Salesforce.com Positioned as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Social CRM

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Social CRM, 2012, published September 27th, 2012. Gartner defines Social CRM as, "a business strategy that generates opportunities for sales, marketing and customer service, while also benefiting online communities." Salesforce.com moved further into the leadership position of the quadrant than any vendor included.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

According to the report, "Leaders in the social CRM Magic Quadrant will exhibit two characteristics. First, their software must benefit both company and community. Leaders show benefits to enterprises by demonstrating ROI and supporting key performance indicators (KPIs), and Leaders' software convinces users that they will get something valuable by participating in a conversation or community. Second, Leaders' offerings demonstrate support for multiple CRM processes, and have substantial revenue coming specifically from their social CRM offerings."

Comments on the News:

• "We believe salesforce.com's Magic Quadrant position reinforces our industry leadership and continued innovation," said Parker Harris, executive vice president of technology, salesforce.com. "Business is social—and our products are empowering any company to connect with their customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways."

Business is Social: Connecting with Customers in Entirely New Ways
A worldwide social revolution is taking place today. There are more than 4.5 billion social users around the world and they are having more than 150 million conversations everyday on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

But the social revolution is no longer just a consumer movement, it is creating a customer revolution for every business today. Fortune 100 companies are experiencing 123 percent growth in the number of fans on Facebook, while website traffic continues to decline. IDC reports that spending on social networking is up 47 percent, the highest growth in spending for any technology category. A 2012 IBM CEO study reveals that social will become one of the top two ways companies can engage customers at the expense of traditional methods. And a 2012 McKinsey Global Institute study reports that 70 percent of companies have adopted social technology—and that these social technologies have the opportunity to unlock $1.3 trillion in business value.

As the leader in enterprise cloud computing with a proven track record of social and mobile innovation, salesforce.com is empowering companies to connect with their customers, partners, employees and products in entirely new ways.  Salesforce services enable companies to transform how they sell, service, market and collaborate for the social revolution.

• With the Sales Cloud, customers can leverage social intelligence from popular social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube to sell more effectively.
• With the Service Cloud, salesforce.com is helping businesses bridge the social gap and meet customers where they are – on social networks and mobile devices -- with social contact centers, self-service communities and more.
• With the Marketing Cloud, customers can leverage social analytics and social marketing campaigns to turn insight into action and connections into customers for life.
• With Salesforce Chatter, the leading enterprise social network, employees can break down information silos around any business process and collaborate on sales deals, service cases, marketing campaigns, files and more.

For access to a complimentary copy of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Social CRM, 2012, please visit: http://bit.ly/MQSocialCRM  

Salesforce.com's Award-Winning Services:

• Salesforce.com, including the Sales Cloud, was just announced in CRM magazine's August 2012 edition as the winner of the 2012 Market Leader Awards for the Enterprise Suite CRM, Midmarket Suite CRM, and Sales Force Automation categories.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud was named a Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer by Facebook in September 2012, a designation reserved for Facebook's most invested developers.
• Salesforce Service Cloud was recently recognized as a winner of two CRM magazine 2012 Service Leader Awards in the Customer Case Management and Web Support categories.
• Salesforce.com customers Symantec Corporation and Corel were among the winners of the 2012 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards in the customer service category.
• Corel and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, also a salesforce.com customer, were recently named winners of the 2012 CRM Service Elite Awards by CRM magazine.

Additional Resources:

• Like the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Chatter on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SalesCloud; http://www.facebook.com/servicecloud; http://www.facebook.com/marketingcloud and http://www.facebook.com/Chatter
• For more information, and to see demos of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Chatter, visit: http://www.salesforce.com/products/
• Follow @Salesforce on Twitter and Suggested Tweet:
  If you'd like to tweet about Salesforce's leadership position in the Magic Quadrant for Social CRM 2012, here is a suggested tweet to send to your followers:
• Click to tweet: .@Salesforce positioned as a Leader in the @Gartner_inc Magic Quadrant for Social CRM 2012!  http://bit.ly/MQSocialCRM  

About the Magic Quadrant:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Salesforce.com

Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Using salesforce.com's social and mobile cloud technologies, companies can connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's platform and apps give customers the tools to create a social front office and revolutionize the way they sell, service, market, collaborate, work, and innovate.

• Grow your business with the world's #1 sales app, Salesforce Sales Cloud.
• Deliver amazing customer service with the award-winning Salesforce Service Cloud.
• Listen, engage, advertise, and measure social media marketing with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Achieve breakthrough collaboration and productivity with Salesforce Chatter.
• Align, motivate and drive performance with Salesforce Work.com.
• Build social and mobile cloud apps on the Salesforce Platform and extend success with the world's leading enterprise app marketplace, the AppExchange.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

©2012 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce, Chatter, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Rypple, AppExchange, Salesforce Platform, and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com