If you have any doubts about the growth of CRM and the growth of SaaS models, I advise you to consider the fact that Salesforce.com just announced earnings up 52% for the quarter -- year-over-year.

Here are some financial stats from an article on the matter:

Total Q1 revenue was $247.6 million, an increase of 52 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 14 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Subscription and support revenues were $225.3 million, an increase of 53 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 15 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

 

Q1 GAAP diluted earnings per share were approximately $0.08, including approximately $18 million in stock based compensation and approximately $1.3 million in amortization of purchased intangibles related to previously announced acquisitions. 

 

Net paying customers rose approximately 2,600 during the quarter to approximately 43,600. Compared with the year ago quarter, net paying customers have grown by approximately 11,300.

 

Cash from operations for the fiscal first quarter was approximately $84 million, up 128 percent year-over-year, up 4 percent from Q4, and a company record for the 3rd consecutive quarter. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at approximately $751 million, up about $303 million from the year prior.

 

Revenue for the company's second fiscal quarter is projected to be in the range of approximately $258 million to approximately $259 million. The company is raising the full year revenue guidance it provided on February 27, 2008, with revenue now expected to be approximately $1.060 billion to approximately $1.065 billion.

What does this tell us? Simply that the CRM market continues to grow regardless of the economy and that people also seem to love the hosted model. Finally, it is obvious that the entire CRM market did not have this rate of growth so Salesforce.com is also taking share.

Congrats to the Salesforce.com team, this is quite an accomplishment.