Renting software thru Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com and its founder have kicked off a new initiative that piggybacks on Salesforce.com's business model according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
Now Mr. Benioff, a 13-year Oracle Corp. veteran, hopes to kick the trend into a higher gear with a plan to let other software developers rent out their software using Salesforce.com's computers. These software developers won't have to buy hardware, worry about managing databases or protecting users' security -- as long as they pay Salesforce.com $50 for each person per month who taps into their software over the Internet.
...The first phase of Sforce, similarly, is designed to make Salesforce.com work better with other companies' software. By early next year, Salesforce.com plans to let other companies assemble and offer utility-style services on its computers. Mr. Benioff, who calls the concept "client-service computing," hopes to boost the users Salesforce.com serves from about 90,000 today to one million in 36 months, with 60% of those tapping into programs written by other companies.