Salesforce.com has acquired InStranet, a provider of knowledge management technology for business to consumer (B2C) call centers. The amount of the deal was approximately $31.5 million, which includes the assumption of $4.2 million in cash on Instranet's balance sheet.

InStranet adds the customer's context, such as product or geography, to the knowledgebase to facilitate honing in on the right solution and eliminating irrelevant search results. In addition, because of the technology's open architecture, it provides rapid time to value, the companies claim, with deployments taking place in weeks as opposed to months. Salesforce.com is adding this technology innovation as a key component to Salesforce CRM Customer Service & Support, enhancing its Call Center and Customer Portal applications in use today by customers worldwide.