Thats right, 51,800 companies ranging from fortune 500 giants to small startup businesses, that show many customers Salesforce.com has according to their latest press release dated 5th January 2009. Thats not a customer base, that is a market!

The database management software company Ingres was their latest large addition to the impressive list of Salesforce customers which just seems to keep expanding rapidly. This base of 51,800 companies is a fantastic market segment for several technology companies who have products and offerings specifically built as solutions for existing Salesforce customers and keeping a tab on which is the latest company to turn to the Salesforce CRM is essential and spot early opportunities. A perfect example of this scenario is how Intacct was selected to integrate in this deal to help with financials, Vtrenz for the marketing automation needs and Xactly for sales compensation as add ons.

With such a wide market base for AppExchange and Force.com applications, building strong marketing data on Salesforce.com users and gathering account intelligence on them can effectively give you an edge while exploring opportunities and requirements in this market. Building this kind of a database is a long and painful process with the need to gather intelligence on each potential account as well as locating suitable decision makers. Over the course of the next year ActiveContacts will look at expanding the number of Salesforce using target accounts within the SFDC database and provide marketers updated data on this every expanding market. It may not be anywhere close to 51,800 for now but every lead counts!