Sales Force Automation
Gold Award:
Salesforce SFA
There are more than a few sales force automation (SFA) products on the market that can improve sales processes and make them more efficient, but having all the functionality in the world doesn't matter if the sales force doesn't use the application and use it correctly.
Of all the products nominated for the SFA category in SearchCRM.com's 2007 Product of the Year awards, Salesforce SFA was a standout for usability. According to the company, adoption rates regularly top 90%, increasing productivity and profitability.
"Salesforce has edged itself ahead of its rivals in the SFA field," one judge said. "The vast majority of client feedback indicates Salesforce SFA's ease of use is unparalleled."
With a focus on the end-user experience, Salesforce SFA offers a comprehensive suite of tools with advanced functionality, customization and integration. Using the on-demand model, the product can be deployed immediately around the globe. For these reasons, our judges considered it the clear winner in the SFA category, giving the product high marks for innovation, ease of use and functionality.
"[Salesforce.com has]continually proven [its] leadership ability for taking a fairly commoditized product and adding increasingly useful functionality targeted toward not only IT but also end users," one judge said.
Using feedback from customers, including comments made on Salesforce.com's IdeaExchange, Salesforce.com has continued to improve the user interface by integrating a number of Web 2.0 technologies, like AJAX and hovers. The company added Web 2.0 community-based technologies such as tagging and in-line editing, historical exchange rates which will allow users to specify any currency and any exchange rate, for any effective period, enabling accurate reporting and decision making based on the true value of exchanged currencies for any historical period.
"Salesforce.com has not only pioneered the on-demand SFA category but continues to innovate with new Web 2.0 technologies, IdeaExchange, AppExchange, Force.com, etc.," another judge said.
Showing its dedication to support, Salesforce.com has a systems status website that gives customers and the entire community access to real-time and historical system performance information and updates, incident reports, and maintenance schedules. The site is designed to keep customers informed of service availability and to help users increase productivity.
There are four editions of Salesforce SFA: Group, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited. Pricing for the Group edition is $10 per user per month; for the Professional edition, $65 per user per month; for the Enterprise edition, $125 per user per month; and for the Unlimited edition, $250 per user per month.