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The US-based global leader in on-demand business services Salesforce.com, opened its first Hong Kong office today (June 13).
The office will drive sales and marketing activities for the growing local customer base, and will support the company's expansion in Greater China.
At the opening ceremony, the President and Asia Pacific CEO of salesforce.com, Mr Stephen Russell, said, "We are experiencing explosive growth across Asia, as more and more companies realise that you do not need large budgets and infinite resources to acquire and benefit from enterprise software. Because of Hong Kong's dynamic commercial environment, sophisticated workforce and geographic location, we are incredibly enthusiastic about the springboard that this city will provide as we continue to expand – both domestically and across Greater China."
The company's Salesforce suite of on-demand applications enables customers to manage and share all of their sales, support, marketing and partner information on-demand. Salesforce.com's on-demand platform allows customers and partners to build powerful new applications quickly and easily, customise and integrate the Salesforce suite to meet their unique business needs, and distribute and sell on-demand applications.
Mr Russell said, "Hong Kong businesses are realising that business success should not be limited by the traditional requirements of large software budgets, accompanied by costly upgrade cycles. We therefore believe Hong Kong will be a fantastic fit for our value proposition – a sophisticated environment with advanced application usage and strong internet infrastructure."
"Hong Kong's hub location will also allow us to build a resource base that can be readily deployed across the region."
The Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, Mr Mark Michelson, welcomed the company's decision to use Hong Kong as a strategic location for regional expansion. He said, "Hong Kong is the international business hub of Asia. Companies investing here can leverage the large pool of potential customers represented by the largest number of regional headquarter operations in Asia. Our proximity to China makes us an ideal entry point to this fast growing economy. We wish Salesforce.com every success in the future development in Hong Kong and in the region."
Salesforce.com is headquartered in San Francisco, US, and has offices in Europe and Asia. As of April 2006, the company manages customer information for approximately 22,700 businesses and 444,000 paying subscribers. For more information, please visit the website at www.salesforce.com.
Invest Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government department charged with encouraging and facilitating inward investment into the city by providing the support needed to establish a business presence here. For more information, please visit the website at www.investhk.gov.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:00
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