Enterprise software that’s as easy-to-use as the Amazon.com website – this was Marc Benioff’s vision way back in 1999. His vision has now turned to reality as he launched Salesforce and made it grow into a highly efficient enterprise software running on the cloud. Little did Benioff know during Salesforce’s early years that he already changed the face of modern enterprise software, and will continue to do so for the years to come.
Where It All Started
Benioff was keen to create an enterprise software program that contains business applications running over the internet. He was inspired by the design of Amazon.com website, pointing out that their over-the-internet service made shopping so much easier and convenient for people.
Salesforce was born in 1999 as a business application software over the internet. It then slowly evolved into a customer relationship management (CRM) platform running purely on the cloud. Benioff’s idea of convenience was to remove traditional installable software and run all his programs over the internet, earning him the informal monicker “Father of Cloud Software-as-a-Service”.
Expanding Salesforce’s Reach
Today, Salesforce offers a powerful line-up of products aimed at providing business applications on-demand. Salesforce’s products all operate under cloud-computing models, paving the way for a major change in the way software is delivered.
Aside from being a cloud-computing software, Benioff also made Salesforce subscription-based and has even integrated corporate philanthropy to their existing business model. All these things improved Salesforce’s reach and allowed even the most amateur people to use their software without the need of IT experts to help them along the way.
The V2MOM Management Process
Benioff credits the company’s massive success to proper leadership and management. He believes in over-communication and strongly reinforces open communication ties among the company executives, employees, customers, and partners. He also sticks to the V2MOM Management Process.
The V2MOM Management Process stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures. Benioff writes a plan based on these five key levels and encourages all Salesforce employees to do the same. Management meetings are broadcast to all Salesforce employees as a way of communicating Benioff’s V2MOM, and so that employees can check if their own individual V2MOMs are aligned with that of the company’s.
Wrapping It Up
Salesforce started with a dream to simplify enterprise software and make it accessible to a wide range of people. Benioff worked to make this dream a reality, creating software based on the cloud and improving it as the years went by. Now, Salesforce has become a revolutionary game-changer in the enterprise software business and continues to be a cloud computing giant, thanks to Benioff’s management efforts.