Allied Office Products Selects Salesforce.com Over Siebel for Online Customer Relationship Management

Business Wire, March 24, 2003

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2003

Nation's largest independent dealer of office products

and services chooses salesforce.com on-demand platform to

increase cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

Salesforce.com(R), the market leader in online customer relationship management (CRM), today announced that Allied Office Products Corporation, the nation's largest independent dealer of office products and services, has standardized its sales operations on salesforce.com's online CRM solution. Selecting salesforce.com over Siebel Systems (NASDAQ: SEBL), Allied has successfully implemented Professional Edition to provide over 200 users nationwide with single-point access to comprehensive customer information spanning 29 acquisitions and several product lines. Management is also using the powerful, flexible application to identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities that further contribute to Allied's success.

"We needed to create one system that would support our core mission of delivering unparalleled customer focus and the most competitive pricing options," said Gary Keefer, regional president at Allied Office Products. "Salesforce.com's utility model delivers the functionality and flexibility we need without the hidden costs of conventional software. Because salesforce.com allows us to provide our customers with the best possible service and prices, we are a more successful organization."

Since 1998, Allied has acquired 29 companies to create a single solution for all office supply needs such as office products, furniture, promotional products, printed materials, coffee and other beverages. In 2002, Allied turned to salesforce.com to create a central repository for this disparate information that can be accessed via the Internet on the road, at home or at any of Allied's 17 sales offices located from New York to California. Implementation was completed in less than 90 days, including comprehensive business process review and reengineering by salesforce.com service partner Blue Wolf and online training for all personnel. With salesforce.com as the focal point for a unified sales culture, Allied is able to enhance cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and has complete visibility into sales cycles across product categories. Management is able to monitor service levels to customers, as well as assess sales performance for each individual, group and location.

"Large businesses are turning to salesforce.com for CRM success without software," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. "The accelerating adoption of the utility model by Allied and its enterprise peers is the driving force behind salesforce.com's path to profitability. Salesforce.com will continue to relentlessly pursue the 'End of Software' and secure the success of its customers."

A recent survey found that 42 percent of all enterprise CRM software licenses purchased are never deployed (Gartner Group, March 2003). In contrast, salesforce.com's utility model delivers robust CRM technology on a pay-as-you-go basis for immediate success. Salesforce.com currently has over 6,000 customers and 80,000 users in 107 countries, making it the world's most successful application utility.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com builds and delivers customer relationship management (CRM) applications as scalable online services. The salesforce.com product suite - Team Edition, Professional Edition, Enterprise Edition, Wireless Edition and Offline Edition - gives companies of all sizes a complete 360-degree view of the customer. The company's award-winning CRM solutions provide integrated online sales force automation, customer service and support management, and marketing automation applications to help companies meet the complex challenges of global customer communication. Salesforce.com has received considerable recognition in the industry, including Editors' Choice and two Five-Star ratings from PC Magazine, two Deploy Awards from InfoWorld, Red Herring 100, Upside Hot 100, Investor's Choice Award from Enterprise Outlook, Editors' Choice from TMCLabs, Top 10 CRM Implementation from Aberdeen Group, and InfoWorld's 2001 CRM Technology of the Year. Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia.

About Allied Office Products Corporation

With 2001 sales of approximately $300 million, Allied Office Products is the nations largest independent dealer of office products and services. Operating primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States, Allied has 17 sales offices throughout the United States. By providing office products, coffee and refreshment supplies and service, computer supplies, printing and print services, office furniture and design, and promotional products to corporate America, Allied is truly the OneSolution for all office needs.

Opened in 1947, Allied has been continually focused on providing its customers with unparalleled service and support. Since 1998, Allied has acquired 29 companies to create the "New Allied" which provides businesses with OneSolution for all of their office supply needs. OneSolution offers customers value-added services by providing a complete outsourcing solution and management program from one supplier, for all of their office supply needs.