Hosted CRM apps gain favor

Salesforce.com has landed two new customers for its customer-relationship management applications. The company plans to announce Monday that it's hosting and maintaining CRM software for Garrett Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric. In a separate deal, a division of investment banking company Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe is using the hosted applications, which Salesforce.com claims are less expensive and easier to install than those offered by Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and Siebel Systems. CRM software is intended to streamline customer service, simplify marketing and sales efforts, and help companies find new customers and generate more revenue from existing customers. However, recent reports from analyst firms such as Gartner and Merrill Lynch indicate that many CRM projects fail to deliver anticipated savings and business advantages. --Alorie Gilbert, Special to ZDNet News