Agenda Setters: Where are they now... Marc Benioff

As the countdown begins to silicon.com's sixth annual Agenda Setters poll of tech's 50 most influential individuals, it is time to look back at those individuals who held top 10 positions in 2004. To kick off, we assess what's happened to Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff.

In with a bullet at number 10 last year, Marc Benioff's elevated place on the list may have caught some people by surprise but the hugely successful Salesforce.com IPO came at a time when such events were a distant memory of better days for the IT industry.

One of the most notable tech IPOs of recent times, and grounded in a little more reality than the incomparable Google float, it was undoubtedly agenda setting but the question now is: how does he follow that? Will the Agenda Setters panel consider Benioff for inclusion in 2005?

This year has seen the release of new products - Sforce 6.0 and Sforce Partner Portal came along in time for summer - and the likelihood is that there will be more releases out of the Salesforce.com stable in the coming 12 months. But it's unlikely to be anything of an agenda setting nature outside of the company's own CRM backyard.

But that's not to belittle its relevance in a climate of change. Salesforce.com along with rivals NetSuite and RightNow will continue to redefine the CRM industry, pushing old war horse Siebel further into the shadows and keeping a good lead ahead of larger entrants such as Microsoft.

Benioff will continue to be the most outspoken critic of the old guard and the most vocal advocate of the on-demand service model. He will continue to wear the ever-present 'death of software' badge on his lapel and grab the headlines but we're betting he's unlikely to be picked out as a Agenda Setter for the coming year - especially not in the top 10 - if only because he's made his own 'difficult second album' that much more difficult by rising so quickly to prominence.

But it wouldn't be beyond the ex-Oracle man to prove us all wrong, having inherited his mentor Larry Ellison's bullishness.

There is going to be a lot of money flying around the CRM industry in the coming 12 months and there is growing expectation of major consolidation within the sector. If that is the case then there's a strong likelihood Benioff will play a major part in that.

So perhaps - just perhaps - if the panel sense that wind of change he could be handed an eleventh hour wildcard entry on the list.

silicon.com's Agenda Setters panel, made up again of CIOs, analysts, VCs, consultants, lawyers, academics and other experts, is convening in September at our London offices with the results revealed at the end of the month. If you want to pass on your comments for our experts - about Marc Benioff or any other contender - drop us an email at editorial@silicon.com.