Salesforce.com 2005 Annual Report Download - page 12

Table of Contents
multiple on-demand applications, all running in the same service environment, with a single click. AppExchange OS extends the range of custom applications
beyond CRM.
We currently do not charge users a fee or royalty on the AppExchange directory, AppExchange OS, AppExchange Builder, AppExchange API or
applications developed with the AppExchange platform.
Professional Services
We offer consulting and implementation services and training that complement our on-demand application service.
Consulting and Implementation Services
We offer consulting and implementation services to our customers to facilitate the adoption of our on-demand CRM application service. Consulting
services consist of services such as business process mapping, project management services and guidance on best practices in using our service.
Implementation services include systems integration, configuration and data conversion. The majority of our consulting and implementation engagements are
billed on a time and materials basis. For many of our small and medium-sized business customers, we also offer for a fixed price certain implementation
services that take up to a week to complete.
Training
We offer a number of traditional classroom and online educational classes that address topics such as implementing, using and administering our
service. We also offer classes for our partners who implement our service on behalf of our customers.
We bill the traditional classroom and some of the on-line educational classes on a per person, per class basis. The majority of our on-line educational
classes are available at no charge to customers who subscribe to our service. We also assist customers in developing and delivering a customized education
program for their employees. The majority of these custom training engagements are billed on a time and materials basis.
Technology, Development and Operations
Technology
We believe that our on-demand application service enables us to develop functionality and deliver it to customers more efficiently than traditional
enterprise software vendors. We do not provide software that must be written to different hardware, operating system and database platforms, or that depends
upon a customer's unique systems environment. Rather, we have optimized our service to run on a specific database and operating system using the tools and
platforms best suited to serve our customers. Performance, functional depth and usability of our service drive our technology decisions and product direction.
We built our service as a highly scalable, multi-tenant application written in Java and Oracle PL/SQL. We use commercially available hardware and a
combination of proprietary and commercially available software, including database software from Oracle Corporation, to provide our service. The
application server is custom-built and runs on a lightweight Java Servlet and Java Server Pages engine. We have custom-built core services such as database
connection pooling and user session management tuned to our specific architecture and environment, allowing us to continue to scale our service. We have
combined a stateless environment, in which a user is not bound to a single server but can be routed in the most optimal way to any number of servers, with an
advanced data caching layer. Our customers can access the service through any Web browser without installing any software or downloading Java applets or
Microsoft ActiveX or .NET controls.
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