Google and Salesforce.com have teamed up to let businesses run their business in the cloud using both Google Apps and the Web-based customer relationship management tool, the companies said.
The idea is that businesses can communicate and collaborate without needing to download, install or maintain software and hardware. The functionality of Salesforce’s CRM is extended to the components of Google Apps: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Talk, and Google Calendar.
Furthermore, the partnership opens development opportunities with Google’s open APIs and Salesforce’s Force.com Platform, a platform-as-a-service for building business applications without using software.
The partnership will provide the means to businesses looking to manage their entire office in the cloud, said marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. “The combination of our leading CRM applications and Google’s business productivity applications pushes forward the transformation of the industry to cloud computing. The end of software is here,” said Benioff.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google echoed this by saying both companies share models and philosophies around delivering innovations made possible by the Web. “Together, we are making more applications and services available online so customers can focus on building their core business rather than the applications that support it,” said Schmidt.
