Salesforce.com opens up

Salesforce.com has launched an online initiative to allow local developers and integrators to develop software on top of Salesforce’s platform.

Dubbed Summer ’07 platform, the Salesforce.com initiative allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a few simple clicks via Salesforce.com's AppExchange directory.

Jeremy Cooper, vice president marketing Asia Pacific at Saleforce.com said the company has been gaining momentum since it opened an office in the region in 2003.

“We have around 1000 customers and we have been picking up a quite a few enterprise customers as well. These customers are embracing our service as a software (SaaS) model and while we are able to deliver a CRM product to them, they want other applications on top of that,” he said.

Cooper said customers won’t need to make any technical investments, Summer ’07 has no latency in its installed base and all it requires of the customer is to log in. While there’s no burden of traditional hosting costs, Salesforce.com will take percentage of the revenue. Although he said it was a very “small".

Salesforce.com pretty much has a wholly direct model, with partners split into referral partners. These partners identify opportunities for the vendor and give out leads, for which they will receive a financial reward if it turns into a transaction, said Cooper.

It also has consulting partners that work closely with Salesforce.com and sell a whole series of services off the back of that.

“We have taken a sensitive channel approach in Australia. "You need to remember we are delivering a service, we’re not a traditional software vendor. We have built into our business model a certain level of vulnerability, so that if customers are not successful, they can simply unsubscribe,” he said. “Unlike traditional vendors that lock customers into multi-year licenses, we offer more flexibility in our model.”

According to Cooper more than 600 applications are now available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange.