????但是到了2001年，全球性的經濟衰退不期而至。各家企業都開始全面削減開支，尤其是IT領域。而受危機影響最大的行業之一正是電信業，這也恰恰是希柏最大的收入來源。

????衰退期間，各行各業的企業客戶關系管理項目都被無限期地擱置起來。曾參與這一項目的人員要么被辭退，要么被調往其他項目。

????SAP公司（SAP）、甲骨文和IBM公司（IBM）在這場衰退中也沒能幸免。但是希柏系統對電信業的過分依賴卻在一夜之間讓它的收入遭受了重創，一連三年都沒能緩過勁來，根本看不到出路何在。

????那么，為什么這場危機沒有重創Salesforce呢？從1999年到2004年期間，Salesforce軟件的主要銷售對象是美國的小企業和那些大公司的特定部門，這些要么企業買不起、要么不想買“復雜的”企業級CRM系統。Salesforce的平均“用戶數”（seat count，軟件授權協議中計算用戶數的說法——譯注）是每家公司約24個。相比之下，希柏賣給大企業的都是復雜的產品線，它擁有5,000個客戶和5,000,000個活躍的用戶，也就是平均每個客戶擁有1,000個用戶。

????經濟危機最嚴重的時候，各企業幾乎沒有IT員工可以安裝希柏的應用。而Salesforce則無需IT人員——或者說只需要IT人員一點幫助就行——因此它能填補中小企業市場的空白，而希柏卻難以輕易進入這個市場。

????希柏的產品主要是賣給大企業，同時它還擁有一支拿著高薪的龐大直銷隊伍。而Salesforce則主要是服務于中小企業市場的，它采取了靈活機動的內部電話營銷，以及一支精簡的電話銷售團隊。

????2005年，Salesforce公布的收入是1.76億美元，而希柏的收入約為14億美元。也就是說，希柏的體量是Salesforce的近八倍，而且很難改變商業模式。

????2005年，Salesforce的增長主要得益于中小企業市場的推動，而希柏卻因為大企業需求下滑而備受拖累。2006年，Salesforce又從危機中殺出重圍，填補了希柏留下的市場空白。

????2005年夏天，拉里?埃里森突然提出要收購希柏系統，致使希柏的復興計劃被迫中斷。而希柏的董事會批準了這項收購。

????這兩家公司的合并讓Salesforce過去八年間在CRM市場實際上變得天下無敵。結果，Salesforce現在獲得了可觀的市場份額，最近又憑借一個叫“服務云”的產品開始進軍呼叫中心市場。

????盡管馬克?貝尼奧夫并沒有開創這個市場，但確實在他的重新規劃下，CRM和其他商業軟件才能通過新型商業模式——“軟件即服務”實現交付。就憑這一點，他就應該名利雙收。

????However, in 2001, a global recession hit. Businesses began to cut back on expenses in all areas, but especially in IT. And, one of the industries most heavily affected by the recession was the telecommunications sector, Siebel's largest source of revenue.

????During the recession, enterprise customer relationship management projects across all industries were put on indefinite hold. The people who had been assigned to those projects were let go or reassigned to other projects.

????SAP (SAP), Oracle, and IBM (IBM) suffered through the recession as well. But Siebel Systems' reliance on telecom wreaked havoc on its revenues overnight, and it stayed that way for three years with no end in sight.

????Why didn't the recession hurt Salesforce? From 1999 to 2004, Salesforce primarily sold its software to small companies and divisions of larger companies across the U.S. that couldn't afford, or didn't want, a "complex" enterprise CRM system. The average seat count for Salesforce was around 24 per company. By contrast, Siebel sold into large enterprises with a complex product line and had 5,000 customers with 5,000,000 active seats, an average of 1,000 seats per customer.

????With the recession in full swing, there were few IT workers in place to install Siebel applications. Salesforce needed no IT -- well, very little IT -- and it was able to fill a gap in the small and medium size business market segment that Siebel could not easily move into.

????Siebel was optimized to sell to large companies and had on its roster a large, expensive direct sales team. Salesforce was built to go after the small and medium-size business market, with nimble internal telemarketing, and telesales teams.

????In 2005, Salesforce reported $176 million in revenue when Siebel recorded around $1.4 billion. Siebel was nearly eight times the size of Salesforce and could not easily change its business model.

????Through 2005, the growth of Salesforce was primarily fueled by its uptake in the small and medium-size business market, while Siebel was dragged down by a drop in demand from large companies. Salesforce came out on the other side of the recession in 2006, filling the void Siebel left behind.

????In the summer of 2005, Siebel's turnaround plans were interrupted by Larry Ellison's surprise offer to acquire Siebel Systems. Siebel's board approved the offer.

????The process of integrating the two companies left Salesforce virtually unopposed in the CRM market for the past eight years. As a result, Salesforce now has significant market share and recently entered the call center market with an offering called "service cloud."

????While Marc Benioff didn't create this market, he did reimagine how CRM and other business applications could be delivered via a new type of business model -- software as a service (SaaS). For that, he deserves to be recognized and rewarded.