Salesforce.com beefs up channel

Salesforce.com has announced plans to expand its indirect channel in the region.

The hosted CRM vendor has appointed an APAC channel manager, Guy Gross, based in Singapore and is currently hunting for an A/NZ country manager.

It is also looking to gain several national systems integrators willing to take CRM into a variety of market segments.

Any new partners will complement the company's current channel of global SIs TCS, Accenture and Deloitte and numerous ISV partners.

The move is aimed at expand Salesforce.com's reach into new verticals such as real estate, senior vice president worldwide channels and alliances, Robert Napiltonia said.

“It became clear to us that we were naked in the enterprise,” he said. “There’s only one way to get breadth, depth, reach and scale and that’s via channel partners.”

To entice new partners the vendor would institute a lead referral program and certification scheme around July. A partner program was also likely to follow.

The company was working to establish the exact nature of its hybrid sales model, Napiltonia said. A named account system was likely to feature.

The chnages follow the recent release of AppExchange 1.0, the company’s on-demand platform and directory, and Winter ’06, the 19th generation of its suite of on-demand CRM solution.