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Known better for pushing the traditional software sales model out of business, Salesforce.com plans incubation centres in India for software-as-a-service companies, says Harsimran Singh.

If you ever happen to bump into any top employee of San Francisco-based CRM software major Salesforce.com, there's one thing that's sure to strike you a a round red badge on each of their coat collars. Strangely enough, the red no-smoking badge shows 'software' ingrained on it instead of a cigarette. Ask the companyas Asia Pacific president and CEO, Steve Russell, and he tells you the reason.

"Its a badge called 'End of Software'. Each employee at Salesforce.com wears this badge. It reinforces our strong belief that old model of software a the on premise model a is near its nemesis. Instead, it will give way to the software-as-a-service (SAAS) model, on which our company is based," he says.

Founded in 1999 by ex-Oracle executive Marc Benioff (the current CEO) along with Parker Harris (the current CTO), Salesforce.com is becoming a leader of sorts. Benioff is now regarded as the leader of what he has termed "The End of Software. A belief that on-demand applications can democratise technology by delivering immediate benefits to companies of all sizes, at reduced risks and costs.

And the belief seems to be paying off. Last year, Salesforce.com revenues grew 64% to $309.8 million. This year, analysts believe the company's revenues to grow 55%. Juster himself believes that Salesforce.com will cross half a billion dollar in revenues this year. If compared to competitors, SAP and Oracle, Salesforce.comA is still puny at $396.56 million (for 12 months trailing). While SAP earned annual revenues ofA $11.4 billion last fiscal, Oracle earned $14.3 billion in revenues.

The obvious question that comes to mind is that with giants like Oracle and SAP in the market, does Salesforce.com's SaaS model stand any chance? "It does," says Juster confidently. "If you compare our growth with our competitors you'll find the answer."

And he seems right. Oracle and SAP revenues grew 22% and 18%, respectively last year against Salesforce.com's 64%.

Recent IDC data also shows Salesforce.com holding the leading position with 49.5% market share of the on-demand CRM applications market. Rivals such as RightNow Technologies occupy second place with a market share of 13.5% followed by Oracle's Siebel Systems. Other rivals include NetSuite, SugarCRM and Microsoft, which has a relatively small presence.

Bill Gates himself has recently been propounding how Web-based services, such as those provided by Google for consumers and Salesforce.com for businesses, will dramatically change the nature and cost of software solutions.

Though only Asia Pacific (including India) accounts for only 7% of Salesforce.com globalA revenues, it is still upbeat about India.

"Salesforce.com, is developing plans for initiating in India next year an incubation program for software-as-a-service companies. We operate the only applications platform on the Business Web a which we call the AppExchange. This incubation program would assist Indian entrepreneurs and developers in creating software-as-a-service businesses," adds Jester.

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