SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that Salesforce CRM Customer Service & Support has been "KCS Verified" by the Consortium for Service Innovation. Salesforce CRM is the first cloud computing application to be verified for Knowledge-Centered Support, a proven methodology that enables companies to reap dramatic operational improvements, increase customer service levels and reduce overall costs. Salesforce.com joins 14 other KCS verified companies, including IBM and Hewlett Packard, and again sets the standard for the cloud computing industry.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

"Receiving the KCS verification is not only a strategic achievement for salesforce.com, but for the cloud computing industry as a whole. Salesforce CRM is once again setting the industry standard," said Alexandre Dayon, senior vice president customer service & support product line, of salesforce.com.

One of the driving forces behind the KCS verification is Salesforce CRM's industry-leading knowledge base technology. Today, Salesforce CRM is the only product on the market to completely reinvent the customer service experience with a highly-efficient knowledge base application that can be deployed quickly and easily. Through its patented Dimensions technology, which adds the customer's context, such as product or geography, the knowledge base is able to quickly hone in on the right solution and eliminate irrelevant search results.

"The Consortium for Service Innovation is pleased to have salesforce.com as one of our KCS Verified Vendors. The Verification process is thorough and challenging and by submitting to the program, salesforce.com has aligned themselves with forward-thinking service enablers that have become strategic partners with service providers to turn information into knowledge," said Greg Oxton, executive director of the Consortium for Service Innovation.

About the Consortium for Service Innovation

The Consortium is a non-pro.t alliance of support organizations and technology providers. To improve the customer experience, the members work together in collaboration to develop operational models. This innovative work bridges emerging academic principles to practices which optimize business results. www.serviceinnovation.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.

KCS is a service mark of the Consortium for Service Innovation

SOURCE Salesforce.com