CRM software group Salesforce.com has reported a surge in sales in the final quarter of its latest financial year, on the back of major growth in businesses adopting social media and cloud packages.
For the three-months ending January 31, the company reported sales worth $632m (£400m), a 38% increase on the same period 12 months ago. Sales for the full year hit $2.27bn (£1.5bn), 37% higher than the previous year.
Salesforce.com added 2,500 global workers, as it benefited from the wave of businesses moving to cloud-based subscription services to reduce capital investments in IT.
The results seem to reinforce predictions earlier this year that social and mobile applications would spark a surge in CRM adoption.
Salesforce.com boss Marc Benioff said the company expects to reach $3bn in sales in its next 12-month financial period.
“Given the strong customer response to the social enterprise, we’re excited to raise our guidance today, which puts us on pace to exceed the $3bn revenue run rate during FY13 [financial year 2013].”
Despite adding customers to its subscription-based services, the company actually reported a loss of $4.1m in the quarter, compared to a profit of $10.9m a year ago due to one-off charges.
Related stories
Rethink your CRM, warns Forrester
Social and mobile ‘drive CRM surge’
