InternetSalesforce.com Buys More Service With InStranet

Business intelligence and knowledge management are part of the SaaS strategy.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has bought multi-channel knowledge applications vendor InStranet for $31.5 million in a bid to add more service to the provider's suite of software-as-a service products. The deal, announced late Tuesday, enables Salesforce.com to put improved service and support features in the hands of customers. InStranet specializes in knowledge base applications. This is an area where "the industry hasn't done a great job as a whole -- marrying CRM (define) with knowledge applications," Al Falcione, Salesforce.com's senior director of product marketing, told InternetNews.com. Salesforce claims InStranet's application can be easily integrated with other infrastructure platforms such as document management, business intelligence, and CRM (customer relationship management). It uses industry standard protocols such as Java, XML, HTTP and XSL. RELATED ARTICLES Salesforce, Google Extend Flights on The Cloud Oracle, Salesforce.com Apps Now on iPhone For more stories on this topic: "We're making a very strategic and aggressive acquisition in the customer service and support space, which is a $3.4 billion market according to Gartner," Falcione said. "That's one third of the CRM market," he added. The InStranet technology will be rolled into Salesforce.com's Force.com application development platform "so all applications running on our platforms will be able to use it," Falcione explained. Salesforce... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]

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