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December 13, 2010, 3:28 PM EST
By Dina Bass
(Adds Microsoft’s share price in final paragraph.)
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. aims to attract more users to its customer-relationship management software in 2011 than rival Salesforce.com Inc., outpacing its competitor in that market for the first time.
“We’re gunning for that,” Michael Park, vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, said in an interview. The Redmond, Washington-based company is introducing a new version of the software next month, helping spur growth. Last year Salesforce gained about 50,000 more new users than Microsoft, he estimated.
Microsoft is trying to prize customers from Salesforce and Oracle Corp. with updated software and a new “Don’t Get Forced” advertising campaign that challenges rivals directly. Its earlier products weren’t capable enough to warrant a big campaign and were only available in the U.S. and Canada, Park said. The new version will be offered in 40 countries.
“We needed to be more aggressive now that we have a product we can stand behind,” he said. Besides targeting Salesforce, Microsoft expects to pick off Oracle customers who are unhappy with the software the company acquired from Siebel Systems Inc. or the new Fusion products meant to replace them, Park said.
Carol Sato, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California- based Oracle, and Jane Hynes, a spokeswoman for San Francisco- based Salesforce, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Microsoft rose 9 cents to $27.43 at 3:22 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 10 percent this year before today.
--Editors: Nick Turner, Ville Heiskanen
To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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(Adds Microsoft’s share price in final paragraph.)
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. aims to attract more users to its customer-relationship management software in 2011 than rival Salesforce.com Inc., outpacing its competitor in that market for the first time.
“We’re gunning for that,” Michael Park, vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, said in an interview. The Redmond, Washington-based company is introducing a new version of the software next month, helping spur growth. Last year Salesforce gained about 50,000 more new users than Microsoft, he estimated.
Microsoft is trying to prize customers from Salesforce and Oracle Corp. with updated software and a new “Don’t Get Forced” advertising campaign that challenges rivals directly. Its earlier products weren’t capable enough to warrant a big campaign and were only available in the U.S. and Canada, Park said. The new version will be offered in 40 countries.
“We needed to be more aggressive now that we have a product we can stand behind,” he said. Besides targeting Salesforce, Microsoft expects to pick off Oracle customers who are unhappy with the software the company acquired from Siebel Systems Inc. or the new Fusion products meant to replace them, Park said.
Carol Sato, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California- based Oracle, and Jane Hynes, a spokeswoman for San Francisco- based Salesforce, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Microsoft rose 9 cents to $27.43 at 3:22 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 10 percent this year before today.
--Editors: Nick Turner, Ville Heiskanen
To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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