Business Analysis : Cloud Computing Company

From an organizational and profitability standpoint, an efficient, easy to use, and unified CRM system, captures all key and critical data from sales and marketing to commercial operations, all the while focusing on sales process, sales efficiencies, and increasing sales, all contributing to the bottom-line profitability of the organization. Data has proven that CRM platforms increase the productivity and profitability of individual departments and subsidiaries, these same platforms and characteristics will have the same ramifications on a larger scale organization, especially an organization that spans the global footprint, such as

Salesforce.com was formed fifteen years ago with the vision of revolutionizing the entire concept of CRM in the cloud computing system. It leads to the development of a new philanthropic model for all the others to follow, and it was only achieved by the wholehearted dedication and sincerity of its employee force, which have over the years formed a pillar of strength for the company. The stakeholders and the customers have all shown their immense support in the system, and it is because of their faith in the system, today it is known as the leading enterprise in the cloud-computing ecosystem. Industries and companies can now get connected to their consumers in a whole new way by the use of the latest innovations in mobile technology, cloud

The demand for computing capacity continues to escalate beyond the traditional limitations of mainframe-based systems and the hybrid approaches of client/server and relatively simplistic Web-based applications (Etro, 2011). Prior to the development of cloud computing platforms, supply of IT resources was deliberately controlled and limited by CIOs who sought to gain significant political influence by withholding data and information. The advent of cloud computing significantly re-ordered the supply of computing resources at first, and then later entire applications. The rapid ascent of Salesforce.com to a new standard for enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an example of how one company, driven by a vision of disruptive innovation, completely shifted the demand curve for software. This shift in

Question 1: How can an effective Customer Relationship Management program be used to identify, retain, satisfy and retain customers?

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) is the global leader of cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and platforms, and operates in over 70 nations. Salesforce ended its latest fiscal quarter on April 30, 2013, attaining $892M in revenues and earning -$67.7M in Net Income (Salesforce Investor Relations, 2013). The company is also highly recognized for successfully integrating a wide variety of social media application feeds into their enterprise-class CRM systems, creating an entirely new category of customer relationship platforms called Social CRM or SCRM (Salesforce Investor Relations, 2013). All Salesforce.com applications and platforms are delivered over the Internet using cloud computing technology at the foundational level with applications often configured using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This has provided Salesforce.com with several significant competitive advantages against on-premise enterprise software vendors including a completely different pricing model where customers only pay for the segment of the applications they use. Salesfroce.com customers often pay for their application sue out of the operating expense (OPEX) budgets, which individual line-of-business managers often have direct control over. This flexibility in spending options, along with speed of implementation, has earned Salesforce.com global market share leadership as shown in Figure 1.

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) has successfully redefined the economics of enterprise software market and generated $3B in revenue and a $256M loss followed by a record quarter of $892M in their latest fiscal period (Salesforce.com Investor Relations, 2013). Salesforce.com is the global leader in enterprise CRM software sales, and has successfully redefined the economics of the market to see operating expense (OPEX) spending as the means to pay for software that would otherwise have to be paid through capital expenses (CAPEX) and lengthy financing cycles. The following is a SWOT analysis of Salesforce.com.

Though the actual history of cloud computing is not that old (the first business and consumer cloud computing services websites – salesforce.com and Google, were launched in 1999), its story is tied directly to the development of the Internet and business technology, since cloud computing is the solution to the problem of how the Internet can help improve business technology. Business technology has a long and fascinating history, one that is almost as long as business itself, but the developments that most directly influenced the history of cloud computing start with the emergence of computers as providers of real business solutions. Cloud computing had the right environment to take off, as multi-tenant architectures, highly prevalent high-speed bandwidth and universal software interoperability standards were developed in this time. Salesforce.com debuted in 1999 and was the first site to deliver business applications from a ‘normal’ website – what is now called cloud computing. In 2006, Amazon expanded its cloud services. First was its Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), which allowed people to access computers and run their own applications on them, all on the cloud. Then they brought out Simple Storage Service (S3). This introduced the pay-as-you-go model to both users and the industry as a whole, and it has basically become standard practice now. Salesforce.com then launched force.com in 2007. This platform as a service (PaaS) let companies’ developers build, store and

One of the main benefits of cloud computing is that the company’s resources are used in other different ways and reduce the overall costs. It eliminates the need for a physical hardware computer and replace it with an online storage or a software delivered over the internet. For instance, government agencies are shifting its government IT infrastructure into the cloud and launch mobile and e-services for citizens and businesses. As an example of cloud applications in some countries: In China a company named Wang Fu Jing has deployed cloud services to share supply chain information and implement B2B e-commerce with suppliers (Kshetri, N. ,2011). Another example is in South Korea: IBM’s cloud computing centre provides architecture, skills and pilot projects for banking, telecommunications, and IT hosting services (Kshetri, N. ,2011). An Indian bank named ICICI’s uses Zoho’s applications to develop services such as personalised insurance for diabetes (Kshetri, N. ,2011). Cloud computing offers many services to companies and government agencies; applications, operating systems and data are secured in the cloud environment rather than on a physical computer that is exposed to the risk of lost, stolen or hardware failure. Compared to client-based computing, cloud-based software is easier to install, maintain and upgrade. Furthermore, mobile applications based on cloud computing are becoming increasingly popular. Ericsson estimates that there

Though the actual history of cloud computing is not that old (the first business and consumer cloud computing services websites – salesforce.com and Google, were launched in 1999), the story of cloud computing is intertwined directly with the creation of the Internet and business, the answer to the unsolved question of how internet utilization can help improve business technology was and is cloud computation. Business technology history is both extensive and interesting, almost as extensive as business itself, but the invention of computers are most responsible for the influence on business technology. Cloud computing, like all other innovation was nurtured in the right environment to take off, as multi-tenant architectures, highly

In the current case study, Amazon started with establishing a website which sells books, magazines and newspapers. After a period of time, Amazon broke this stability stage with the creation of Kindle device which enable user to access to more than millions of books easily. Also, creating cloud computing services was a radical innovation which enables many users to access to its main network. Another side is using the web services such as 1-click, in purchasing, delivering and enabling customers to review about product they purchased and to put their recommendation to improve its website performance. This type of innovation enhances and promotes the reliability and accuracy of the provided products and services which make customers trust this website. This step accounts the increase in the number of users who are using

One major challenge is maintaining a competitive advantage. With advances in technology, other companies have been able to offer solutions that are much more affordable. The introduction of cloud-based software solutions has caused major disruptions to the client’s core business. Instead of investing in hardware with follow-up support, businesses are now able to utilize the same services through the cloud at a lower cost. The client must focus on emerging markets, as they are ripe for technological growth.

The first challenge comes from increased competition, both from traditional industry leaders and new challengers hoping to replicate Salesforce's success. Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle have rolled out subscription-based versions of their CRM products in response to Salesforce. Smaller competitors like NetSuite also have made some inroads against Salesforce's market share.

This project is going to discuss about the Cloud Computing and its application in business. To briefly describe what cloud

According to Vazifehdust and Shahnavazi, (2012) there are nine CSFs. The CSFs determined are: Top management: Top management involvement in CRM and practicing CRM as their organisational vision and mission. The role of top managers is eliminating constraints (such as rigid regulation, hierarchical bureaucracy, lack of funding to CRM programs, close culture and etc) faced by organization when implementing CRM process. Chief executive officer: Leadership is responsible for creating the customer vision of the organization, communicating that vision by internally setting clear objectives, prioritizing customer projects, setting customer strategy and building a culture that regards knowledge as a vital company resource. Culture: Culture is the combination of shared history, expectations, unwritten rules and social customs that compel behaviors. Organizational infrastructure: There are two types of organization Organic and mechanic with different value creation. Mechanic organization leads to insufficient, ineffectiveness, powerlessness and prohibiting sharing knowledge and expertise among employees and managers. Organic organization is flat and network structure has low functional barriers, foster cross communication, allows the sharing of organizational, building new knowledge and seems it can facilitate CRM more effectively. Human resource management: CRM involves variety of Human resource frontline sales, marketing service providers, business analysts, IT professionals,

Customer Resource Management is used to acquire new customers, enhance customer experience, and retain existing customers use application that utilize our cross-functional intranet. CRM is used to aid our sales representatives in contacting, prospecting, and achieving direct marketing to acquire new clients. Web-enabled account management and customer service, via live chat, help to keep customer happy. Additionally, due to the nature of the services we offer, value is perceived by customer due to the convenience of our bundled services at attractive prices. These efforts help to