Price rises yet to hit customers, says Salesforce as it raises forecasts

   ...Salesforce had already targeted a 25 percent operating margin. However, in a report last year, financial analyst firm Starboard suggests Salesforce should be targeting adjusted operating margins of 31.7 percent to get it closer to those enjoyed by Oracle (43.3 percent) and Microsoft (46.6 percent).

It's incredible the world these analysts operate in that they think Salesforce could nearly double their margin. In every business I've been in, Salesforce has felt very expensive both in absolute dollar terms and relative to what you get (a bunch of weird bespoke technology that gives you a CRUD gui builder thing on top of a business process workflow engine and relational database with a bunch of domain-specific business logic extensions that you end up having to pay Salesforce or a third party for). It's made doubly expensive by the fact that it often is looked after by a big consultancy shop who bill you through the nose for expensive certified salesforce architects and so on. It always starts with good intentions and promises about revolutionizing efficiency and eliminating paper- and email- based workflows, and ends with managers spending a ton of their time badgering staff to keep things up to date in salesforce, because the email workflows are easier for staff so they end up still doing things by email and then having to also record them in salesforce. The bulk of the benefits of salesforce (or any crm) go to the management but depend on a ton of busywork and data maintenance by the rank and file.