SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com
(NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced it has
been ranked #55 on the 12th annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. The
annual survey polls employees from companies nationwide about the quality of
their corporate cultures, and evaluates criteria such as the company's pay and
benefit programs, hiring practices, internal communications, training,
recognition programs and diversity efforts.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)
According to the list: "Employees at this on-demand software provider rave
about its 1/1/1 approach to philanthropy: 1% of time (staff gets six paid days
a year to volunteer); 1% of equity (1% of pre-IPO equity was allocated to the
Salesforce.com Foundation); and 1% product donations (giving discounts to
nonprofits using the CRM software)."
"We are honored to be publicly recognized along with technology industry
leaders Cisco, Google and eBay for our commitment to the customers, partners
and communities we serve, and for the unique the culture we've built at
salesforce.com," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. "As we
approach our tenth anniversary, I can think of no better way to celebrate than
with this milestone achievement."
Benioff attributes the company's inclusion on the list not only to the
camaraderie of its employees in pursuing their shared vision for the End of
Software, but also to its commitment to corporate philanthropy and to helping
employees achieve success with both their professional and personal goals.
Varun Gupta, a salesforce.com quality assurance engineer, agrees: "Looking
at my various career options, there were several things about salesforce.com
that clearly stood out -- its vision for cloud computing, rapid growth and
more. But what truly sold me was the company's dedication to giving back to
the communities it serves, which allows me to pursue my personal service-
oriented goals without having to leave work."
While salesforce.com is best known for its pioneering work in enterprise
cloud computing, it is also changing the face of corporate philanthropy
through its 1/1/1 integrated corporate philanthropy model which is now being
adopted by other companies. For example, as part of 1% time, all employees
around the world spend a half day doing community service as part of the
company's employee orientation. The company also offers a Fellowship program
where a salesforce.com employee is given a year to work at the Salesforce.com
Foundation. This model, along with an innovative approach to human resources,
supports the company's belief that happy, healthy and motivated employees
enable the company -- and ultimately its customers -- to excel.
Another distinguishing ingredient to the company's success is how it uses
its own technology to tap into the wisdom of its employee community. The
company's own deployment of Salesforce CRM Ideas gives employees the
opportunity to post ideas related to their work which are then voted on by
other employees so that the best ideas bubble to the top. Managers and company
leaders gain direct insight into the most popular ideas coming from the
employee community which has led to numerous innovative ways to not only
improve the employee's work experience, but also the company's products.
"Using our own Salesforce CRM Ideas technology to listen to our employees
has forever changed the way we communicate," said Erin Flynn, senior vice
president of Employee Success at salesforce.com. "We've been able to tap into
their collective wisdom to make a difference in the employee experience and in
our business. It's what makes our company revolutionary."
Tapping into the collective wisdom of its employees has even modified the
company's process for developing and rolling out new product offerings. Based
on employee feedback, the company rolled out a new product development
methodology that has led to both new efficiencies and employee empowerment.
Chris Fry, vice president of Core & Platform Development at salesforce.com,
says, "People are more empowered because we try to put them in control
wherever possible. Our Agile Delivery Methodology (ADM) was a radical
transformation for our organization and we are both more effective and more
efficient as a result."
How FORTUNE Chose the "100 Best Companies to Work For"
To pick the "100 Best Companies to Work For," FORTUNE works with Robert
Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work(R) Institute -- a
global research and consulting firm with offices in 30 countries -- to conduct
the most extensive employee survey in corporate America.
More than 81,000 employees from 353 companies responded to the 57-question
survey created by the Institute. Two-thirds of a company's score is based on
the survey, which is sent to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees. The
remaining third is based on a company's responses to the Culture Audit
questionnaire, which asks detailed questions about demographics, pay and
benefits, and open-ended questions on philosophy, communication and more.
In his FORTUNE.com blog, Managing Editor Andy Serwer writes, "No matter
what happens with the economy, the demand for talent will remain. Great
companies know that super-motivated, happy, world-class employees are an
incredible competitive advantage."
The full list and related stories appear in the February 2 issue of
FORTUNE, available on newsstands on Monday, January 26, and now at
FORTUNE.com/bestcompanies.
About FORTUNE
FORTUNE is a global leader in business journalism with a worldwide
circulation of more than 1 million and a readership of nearly 5 million, with
major franchises including the FORTUNE 500 and the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies
to Work For. FORTUNE Live Media extends the brand's mission into live
settings, hosting a wide range of annual conferences, including the FORTUNE
Global Forum. FORTUNE magazine's online home is CNNMoney.com, the most visited
and utilized business destination website.
About the Salesforce.com Foundation
The Salesforce.com Foundation is the leader in pioneering, evangelizing
and implementing the 1/1/1 Model and using it as a means to improve the lives
of people around the world. The 1/1/1 Model harnesses the power of people and
technology through 1% Time, 1% Equity, 1% Product, and being "one" with the
earth, to build deep relationships with communities around the world and
increase the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations in achieving their
goals. The Foundation concentrates on the use of technology, specifically as
it relates to organizations with youth development programs. It has supported
technology projects around the world that help kids in bereft urban and rural
areas access technology to create better futures for themselves. The 1/1/1
Model has had a profound effect on salesforce.com and its communities: Since
July of 2000, salesforce.com employees have given over 90,000 hours of their
time and expertise back to the community. More than 5,000 nonprofits in 56
countries around the world are using donated licenses to run their businesses
more efficiently; and numerous organizations are benefiting from technology
related grants from the Foundation. For more information on the 1/1/1 Model,
please visit http://www.sharethemodel.org. For more information on the
Salesforce.com Foundation, please visit http://www.salesforcefoundation.org.
About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's
portfolio of SaaS applications, including its award-winning CRM, available at
http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that
customers manage and share business information over the Internet. The
company's Force.com PaaS enables customers, developers and partners to build
powerful on-demand applications that deliver the benefits of multi-tenancy
across the enterprise. Applications built on the Force.com platform, available
at http://www.force.com/, can be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a
few simple clicks via salesforce.com's Force.com AppExchange marketplace
available at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
As of October 31, 2008, salesforce.com manages customer information for
approximately 51,800 customers including ABN AMRO, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan
Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, Sprint Nextel, 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) 2009 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.
