I'm a big fan of
Salesforce CRM, and the power of
CRM systems in general, to superpower the sales and marketing efforts of companies of all sizes. I'm such a fan, I thought I'd start a blog collecting my thoughts.
One of the big innovations that Salesforce has leveraged for CRM is its delivery of
Software as a Service (or SaaS). This means that the functionality of the CRM system runs on Salesforce servers, and is accessed through a web interface...essentially the "software" is provided as a "service" through the Internet, rather than as a product that is installed, run and maintained on a customer's own servers.
Salesforce.com makes a big deal of their "no software" model, and for good reason. Rather than making a large up-front purchase of CRM software, servers and integration, I can "subscribe" to the Saas product and pay a much smaller monthly fee. I get the benefits of Salesforce.com operating the servers, maintaining the software, and continually pushing new updates (the next one coming is the
Winter '11 Release), without having to pay for my own IT staff or my own servers, and without having to worry about upgrading computers every few years. Plus, as my sales team grows or shrink, I can scale the number of Salesforce.com licenses up and down, essentially tailoring the solution to fit my needs. This is a HUGE reduction in cost!
Yep, Salesforce.com is basically awesome! Stay tuned for more.
Innovation!
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