Salesforce and Microsoft are close competitors in terms of offering cloud-based CRM solutions and applications. In fact, the competing brands have seen each other in court due to patent infringement allegations. However, the two companies seem to be putting differences aside and are collaborating to integrate their solutions into each other's products.
Last year, it was reported that both companies collaborated to integrate Salesforce applications into Microsoft Office, resulting in the Salesforce App for Outlook and a mobile Salesforce app that works with Microsoft Office.
In May 2015, the collaboration was strengthened when an integration partnership was agreed upon. The latest announcement, made last Sept. 16, is an extension of the said agreement. The extended strategic collaboration aims for better user productivity by linking the Salesforce Customer Success Platform to Microsoft Office services and applications.
"Customer success is at the heart of everything we do at Salesforce, including our partnership with Microsoft," commented Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff. "Our collaboration has been so successful, now we're doubling down and delivering even more innovation that will help our mutual customers be more productive and connect with their customers in a whole new way."
With the extension of the partnership, Skype for Business will be integrated into Salesforce Lightning Experience, a revamped and modern version of Salesforce that combines a new interface with established best practices to facilitate faster and smarter productivity. Through the coming integration, making voice calls and video calls will be possible from the Salesforce Lightning Experience while users of Office 365 can create web meetings and check on colleagues whether they are online or offline.
"As a platform and productivity company, we are focused on bringing together the best of Microsoft Azure, Office and Windows with partners like Salesforce to empower our mutual customers to network, collaborate, communicate and discover information in more effective ways," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Aside from Skype, OneNote, Office Graph and Office Delve will also be integrated into the Salesforce Lightning Experience. If the planned integrations push through, records on OneNote can then be associated with that of Salesforce. Notes from OneNote can also be viewed and edited directly from Salesforce. Furthermore, Office 365 users can view Salesforce content through Office Delve, facilitated by Office Graph.
In line with the planned integrations, Salesforce is also developing an app for Windows 10, allowing users to be productive even when on the go.
However, it won't be until the second quarter of 2016 before previews of the planned integrations and mobile app become available.
Photo: Flazingo Photos | Flickr
