Salesforce.com CRM Drives Market Share

Salesforce.com is sitting at a much higher share price than its low of $28 in early 2009. Shares have hit a high of $150 recently, but is this cloud-based solutions provider worth the price? With a primary focus on customer relationship management (CRM), Salesforce.com is exactly where it needs to be to continue to enjoy tremendous market success.

There are two reasons why Salesforce.com does so well in the market and is enjoying such a strong market value: CRM and cloud computing. As a pioneer in the cloud computing space, and a company continuously innovating CRM solutions and extending valuable partnerships through its AppExchange platform, Salesforce.com is a leading player that can command a specific share of the market.

For its part, Salesforce.com has increased its CRM software market share from about 7 percent in 2006 to nearly 13 percent in 2009. This increase never waned and the company could easily claim 25 percent of the market by the end of the fourth quarter. There has been a tremendous shift from on-premise CRM software to on-demand CRM solutions, of which Salesforce.com continues to be the provider of choice.

Industry experts anticipate that the CRM software market will continue to shift toward the Software as a Service platform, yet Salesforce.com won’t automatically be able to claim all of this business. Intense competition is expected from players like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft who have all increased their cloud-based CRM presence.

Salesforce.com has also been branching out past CRM in recent years, recognizing the long-term opportunity that exists in the broader cloud computing market. With its Force.com development platform and infrastructure for corporate IT departments and independent developers to build out business applications, Salesforce.com is taking its expertise beyond the realm of CRM. If the company can continue to drive this success, its $150 market price per share will be well earned.