It turns out that Microsoft and Salesforce were serious when the two firms detailed a plan to integrate their products earlier this year. Today at the Dreamforce conference, the companies announced that a Salesforce1 app for Windows Phone will be released the second half of 2015, that Office will see integration with the Salesforce suite, and that OneDrive will also garner a connection to the CRM company’s products next year.
The promised integration between the two companies was a surprise. Salesforce was famously early to the software-as-a-service model, while Microsoft was not. The two companies have hardly been harmonious in their interactions with one another.
But when it comes to more top line, the two firms appear ready to set aside their previous acrimony and drill into the existing customer base of the others. Microsoft will get a chance to offer easier-to-use products to Salesforce users, who might not be that aligned with the Redmond universe, and Salesforce will be able to better sell its SaaS product into the more conservative, enterprise channels that Microsoft currently controls.
Specifically, in the first half of 2015, Salesforce will integrate into Office, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business on Android and iOS. Also in the first two quarters of the new year, a Salesforce app for Outlook will ship.
After that, in the second half of 2015, a Salesforce1 app for Windows Phone will touch down along with a Salesforce app for Excel.
Taken as a whole, Salesforce will extend itself into nearly every nook and cranny of the larger Microsoft platform, bringing the rival products together into something approaching functional harmony. How well the work to bring the two product galaxies into cohesion will bear out remains to be seen.
Top Image Credit: Marc Benioff
