From a profile of From Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, which offers Web-based CRM and SFA:
Salesforce.com is cheaper than Siebel. The Orinda Internet firm Intraware replaced its Siebel software with Salesforce.com’s in November, when the dot-com crash shrank its salesforce from 130 to 30 people. Now, the company pays a quarter of what it once paid per person to use Siebel, according to Senior Vice President of Sales Norm Pensky.
Not coincidentally, Benioff says, Siebel’s sales plummeted 28 percent in the most-recent quarter compared with a year ago, and Salesforce.com’s sales more than doubled in its most-recent quarter from $5 million last year to $13. 5 million this year.
“(Salesforce.com’s) licensing model is right in step with these economic times. It’s a lower-cost approach,” Forrester Analyst Bob Chatham said.
