Open Web Developer News Desk
Google & Salesforce Clouds Collide Over Redmond
The Widely Rumored Mating of Salesforce.com and Google Apps Has Taken Place
Apr. 14, 2008 03:15 PM
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The
widely rumored mating of Salesforce.com and Google Apps has taken place.
There
is now something called Salesforce for Google Apps; Google’s productivity
programs have been integrated into Salesforce’s CRM suite – so data in one can
be moved into the other and vice versa – in hopes – or so it is said – of
creating a thunderhead that eventually rains all over Microsoft’s parade.
Salesforce
already includes Google Adwords in its applications under a deal cut last June
and the new deal has reignited talk about whether Google will buy Saleforce.
It
would cost better than $7 billion, more than the $3.2 billion Google paid for
DoubleClick.
Salesforce
for Google Apps, which includes separate packages of Salesforce widgetry with
Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Talk, also leverages Salesforce’s Force.com
platform-as-a-service and Google’s APIs.
That
should create more web apps and every web app is a poke in Microsoft’s eye. And
they can be sold via Salesforce’s AppExchange.
A so-called Google Calendar, offered as part of Salesforce
for Google Apps, was actually built by Appirio and is offered as an example of
possible partner extensions to Salesforce for Google Apps.
Salesforce for Google Apps is free but come summer
Salesforce will also be offering something called Salesforce for Google Apps
Supported, which includes integrated phone support, unified billing and
provisioning, enhanced platform APIs, additional third-party applications and
advanced Google Apps functionality for $10 a user a month, less than the $50 a
seat a year that Google charges for its premium kit.
The financial terms between Salesforce and Google were not
disclosed.
Salesforce.com, with sales now close to $750 million a year,
has about 41,000 customers or roughly a million seats in mostly small and
medium-sized businesses and the deal, which gives Salesforce something of a
better competitor against Microsoft’s upcoming hosted Dynamics CRM 4.0 – which
is integrated with Office – also gives Google a channel it didn’t have before.
Remember even Google admits its programs can’t touch Office.
About Maureen O'GaraMaureen O'Gara is the Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.