Salesforce.com is retaining its out-going financial officer, charging him - instead - with the role of leading expansion outside the home market.

CFO Steve Cakebread has been promoted to president and chief strategy officer, to co-ordinate global strategy with a focus on international expansion, the company said. Cakebread remains executive vice chairman of subsidiary Salesforce.com Japan.

Salesforce.com had announced the retirement of Cakebread, 55, just over a year ago in June 2006. Now, Cakebread is to stay in situ until Salesforce.com's first fiscal quarter of 2009, in spring 2008, when he'll hand over to new CFO Graham V Smith.

Chief executive Marc Benioff commended Cakebread's performance in helping grow Salesforce.com. "We are now asking Steve to use his vast industry and international experience to work with me and our team next year in developing our strategy."

Since Cakebread joined Benioff's start up in 2002, Salesforce.com has grown to a half-billion dollars in revenue. While Salesforce.com continues to notch up numbers of customers and subscribers, though, revenue growth has slowed compared to a year ago.

Increasingly, Salesforce.com is looking outside its core on-demand CRM, encouraging customers and partners to build applications and services on the underlying platform. ®