Facebook Picks Salesforce.com for Cloud CRM
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has landed a big customer for its cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) service.
Facebook, the giant social networking site that just reached the 500 million user mark, will use Salesforce's Sales Cloud 2 to manage its sales operations.
The two companies didn't provide much in the way of details on the implementation and didn't answer questions by press time, but they did offer a few details on the deal in a press release.
Facebook “evaluated the pros and cons of enhancing its own system or selecting a cloud computing CRM system and went with the Sales Cloud 2 for the inherent benefits of cloud computing, particularly its quick implementation time and the ability to scale along with the company's rapid growth,” Salesforce said in the release.
Facebook “has deployed the system across its sales operation teams along with its developer relations to automate complex workflow and approval processes,” the releases said, noting that the system integrates with a half-dozen existing systems.
Salesforce was recently named a visionary in social CRM by Gartner, while the company's Chatter collaboration software has been likened by some to Facebook for enterprises.
In a statement, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “Facebook and Salesforce.com share a common vision for helping people connect and share information more efficiently. Salesforce.com's cloud model was the perfect fit for us — with our current growth trajectory and future sales goals, we needed a product that will scale with our growing business.”
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated that Facebook is joining “the thousands of companies managing their enterprise sales teams in the cloud, enabling them to focus on their fast-growing business rather than the hardware and software to support it.”
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.
