Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has a new champion: Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). The PC manufacturer is promoting the online sales force-enablement platform as a way to gain access to the hefty sums available in the technology services business. The deal would give Salesforce.com access to Dell's clients in the small and medium-sized business categories. Dell would sell Salesforce.com products and provide consulting services to help clients integrate the solution with their other enterprise applications. The dollars and cents of this union weren't disclosed.

Dell sees the margins of the services business and wants a piece of the action, particularly since the PC sector is low margin. Also, sales have been hit pretty hard as a result of the financial crisis. With PCs accounting for 60% of Dell's top-line, a bit of diversity isn't a bad idea. Currently, services account for only around 10% of Dell's sales.

Continue reading Dell promotes Salesforce.com, eager for a taste of consulting cash

Dell promotes Salesforce.com, eager for a taste of consulting cash originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Human resources can be kind of boring (except when there are lawsuits). And it is often an area that is largely neglected in terms of the budget. Yet this is not stopping venture capitalists from investing in the space.

The latest funding in the space is a $22.5 million round for Authoria, which "provides talent management solutions," according to the company's website. It's the firm's fifth round. The investors include Horizon Technology Finance, Velocity Financial Group, Menlo Ventures, Austin Ventures and Van Wagoner Capital Management.

It does help that Authoria takes an on-demand approach. That is, the technology is delivered via the Web, which tends to be cheaper and easier. More importantly, it's a red-hot trend in tech, as seen with Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) and Taleo Corp. (NASDAQ: TLEO).

It's not clear if Authoria is profitable, but the company says that its bookings surged 40% for the first half of this year.

With a plethora of IPO filings for on-demand software - which include companies like NetSuite - we'll probably see Authoria take the same path at some point.

If you want to check out other venture capital fundings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Human resources draws VC funding as Authoria gets $22.5 million originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.