrace this concept.  Many Enterprises still prefer to maintain control over their critical applications.  The traditional software model will continue to serve as substitute for the foreseeable future.

Customer Value [High]

          The ability to access critical business application from anywhere combined with a user friendly interface is what makes the Salesfore.com offering attractive and unique.  As an established brand, the company has proven it can live up to its service level agreements.  The brand name also offers customers comfort when choosing among the on-demand CRM vendors. The company also offers more comprehensive solution with its complementary assets such as plug-ins and development platform.

Scope [High]

          As evident by the recent quarterly and annual reports in the above Financial Analysis section, the market growth rate is high. Revenue growth in 2006 was almost 400 percent over previous year.  This further indicates the market is still growing.   Although more competitors are entering the market, Salesforce.com should still be able to maintain its growth rate given the industry is still emerging.

Pricing [High]

          In comparison to traditional software, the pricing component of on-demand CRM solution is high.  The startup cost is significantly less as customer does not need to purchase their own hardware, software and hire a full time staff to maintain the systems.  The return on investment is also much faster in comparison to the traditional software.

Revenue Sources [Medium]

          The major revenue source of Salesfore.com is user subscription.  While the company does not publish the margin per user, one can assume the number is fairly high as the underlying infrastructures are already in place.  The scalability of the system should be able to support additional users without tremendous investment.  Furthermore, there is little need for Salesforce.com to reduce the subscription prices at present as the brand remains strong and product differentiation gap still exist in comparison to competitors.

Connected Activities [High]

          The connected activities are high as the company is at the forefront of the on-demand CRM industry.  As the market leader, Salesforce.com is taking advantage of it large customer base by finding new ways to further integrate the product/services into existing legacy systems.  Holding annual on-demand CRM conferences is an example of marketing event which should help keep the industry buzzing.

Implementation [High]

          Based on Salesforce.com track record and experienced management team, the company appears to possess the right personnel to execute its strategy.  Comprised of veterans from different industries and background, this team should be able to complement each other.  To stay ahead, management must retain its customer base and explore new revenue sources.  Evident by the company’s recent moves, the team appears to be on the right track.

Capabilities [High]

          The capability to move beyond the current business is high.  The product and infrastructure of Salesforce.com is easily extendable to other products.  As previously mentioned, one potential extension is to move into the B2B market and offer the ability to do business using the Salesforce.com platform.

Cost Structure [High]

          The cost to operate the site is considered high due to the various infrastructures cost behind the applications.  This includes hiring and retaining knowledgeable staff for ongoing maintenance of the network, hardware and software.  Adding or replacing new software/hardware is also expensive. Fortunately, these infrastructure cost is uniform across the industry and pose no disadvantage to Salesforce.com.

Sustainability [Medium]

          Technology changes fast and often. For this reason, sustainability is medium. No matter how successful a company is doing, newer technology could render the company’s offering obsolete.  We have seen this throughout the history of the internet.  There is no reason to believe it will be any different for the on-demand CRM space.  Fortunately, changes also provide opportunities to explore new markets and other source of revenue.  Employing the run strategy is the right strategy as the company that innovates will always stand a greater chance of winning. 

Conclusion

          Based on the company’s market position and projected revenue growth, the future of Salesforce.com appears sustainable in the short term.  Long term sustainability is questionable given the influx of new entrants, highly competitive rivalry and increase substitutes.  Subscription price will continue to decline as the industry continues to emerge.  However, the business model should remain sustainable within the next two to three years as competitors have yet to catch up in terms of technology and brand recognition.

Looking forward, there appears to be a lot of work that needs to be done, but the company appears to have the talent and resources to strengthen the leading position and capitalize on the growth opportunities ahead. The company must be wary of competency trap and continue to seek new ways of doing business. Given the company’s track record of influencing the market, there is no reason Salesforce.com cannot continue to dominate the on-demand CRM market.  However, Salesforce.com must realize its main weakness is lack of product depth.  To this extent, the company must quickly branch out and seek additional revenue sources if it is to retain its growth. 

Bibliography/References

          Yahoo! Finance (2006).  Finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved October 12, 2006 from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=CRM&annual)

          Salesforce.com Corporate site (2006).  Salesforce.com. Retrieved October 10, 2006 from http://www.salesforce.com/partners and http://investor.Salesforce.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=141811&p=irol-newsArticle&t=Regular&id=897411&

          RightNow Technology Corporate Site (2006).  Rightnow.com. Retrieved October 9, 2006 from http://www.rightnow.com

          McCall, Tom.  March 13, 2001. Worldwide Business-to-Business Internet Commerce to Reach $8.5 Trillion in 2005.  www.gartner.com. Retrieved on October 8, 2006 from http://www.gartner.com/5_about/press_room/pr20010313a.html

          Page, Michael. August 17, 2006.  Salesforce.com shares soar on profit, forecast.  marketwatch.com.  Retrieved October 8, 2006 from http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B1BC297C8%2D6B36%2D471D%2DB401%2D658A58F607B9%7D

          Ferguson, Renee Boucher.  April 7, 2006.  Salesforce.com Suffers Additional Outages.  Eweek.com. Retrieved October 12, 2006 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1947446,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

          Grandy, Shelly.  November 30, 2004.  On-Demand CRM Services Such as Salesforce.com Will Continue to Take Market Share.  Infotech.com. Retrieved on October 12, 2006 from http://www.infotech.com/Press%20Releases/On%20Demand%20CRM%20Will%20Grow.aspx

          Swarfs, Will.  April 17, 2006.  Salesforce.com, Of Course.  Smartmoney.com. Retrieved on October 13, 2006 from http://yahoo.smartmoney.com/onedaywonder/index.cfm?story=20060817&afl=yahoo

          Ferguson, Renee. July 12, 2006. Microsoft Unveils CRM Live.  TheChannel.com. Retrieved on October 10, 2006 from http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article/Microsoft+Unveils+Dynamics+CRM+Live/183207_1.aspx?kc=CZNKT03119TX1K0000596