Salesforce Wins Govt. Contract

Salesforce.com (CRM - Analyst Report) recently said that its cloud computing applications were selected by the General Services Administration’s (GSA) cloud computing storehouse named Apps.gov. This online cloud computing site introduced by GSA will help US government organizations to buy and use the cloud computing applications already agreed upon by GSA.

Salesforce.com enters the Government cloud computing segment in a big way with this deal, although many cabinet-level government agencies are already using the company’s services. The positive news comes just after the company’s introduction of Service cloud 2, an enhanced version of service cloud computing that provides better solutions to customers. This includes Salesforce knowledge, Salesforce Answers and Salesforce for Twitter. Salesforce is thus blazing all guns to make its cloud computing services available to customers across all segments.

Historically, Salesforce has achieved success in all cloud computing deals with government organizations. NASA uses Salesforce’s CRM applications in its partnership program with companies, federal agencies and non-profit organizations to get a macro view of its interactions with these agencies, while the US Army uses Salesforce CRM for recruitment to save time and resources. This apart, the US Department of State's Office of Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund avails Force.com services for providing up to date budget information to program managers around the globe.

Government organizations are clearly benefiting from the cloud computing services, saving time by reducing cost of additional hardware and software and without incurring any additional employee cost. Going forward, these benefits should draw the attention of other government customers around the world, generating additional demand for companies like Salsforce.com in the cloud computing segment.

On the other hand, big companies like Microsoft (MSFT - Analyst Report), Oracle (ORCL - Analyst Report), International Business Machine (IBM - Analyst Report) and Google (GOOG - Analyst Report) are also entering this segment to get a share of this growing market, offering Salesforce.com tough competition.

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