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New BFFs Salesforce and Google link arms, er, CRMs with G Suite
Silicon Valley bigwigs giggle to themselves, thumb their noses at Redmond
Salesforce.com and Google have agreed on a partnership deal that will see the former's CRM service integrated directly into G Suite's productivity apps.
The two sides say the deal will see Google Cloud take the mantle of "preferred public cloud" for Salesforce as well as the cloud provider for an international expansion the CRM SaaS developer is planning to make.
Additionally, the partnership will include integration of the Salesforce.com CRM service with Google's G Suite software and a free one-year G Suite subscription for Salesforce customers.
This means Salesforce customers who run G Suite will be able to access and share information from their Salesforce accounts in Google Calendar, Docs, Drive, Gmail, and Hangouts. A third part of the plan will tie Salesforce Sales and Marketing Cloud data fed into Google Analytics 360.
"Our partnership with Google represents the best of both worlds for our customers,” said skyscraper enthusiast and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Monday.
"There has never been an easier way for companies to run their entire business in the cloud—from productivity apps, email and analytics, to sales, service and marketing apps, this partnership will help make our customers smarter and more productive," he said.
The two sides say the integration of Salesforce data into Gmail, Calendar, and Drive has already begun, with other integrations planned to be released into the market next year. The analytics tie-up is also set to roll out early next year and will be offered as a free service.
The obvious foe for the newly-minted Salesforce-Google partnership will be Microsoft, which has been targeting both companies' respective services via its Azure, Dynamics, and Office 365 platforms.
By joining forces, Salesforce and Google will both have their own counters to Microsoft's key selling points – the ability to integrate all of its various cloud, CRM, and productivity products and use its sizable customer bases in all three markets to feed subscribers into the others. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
