New York Times
- Submitted by: shivaranjanis
- Views: 539
- Category: Politics
- Date Submitted: 12/12/2010 05:18 PM
- Pages: 5
- Report this Essay
Salesforce.com Case Questions
Overview:
The company is growing rapidly and they are looking to expand operations. Top Management debate over whether to maintain the focus on current products or to expand. As put they would like to be “the Microsoft” of CRM by offering back office software to work with current product line. They would like to move into a new area of customer billing. Questions that were asked by employee Clarence So: “How should we define the new product, what market to approach, and how to integrate into current market mix?”
Question 1: How is Salesforce.com suite CRM products different from other CRM and ERP competitors:
Overview of Products offered:
Company started in 1999 with a product that was for small companies to help manage sales. Salesforce.com separated themselves from the competition by having a web-centric design. The product is Customer Relationship Management software. There are three different products: Team Edition (small businesses), Professional Edition (mid-size businesses) and Enterprise Edition (large businesses). In 2000 Salesforce.com then expanded successfully by expanding horizontally into marketing, customer service, and customer support.
Pricing is different from competitors:
Price was reduced because customers were able to access the product online. The product was also less complex since it was the same product to be used by each customer. Another feature that cut cost was the customer did not have to install any new technologies to use or maintain the product. Price is $50 per month. Salesforce.com was positioned as a small business product. But they soon realized that they could position themselves against the largest CRM provider Siebel.
Sales Channel different from competitors:
Salesforce.com sells on the internet and most sales done through tele sales. They offer a very formal training process to sales team. They also put in place V2MOM-vision, values, methods, obstacles and...
Overview:
The company is growing rapidly and they are looking to expand operations. Top Management debate over whether to maintain the focus on current products or to expand. As put they would like to be “the Microsoft” of CRM by offering back office software to work with current product line. They would like to move into a new area of customer billing. Questions that were asked by employee Clarence So: “How should we define the new product, what market to approach, and how to integrate into current market mix?”
Question 1: How is Salesforce.com suite CRM products different from other CRM and ERP competitors:
Overview of Products offered:
Company started in 1999 with a product that was for small companies to help manage sales. Salesforce.com separated themselves from the competition by having a web-centric design. The product is Customer Relationship Management software. There are three different products: Team Edition (small businesses), Professional Edition (mid-size businesses) and Enterprise Edition (large businesses). In 2000 Salesforce.com then expanded successfully by expanding horizontally into marketing, customer service, and customer support.
Pricing is different from competitors:
Price was reduced because customers were able to access the product online. The product was also less complex since it was the same product to be used by each customer. Another feature that cut cost was the customer did not have to install any new technologies to use or maintain the product. Price is $50 per month. Salesforce.com was positioned as a small business product. But they soon realized that they could position themselves against the largest CRM provider Siebel.
Sales Channel different from competitors:
Salesforce.com sells on the internet and most sales done through tele sales. They offer a very formal training process to sales team. They also put in place V2MOM-vision, values, methods, obstacles and...