Salesforce

True, Salesforce isn’t a company you typically think of as a metrics company. It’s highly focused on the sales team vertical — or is it? In the last year or two, Salesforce (see Figure 21-11) has been on a development and acquisition binge, snapping up companies with strength in social media, metrics, analytics, and more.

One of these companies, Model Metrics, adds to the metrics Salesforce already offered for sales. Now you get website metrics, social metrics, and mobile metrics, all from within your sales tool.

With a new social layer for team communication, Salesforce is obviously positioning itself to be a player for the long haul.

If you’ve used Salesforce, you know that the software has quite a learning curve. Salesforce now has an array of business partners, local to you, that provide another layer of value to its customers by acting as the support staff, training team, and strategists for folks struggling to optimize Salesforce’s robust platform.

Salesforce’s acquisition of Jigsaw, Jigsaw’s integration into the new Data.com, and the recent purchase of analytics powerhouse Radian6 also combine to make Salesforce the tool to beat in the metrics service game.