I did a post yesterday characterizing Salesforce.com as the old guard of the software-as-a-service industry.
It highlighted arguments that Salesforce’s reliance on commercial products (EMC storage and Oracle’s database) create higher than necessary costs. In contrast, companies such as RightNow and Zoho rely on infrastructure built with open-source components.
Zoho claims a cost advantage over Salesforce, but offers no customer numbers to back up its argument
In particular, I quoted from a strident diatribe Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu posted on the company’s blog. Salesforce’s inefficiencies cause it to charge customers $65 a month instead of Zoho’s $15.
Vembu also pointed out how Salesforce had been running a 50 percent off promotion. “They must really believe this can keep customers from defecting,” he wrote. “I can tell them it is not working.”
Unfortunately, Vembu offers no proof backing up his claim – making his huffing and puffing appear quite pointless.
After reading his allegation, I shot off an e-mail asking him how many CRM customers he has and what percentage of them are paid. Vembu wouldn’t say. Here’s what Marisa Lam wrote on his behalf.
“Because we are a private company we don’t disclose specifics about number of customers (paid or free).”
Without figures to back up his allegations, they appear quite hollow. It is a little like George Bush claiming there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I’m sure customers see through the smoke screen, too. So what’s the point in puffing out your chest if there is nothing to show?
Posted by Mark Boslet 
