Salesforce.com President Leaves For SaaS Vendor Xactly

We learned last week that Steve Cakebread had left his president and chief strategy officer job at Salesforce.com. This morning, SaaS vendor Xactly announced it's appointed Cakebread as its CFO.So Cakebread goes from being a big fish in a big pond to a big fish in a smaller pond. But it seems to be a pond brimming with life. Xactly, which offers a sales compensation software service, acquired competitor Centive last month. The two companies' combined customer list includes Motorola, PayPal, and Honeywell. Xactly also is a name I hear come up fairly frequently when talking to CIOs and/or analysts about emerging SaaS companies.

Xactly is far more niche than Salesforce.com, of course. CFOs and other financial types use it to develop "pay-for-performance" compensation plans for salespeople. The company is privately held.

In a prepared statement, Xactly CEO Christopher Carbrera said: "Steve Cakebread was in at the start of the global software-as-a-service revolution and understands all of the dynamics of a successful SaaS business. He possesses a one-of-a-kind track record of financial-management success in today's software industry."

And this statement from Cakebread: "Sales performance management is a large and growing opportunity in SaaS, and Xactly is the de facto standard with the industry's leading on-demand product suite, significant market traction and an enviable record of customer satisfaction."

Before Salesforce.com, Cakebread was CFO at Autodesk.