When Salesforce.com Inc emerged two decades ago, it lashed out at the software establishment: large companies that allegedly locked clients into dated products. Now, a coalition of newer rivals have extended that criticism to the cloud applications pioneer.
Ten software upstarts kicked off a public campaign Jan 16 that knocks customer relationship management, or CRM, titans, including Salesforce, Oracle Corp and SAP SE, by saying the large companies keep clients trapped in subpar software suites, potentially shutting out smaller rivals with newer technology.