Expedia Corporate Travel to Use CRM

Software to provide easy customization, integration; better manage relationships with business customers

Software to provide easy customization, integration; better manage relationships with business customers

San Francisco — January 27, 2004 — Expedia Corporate Travel, a full-service travel management company operated by Expedia Inc, has chosen salesforce.com Winter '04 for on demand customer relationship management (CRM) service.

Expedia Corporate Travel said it chose salesforce.com Winter '04 for the ability to modify and customize salesforce.com. As Expedia Corporate Travel expanded with a new field sales force and account management team, they needed a CRM system that could grow along with the company and replace its existing internal solution. The new solution helped Expedia(R) Corporate Travel achieve these goals, as well as use workflow to integrate the business processes of different departments — from sales to account managers to implementation groups.

"The salesforce.com on demand utility model really works — we have come to rely on it like a dial tone," said Howard Mendelsohn, vice president of strategic planning and new business initiatives, Expedia Corporate Travel. "With some of other solutions we examined, there was always the danger of it taking too long to get up and running, the system not working or users not having access. But with Winter '04 we can focus on mission-critical activities that drive the success of our business."

Expedia Corporate Travel said it liked the solution's user-friendly features, particularly Microsoft Outlook integration to capture and remember all communications for organization-wide visibility, and Opportunity Sharing to effectively manage all details of multiple deals simultaneously, tracking deal progress and milestones. The company plans to expand its use of salesforce.com to include marketing campaigns and forecasting in 2004.

"Expedia Corporate Travel considered the alternatives and chose salesforce.com to provide proven, on demand CRM that can be customized to its business needs," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "More than 8,400 successful customers and 120,000 subscribers have chosen salesforce.com."

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