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Salesforce.com used to meet residents' needs with recovery operations in New Orleans

| 03.13.2008 | 13:30:1158533 |
March 13 '08: In New Orleans, one community almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina is rebuilding by utilizing a needs-based approach through an online database originally used for sales, NPR reported. The website, Salesforce.com is an online leader in software as a service, customer relationship management and business application delivery services, but because it can pair needs to capabilities, Broadmoor neighborhood resident Hal Rourk has turned it into a recovery tool.
NPR reported that the conversion of the Salesforce.com website was done by "Roark and his army of college interns" who were able to "repurpose it so he can catalog the needs of Boradmoor's 2,400 homes and the 7,000 residents who lived their before Katrina."

Roark told public radio, "We put donors directly in touch with the residents. They literally work on their homes, they literally meet the residents and they literally sit and learn their story in the FEMA trailer." Roark said he wanted to be "the cavalry that you want to see coming over the hill."

Using Salesforce.com, Roark and his community can post what their needs are and have that leveraged against the capabilities of potential community stakeholders, private donors and other volunteer organizations making the recovery much more targeted and tailored to fit the specific situation.

National Blueprint Tags: Citizen & Community.