CRM History – salesforce.com CRM

Yesterday I posted a tweet linking to an interactive timeline from softwareadvice.com showing the history of CRM software.

http://twitter.com/SetupForce/status/11040861248823296

I think the timeline is a nice piece of work but it got me thinking how the graphics and description for salesforce.com CRM, milestoned in 1999, needed a little more detail (and a lot more appreciation for how it has evolved).

Back then there were anouncements like the one reported by InformationWeek on Monday, December 6, 1999 as

“… Salesforce.com Inc. today will introduce a CRM service that strips sales-force automation down to a Web site that provides front-office functions…”

“The 6-month-old startup, … will aim the service at companies with 10 to 200 salespeople. It will offer features found in traditional sales-force automation tools, including account management, contact management, opportunity management, forecasting, and reports. But unlike traditional packages, the service requires no implementation or maintenance by the customer.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20000302220511/www.informationweek.com/story/IWK19991206S0002

And the graphics back then looked more like:

I wonder how many of the 27,000 salesforce community, attending Dreamforce 2010 this week, equate their use of salesforce.com with this target user base and feature list!