At Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference Monday, the company plans to introduce its own programming language and tools to create web-based business applications.
This is the fourth year for Dreamforce, which is expected to draw about 5,000 people, a 66 percent increase from last year’s 3,000 attendees. The two-day event takes place at San Francisco’s MosconeCenter.
At last year’s Dreamforce conference, the on-demand business software company announced AppExchange—a marketplace or directory hosted by Salesforce.com for business applications created by partners and customers (see Salesforce.com’s Web Exchange).
Salesforce.com’s Web ExchangeThe San Francisco-based company is a pioneer in the field of Internet-based business software delivered over the web, known as on-demand or software as a service, as opposed to being installed on company premises through shrink-wrapped packages.
Salesforce.com initially started as a provider of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software but has become more of a provider of tools to create other applications such as inventory management and order management.
On Monday, the company plans to announce Apex, a Java-like programming language allowing customers to create customized applications on top of Salesforce.com’s IT infrastructure with just a browser.
“The [Apex] code runs on our servers, and that is a huge distinction,” said Kendall Collins, vice president of marketing at Salesforce.com. “Anytime you want to create a custom application, you don’t have to buy servers, an application server, or a database. So people can focus on their imagination and not on infrastructure.”
Salesforce.com claims that code created through Apex is completely secure. Customers will be able to use Apex to customize any of their Salesforce.com implementations, such as leads, forecasts, and opportunities. They can also build their own components or completely new applications, Mr. Collins said.
“Much like how Java transformed the Internet with millions of Internet applications, we believe Apex will do the same for business applications,” he said.
To use Apex, companies have to be customers of Salesforce.com, which will charge developers to use the tools and the programming language above what they already pay for the Salesforce service. Pricing will be available in the first half of 2007.
Setting Up Incubators
To advance the use of its AppExchange directory and Apex, Salesforce.com plans to set up a business incubator in several worldwide locations. The first will be located in San Mateo, California—in the same buildings that previously housed rival CRM software developer Siebel.
Siebel was acquired by software giant Oracle for $5.85 billion in September 2005 and went through several layoffs (see Oracle Buys Siebel for $5.85B).
Oracle Buys Siebel for $5.85BThe incubators will rent out office space to smaller software developers and help them create and market their software using Salesforce.com’s technological and business expertise, Mr. Collins said. Each cubicle will cost $20,000 a year, which will include all the necessary tools and services.
High expectations surround the on-demand software company at its conference. CEO Marc Benioff has several major announcements in store for the conference, Red Herring has learned.
Red HerringMerrill Lynch analyst Kash Rangan raised his price target for Salesforce.com stock from $40 to $42 in anticipation of the announcements the company might make at the conference.
analyst Kash Rangan raised his price target for Salesforce.com stock from $40 to $42 in anticipation of the announcements the company might make at the conference.
“We think here is a high probability that the company will announce new major strategic partnerships and potentially launch a significant technology upgrade to AppExchange,” Mr. Rangan wrote in a research note. “The partnership could represent a potentially new channel that could increase awareness for the core CRM solution.”
The partnership could represent a potentially new channel that could increase awareness for the core CRM solution.”
Shares of Salesforce.com fell $0.49 to $39.87 in recent trading.
Contact the writer:FBhuta@RedHerring.com
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