Salesforce.com Reports AppExchange Milestone

Published: January 24, 2007

by Alex Woodie

CRM software as a service (SaaS) pioneer Salesforce.com last week reported that it has reached a milestone with AppExchange, a program it launched more than a year ago to help third-party developers and customers write and sell programs that plug into the Salesforce.com service.

According to Salesforce.com, there are now 500 applications in the AppExchange, up from 300 last August. More than 7,500 customers in 57 countries have installed more than 20,000 AppExchange applications over the past year. Salesforce.com reports it has more than 27,000 customers, covering more than half a million end users.

"Momentum and adoption of the AppExchange are reaching a crescendo," says Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. "Start-ups as well as established global technology companies are making applications available on the AppExchange that can be quickly and easily deployed by our thousands of customers worldwide."

More than 250 organizations have joined the AppExchange, and that number is increasing by about 40 organizations per month, according to Salesforce.com. One of the AppExchange participants is business intelligence software developer Cognos, which sells its Cognos BI product on the Web using AppExchange. "The on-demand model has proven very successful for enterprise customers," says Dave Laverty, Cognos' chief marketing officer and senior vice president.

In addition to the APIs needed to integrate with Salesforce.com's CRM service, the AppExchange program includes Apex, the "platform" for delivering on-demand applications over the Internet, and the AppStore, an eBay-style marketplace where customers can browse and buy AppExchange services.

Other well-known software developers that have joined the AppExchange include Adobe, Business Objects, Cast Iron Systems, Informatica, Harte-Hanks, and Mapquest.

But the real advantage to AppExchange--and the real danger to traditional software companies--is the multitude of smaller, relatively unknown software developers that have jumped on the AppExchange bandwagon, companies like Apprivo, Convoq, iCentra, Lucidics, RedRoller, SalesCentrix, and Skipjack Financial Services.

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