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Salesforce.com has announced that The Haagen-Dazs Shoppe Company has chosen Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform.

 

By providing "a centralized source for all real estate, franchisor, staff and prospect information," Salesforce.com officials say, Haagen-Dazs can "identify opportunities and open franchises, as well as track staff training and ensure store quality."

 

"We have been in an aggressive growth mode in the last couple years and needed a way to more effectively market our franchises to entrepreneurs," said Julie Michelutti, marketing manager at The Haagen-Dazs Shoppe Company. Using Salesforce.com, "everyone in our organization has everything they need to quickly match location opportunities with potential franchisors. As a result, we've significantly shortened the time it takes to open stores."

 

After being purchased by Dreyer's in 2004, Haagen-Dazs was tasked with marketing not only to consumers but to entrepreneurs interested in opening a franchise. Previously, Haagen-Dazs officials said, franchise leads were maintained in an Excel document that "gave no insight into the lead process, including being able to calculate ROI."

 

The ice cream vendor used Salesforce CRM to create a completely custom application - FranchiseForce. The FranchiseForce application allows Haagen-Dazs to manage all franchise activities, including tracking store openings, remodel dates and inspection results, as well as client training status.

 

Haagen-Dazs also downloaded applications from the Force.com AppExchange to further enhance its Salesforce CRM with additional functionality.

 

About a week ago, Salesforce.com announced the appointment of Steve McWhirter as president of its Asia-Pacific operations. He will report to Jim Steele, chief customer officer and president of international operations, and will be based in salesforce.com's Singapore office.

 

He succeeds Stephen J. Russell who served as president since November 2005.

 

"Steve McWhirter will support Salesforce.com's accelerated growth and market development in the Asia-Pacific region," said Steele, adding that McWhirter is expected to be "a driving force in extending the benefits of Salesforce CRM and the Force.com Platform to the growing number of companies in the region."