Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that customers are adopting Salesforce CRM applications and the Force.com platform in record numbers across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
The company surpassed 5,000 customers in APAC in its first fiscal quarter of 2010, including industry leaders Crocs, Pacnet, Ricoh and more.
- Salesforce.com cloud computing applications, including the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud, as well as the Force.com platform for developing and deploying custom cloud applications, allow customers to focus on managing their businesses - rather than managing the cost and complexity associated with software and hardware infrastructure.
- To further accelerate international expansion and adoption of enterprise cloud computing, salesforce.com's first international data center is now live in Singapore.
- Along with its two North American data centres, the new Singapore facility allows the company to meet the service demands of its rapidly growing international customer base as well as extend the capacity, redundancy and scalability of its infrastructure.
- Supporting the data centre infrastructure will be a new Network Operations Centre (NOC) headquartered in Singapore. The NOC enables 24x7, follow-the-sun monitoring of the company's data centres in North America and Singapore.
- "Asia-Pacific is our fastest growing market, and there has never been a better time for enterprise cloud computing," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "Our new Singapore data center represents continued investment in our global real-time infrastructure to accelerate customer success with cloud computing worldwide."
"We welcome the decision of salesforce.com to locate its first data centre outside the U.S. in Singapore. This significant development will add to the richness of Singapore's infocomm landscape, increasing the confidence of SMEs in using SaaS for business productivity and contributing to our Cloud Computing eco-system," said Mr. Andrew Khaw, Senior Director and Group Head, Industry Development, of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. "As an established trusted hub, with excellent infocomm connectivity, Singapore is in a strong position to support fast-growing international infocomm companies such as salesforce.com in delivering innovative web-based services to customers here and globally."
"We congratulate salesforce.com on the launch of its first international data centre in Singapore, just three years after establishing its Asia-Pacific headquarters here. Salesforce.com's rapid growth in the region and decision to host its enterprise cloud computing applications and information here attests to our reputation of being a stable, secure and trusted hub for businesses," said Mr. Manohar Khiatani, Deputy Managing Director, Economic Development Board of Singapore.
Enterprise Cloud Computing Momentum in Asia Pacific
Springboard Research forecast that the Asia Pacific Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market will reach US$1.16B by 2010, based on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66 percent. By then, SaaS will comprise 15 percent of the enterprise software applications market in Asia Pacific.
"SaaS is moving beyond its roots in customer relationship management (CRM) into every area of the enterprise, including platforms for application development," said Dane Anderson, CEO of Springboard Research. "With all segments of the cloud computing market growing, we are seeing applications and platforms being adopted across the board by enterprises in the region and, perhaps most importantly, the enterprises we interview are very satisfied."
Asia Pacific Industry Leaders Adopting the Cloud
In its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, salesforce.com noted 36 percent revenue growth in Asia Pacific compared to the same quarter a year prior, as customers continue to adopt enterprise cloud computing to run their businesses.
More than 5,000 customers across the Asia-Pacific region are now using enterprise cloud computing from salesforce.com to run their businesses, including AAPT, Acer, Amcor, CGU Insurance, Challenger Financial Services, Crocs, Datacraft, Flight Centre, Hang Seng Bank, Mizuho Private Wealth Management, Ottagi, Pacnet, Ramco, Ricoh, SPH Search, VSNL and Telecom New Zealand.
"With salesforce.com and the cloud computing model we were able to get up and running in record time compared to the on-premise CRM alternatives," said Mr. Richard Carden, Managing Director (Asia) of Pacnet. "We were able to quickly customize Salesforce CRM to the specific needs of our business, which in turn has driven strong user adoption with our employees."
"CIOs and IT departments at Asia-Pacific enterprises recognize the innovation, time-to-value and ease-of-use that salesforce.com delivers with cloud computing," said Lindsey Armstrong, executive vice president of international enterprise sales, salesforce.com. " Enterprises are realizing that this is the era of cloud computing, and salesforce.com gives businesses the ability to harness the power of cloud computing to better their companies."
Customers named in this release are part of the 59,300 customers of all sizes, industries and geographies that comprised the salesforce.com customer base as of April 30, 2009.
