Salesforce.com 2010 Annual Report Download - page 36

Table of Contents
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, our expectations and statements regarding our outlook
and future revenues, expenses, results of operations, liquidity, plans, strategies and objectives of management and any assumptions underlying any of the
foregoing. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause future actual results to
differ materially from our recent results or those projected in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the section
titled of this Annual Report on Form 10-K "Risk Factors." Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or
our risk factors for any reason.
Overview
We are a leading provider of enterprise cloud computing applications. We provide a comprehensive customer and collaboration relationship
management, or CRM, service to businesses of all sizes and industries worldwide and we provide a technology platform for customers and developers to build
and run business applications.
We were founded in February 1999 and began offering our enterprise CRM application service in February 2000. Since then, we have augmented our
CRM service with new editions and enhanced features. We introduced our Force.com platform to customers and developers so they can build complementary
applications to extend beyond CRM. In 2010 we introduced our AppExchange directory of enterprise cloud computing applications that are integrated with
our CRM service and in most cases have been developed on our platform by third parties. We also introduced Chatter, a collaboration application for the
enterprise to connect and share information securely and in real-time.
Our objective is to be the leading provider of CRM application services and to be the leading platform on which our customers and partners build cloud
computing applications. Key elements of our strategy include:
• Strengthening our existing CRM applications and extending into new functional areas within CRM;
• Pursuing new customers and new territories aggressively;
• Deepening relationships with our existing customer base;
• Continuing to lead the industry transformation to the next phase of cloud computing; and
• Encouraging the development of third-party applications on our Force.com cloud computing platform.
We believe the factors that will influence our ability to achieve our objectives include our prospective customers' willingness to migrate to an enterprise
cloud computing application service; the performance and security of our service; our ability to continue to release, and gain customer acceptance of, new and
improved features; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; successful customer adoption and utilization of our service;
acceptance of our service in markets where we have few customers; the emergence of additional competitors in our market and improved product offerings by
existing and new competitors; the location of new data centers; third-party developers' willingness to develop applications on our platform; and general
economic conditions which could affect our customers' ability and willingness to purchase our application service, delay the customers' purchasing decision or
affect renewal rates.
To address these factors, we will need to, among other things, continue to add substantial numbers of paying subscriptions, upgrade our customers to
fully featured versions such as our Unlimited Edition, provide high quality technical support to our customers and encourage the development of third-party
applications on our Force.com platform. We plan to invest for future growth by expanding our data center capacity. We also plan to hire additional personnel,
particularly in direct sales, other customer-related areas and research and development. As part of our growth plans, we intend to continue focus on retaining
customers at the time of renewal.
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