Marc Benioff, 1999: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com?”
Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com, posted an article on Techcrunch today titled “The Facebook Imperative“. In it he writes about what drove him to found Salesforce.com:
I quit my job at Oracle in 1999 because I couldn’t stop thinking about a simple question: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com?”
More than a decade after Benioff asked himself this question, it is still timely. Why is so much enterprise software ugly and difficult to use?
Benioff had a point and Salesforce.com has been a firebrand for Software as a Service since 1999 – and still is.
Benioff’s phrase sounds like a mission statement for Brand Capital: Software that makes Brand Asset Management as easy and painless to use as Amazon.com.


