I've seen this asked and answered a few times, but I'm still confused.  

I'm trying to weigh pricing options for a couple of proposed applications.  The various programs and options are either unclear or I'm simply not looking in the right place.

We are considering two applications.

One is a comprehensive back-office solution for running a particular kind of small business.  It could use some of Salesforce CRM as a backbone, but I don't know that there is a cost benefit to doing so.  I understand that if a user is an Enterprise Salesforce subscriber (or Unlimited) then we could deploy our application as a custom app that we sell for an additional cost (on top of $125/$250).  If it didn't use Salesforce CRM, we would end up duplicating some functionality which is already available in that application.  But even so, the cost of the Enterprise edition is so steep that I don't think there's much meat left on that bone for us.

I'm looking at this:  http://www.salesforce.com/partners/isv/program-models/

It looks like if we went the route of deploying a custom app to SF customers, then each user would need to pay a minimum of $125 per month, PLUS whatever we charged for our custom app.  And, we would fit under the ISVForce partner model, and therefore would give up 15% of our net.  Not sure how net is calculated.  Gross minus what?  But, let's say we net $50 per subscriber.  That means each subscriber would need to pay $175 ($125+$50), of which we would see $42.50 (or less)?  Is this right?  (Not sure how this factors into it:  http://www.force.com/export/sites/force/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_Forcedotcom_EdCompare.pdf)

If so, I suppose this is fair enough since Salesforce deserves most of the revenue in that particular scenario.

But, suppose we decide to go a completely custom route, and don't require our users to use Salesforce CRM at all.  This looks more like the Force.com embedded model, yes?  So, now our customers aren't paying for Salesforce CRM, but we pay 25% of our net revenue.  Still not sure how net revenue is calculated, but suppose we charge $100 for our custom application.  Is it as simple as this:  Force.com gets $25 and we get $75?  I don't think so, because if we sold that same system for $1, then Force.com would be losing money.  If it is that simple, I think the value proposition is fair.

The other application deals in much smaller revenue numbers and doesn't have anything to do with CRM.  The price point is somewhere in the $10-$15 per subscriber/month range.  If I look at this pricing http://www.force.com/export/sites/force/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_Forcedotcom_EdCompare.pdf, then there is no way we can do this.  But, if we are just looking at giving up 25% of $10-$15, then I think we've got a winner.

So, I think the center of my confusion comes down to:

• What is the relationship between the pricing shown here http://www.force.com/export/sites/force/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_Forcedotcom_EdCompare.pdf and the models shown here http://www.salesforce.com/partners/isv/program-models/
• How is % net revenue calculated?
• Are ISVForce partners able to resell Salesforce CRM.  That is, could we present SF plus our custom app as a single integrated solution to customers who were not previously SF users?  If so, what kind of price break to we get on Salesforce pricing?
• Why are the various partner/developer models and their pricing not clearly explained in one place?  Or, are they and I'm just missing it or not clever enough to understand it?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

-Brent