Granicus Builds 20 Custom Applications in 20 Weeks on Force.com to Manage Rapid Growth

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced Granicus, an award-winning cloud computing provider for government transparency, efficiency, and citizen participation, has built 20 custom apps in 20 weeks on Force.com to manage its rapid growth.

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Having experienced three years of explosive growth, Granicus needed to streamline processes across the company including the sales, marketing, finance, human resources, project management, technical support and deployment departments. With Force.com, Granicus was able to manage its growth efficiently by quickly building and deploying multiple applications. This helped employees operate more efficiently and focus on the company's mission of helping governments connect with citizens in meaningful new ways.

Success with Custom Application Development in the Cloud:

Instead of using on-premise development platforms, Granicus found success with Force.com custom application development. It was able to:

• Decrease the time it takes to build a sales proposal from 2 hours to 10 minutes
• Streamline product deployments  through a web-based tracking tool
• Change the underlying product logic without retraining employees
• Automate workflows for multiple departments across the company
• Develop applications on-the-fly to ease growing pains without taxing resources or budgets

Granicus has built 20 custom applications on Force.com. Some of these include:

• Regionalized accounts: Account regionalization (grouping accounts beyond state, county, city and zip code limitations) allowed Granicus to assign accounts and run reports in specific regions - eliminating manual spreadsheets and reports, and reducing campaign management time from roughly five hours to one hour.
• Human resources: Custom recruiting application to manage its open positions and candidates for every hire in the company.
• Sales proposals: Built in just one week, this application determines client product configurations, creates proposals, exports to them to PDFs - saving over 400 hours in development time.
• Project management: Departments company-wide use this custom app to manage projects allowing groups to tailor unique project initiatives.
• Asset management: This custom app is used to manage and track employee laptops and other inventory.

Comments on the News:

• "The secret to making your company successful on Force.com is to find a specific business problem to solve," said Jay Kilian, program and API manager, Granicus. "It's easier than you think to get started with a proof of concept app and then get it rolled out. To manage our fast growth, we built 20 custom apps in 20 weeks and now have our entire company on Force.com."

Force.com - the Industry's Leading Enterprise Cloud Computing Platform:

• Force.com is salesforce.com's enterprise cloud computing platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/cloud-platform/).
• Force.com provides everything companies need to quickly build and deliver business applications in the cloud, including the database, unlimited real-time customization, powerful analytics, real-time workflow and approvals, programmable cloud logic, integration, real-time mobile deployment, programmable user interface and Web site capabilities.
• Customers and partners have built more than 170,000 custom applications on Force.com to run their businesses, including, supply chain management, compliance tracking, brand management, accounts receivable, claims processing, time-off applications and much more.
• Force.com enables companies to build and deliver applications 5 times faster(i), at about 1/2 the cost(ii) of traditional client/server software platforms. For case studies, analyst reports and white papers please visit http://www.salesforce.com/platform/tco.
• The Force.com business case calculator is now available to help estimate the time and costs of custom application development projects:  http://www.salesforce.com/platform/tco/calculator.jsp?d=70130000000EfON&internal=true.

Additional Resources:

• A snapshot of the Granicus story is available here: http://www.salesforce.com/customers/communications-media/granicus.jsp
• Follow salesforce.com on Twitter @salesforce

Granicus is one of the approximately 82,400 companies of all sizes, industries and geographies that comprised the salesforce.com customer base as of July 31, 2010.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's platform and CRM applications (http://www.salesforce.com/crm) have revolutionized the way companies collaborate and communicate with their customers, including:

• The Sales Cloud, for sales force automation and contact management
• The Service Cloud, for customer service and support solutions
• Chatter, for social collaboration
• The Force.com platform, for custom application development
• The AppExchange, the world's leading marketplace for enterprise cloud computing applications

Salesforce.com offers the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing. As of July 31, 2010, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 82,400 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all.  Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2010 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(i) "Research Note: Force.com Drives Faster Development", Nucleus Research, (May 2009), http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/analysts/Nucleus_Force.com_drives_faster_development.pdf

(ii) Randy Perry, Eric Hatcher, Robert P. Mahowald and Stephen Hendrick, "Force.com Cloud Platform Drives Huge Time to Market and Cost Savings" IDC (September 2009), http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/analysts/IDC_Force.com_Business_Case.pdf

SOURCE salesforce.com