Salesforce.com acquires mobile, social cloud computing specialist Model Metrics to bolster its SaaS portfolio against Oracle, SAP and other rivals.
Per its CEO
Marc Benioff's plan for the company, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) made another
acquisition aligned with its goals for padding its mobile, social and cloud-computing
portfolio.
The software-as-a-service
(SaaS) provider
agreed
to purchase consulting services concern and partner Model Metrics for an
undisclosed sum Nov. 14.
Model Metrics
advises over 500 clients on the deployment of mobile and social software in
cloud or Web-based computing environments. The company's talent will join
Salesforce.com's strategic services unit.
"The
company quickly recognized the importance mobile and social technologies would
play in the future of enterprise cloud computing and began to focus on
strategic app development and deployment," Salesforce.com said in a
statement.
"As a
result, the Model Metrics team has led some of the largest mobile and social
cloud deployments and created a mobility practice that delivers enterprise apps
with a user experience that customers love."
Those
customers include Blue Shield of California, Heidrick & Struggles and
Standard Register. Additionally, Chicago-based Model Metrics has executed more
than 1,000 Salesforce deployments for businesses.
The purchase, expected to close by Jan. 31 next
year, comes one month after
Oracle
last month agreed to acquire Salesforce.com competitor RightNow
Technologies, which itself has an array of social CRM software and services
experts.
Should Oracle
consummate the purchase in late 2011 or early 2012 as it expects, it will have
a comprehensive suite of SaaS CRM programs to offer enterprises, which is
Salesforce.com's bread and butter. Salesforce.com's acquisition of Model
Metrics is a sign the company isn't sitting back letting Oracle encroach on its
turf.
Benioff and
his team believe the enterprise sector is transitioning rapidly toward an
ecosystem where mobile, social and Web-based computing is bridging the gap
between businesses and the customers they are trying to serve.
This trend,
which
Benioff
discussed at the Web 2.0 Summit a month ago, is part of the gross
consumerization of IT driving the high-tech industry, where the effects of Facebook
and social networking are trickling down to workforces worldwide.
To that end,
the company has acquired Radian6 to fortify its Chatter social network with
analytics, and just launched Do.com for consumer/small-business task management.
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