Cloud computing is a strong growth area, according to industry experts and demonstrated by recent movement in the market. While the concept has been at work for several years now, companies are finally understanding the technology involved and beginning to trust that they are not putting their proprietary information in jeopardy simply because it will move outside of their firewalls.
One area expected to continue to gain momentum is in CRM cloud computing.
Salesforce.com has long been a pioneer in this space and according to this Motley Fool
piece, the SaaS (News
- Alert) provider could easily outperform expectations in 2011. At the same time, the outlook in the market is highly volatile and only those who easily can ride the wave should climb on board. Let’s take a look at the past year to anticipate what may be coming down the pike.
Shares of salsforce.com fell by 5 percent in February while the company experienced 22 percent revenue growth and an 82 percent profit improvement in the fourth quarter. The company also saw its free cash flow grow by 29 percent to $217 million. Wall Street anticipated a strong performance out of this CRM
cloud computing provider, even though management predicted only 16 percent to 17 percent full-year growth for 2010.
Salesforce.com (News
- Alert) is definitely causing activity among competitors as the company’s share in CRM cloud computing is enviable. At
NetSuite’s partner conference earlier in 2010, the giant touted that it was building a value chain to better position itself to compete with salesforce.com. This move is timely, although it may take a while for NetSuite to truly become a serious threat. At the same time, Google (News
- Alert) has already integrated NetSuite into its Google Apps productivity suite, which could give the company a boost.
Not to be outdone in the market, Microsoft (News
- Alert) launched a strategy of its own to compete in the CRM cloud computing space. Not to rely on its technology platform solely, Microsoft instead attacked salesforce.com, claiming it had infringed on nine of its patents. The case was settled by August and salesforce.com once again gained favor on Wall Street as its stock rallied by more than 15 percent.
By September, tens of thousands of developers were committed to the salesforce.com CRM cloud computing platform and were still writing code to enhance it. Two months later, salesforce.com was celebrating a 30 percent increase in revenue and a paying customer count increase by 28 percent. Anyone doubting salesforce.com’s power in the market was proven wrong. As companies continue to recognize the value of
CRM cloud computing, expect salesforce.com to continue to enjoy a strong market performance. At the same time, expect other companies to challenge its position as they plan their own strategies to take capitalize on the growing market opportunities.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Juliana Kenny