Salesforce.com (CRM) is not a very large company compared to Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), but it does have a presence is one of the fastest growing segments of the software market. The company provides application services that allow organizations to share customer information on demand. It also provides customer relationship management (CRM) service to businesses worldwide. The software is delivered through a standard Web browser. That model sounds very similar to the set-up that Google has to deliver e-mail, word processing, and spreadsheet software to its customers.
Google and Salesforce may be planning to try to gang up on Microsoft by delivering a package of CRM and other software for businesses in direct competition to the world’s largest software company’s own products in this market. As The Wall Street Journal writes" by teaming up, Google and Salesforce.com could be better equipped to contend with Microsoft." While that may be true, integrating the Salesforce CRM software with Google Apps, the term for all of the Google web-delivered software, could take time, effort, and a substantial expenditure. Microsoft already has integrated these products as part of Windows.
The new partnership may look good on paper, but mashing together product offerings and marketing them to sophisticated corporate customers is much easier said than done. And, Microsoft has a big head start
Douglas A. McIntyre
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