Microsoft and Salesforce strengthen partnership with upcoming app integration

Salesforce is a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and cloud solutions provider for business and enterprise customers. Salesforce also happens to be a company that Microsoft attempted a bid of $55 billion to acquire earlier this year. The multi-million dollar deal fell through due to some evaluation and negotiation shortcomings between the two businesses. However, that doesn’t mean a partnership between the two companies couldn’t blossom.
Just today, the two companies revealed their respective vision of a mobile sales force team’s future. The sleek new promotional features Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet as the mobile hub of information for the future sales person. Satya Nadella reiterated his excitement about a continued partnership with Salesforce, saying:

Furthering our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, is the motivating force behind our partnership with Salesforce

Back in May of last year, both Microsoft and Salesforce jointly announced that Salesforce would begin to integrate its CRM platform into Windows apps and today they are delivering on some of that promise. Here’s what today’s announcement will bring to the table for enterprise customers:

• A Salesforce App for Outlook 2013 and Office 365
• A Salesforce1 Mobile App for Microsoft Office

Also, the two companies committed to more integration that will be coming down the track in 2016:

Skype for Business Integration with Salesforce Lightning Experience:
Salesforce will integrate Skype for Business into its Lightning Experience, a modern and re-imagined Salesforce that combines an intelligent new user experience with proven best practices that enable people to work faster and smarter. Office 365 customers will be able to use Skype for Business to create Web meetings, determine if colleagues are online or not, click to chat and make voice and video calls from the Salesforce Lightning Experience. A preview is anticipated in the second half of 2016.
OneNote Integration with Salesforce Lightning Experience:
Users will be able to associate notes with Salesforce records, and view and edit notes directly in OneNote from the Salesforce Lightning Experience. Customers will have to wait until the second half of 2016 before using this feature
Salesforce Integration with Office Graph and Office Delve:
Enabled by the Office Graph, an open ecosystem for sharing, collaboration and discovery, Office 365 users will be able to view and discover Salesforce content in Office Delve. Viewable content includes items such as sales opportunities, customer accounts, and service cases. Once again this feature is scheduled for a release in the second half of 2016.
Salesforce1 Mobile App for Windows 10:
Salesforce will deliver a Windows 10 app to empower sales teams to move deals forward while on the go, using their favorite Windows device. As with all of these announcements, customers should expect this feature in the second half of 2016

Salesforce has chosen to use its ongoing conference, Dreamforce 2015, as its platform for today’s announcement. The recent collaborative nature of both Microsoft and Salesforce seems to be at odds with both companies prior history toward each other. However, regardless of past remarks or old strategic grudges, both Microsoft and Salesforce are finding that working together may net them a brighter future.