Salesforce has long been the poster child for "business use of SaaS" or, as we now call it, "business use of the cloud". Google is known for being "born on the web" which they have, through their massive consumer presence, introduced into businesses using Google Apps for Business.
And in the past Google and Salesforce have been, at a company level, very happy partners ...
Which fits with my experience that all organisations of size (more than 50) that are moving to the cloud will have one, or more likely, both companies products being used - Salesforce is almost the de facto cloud CRM and Gmail is very quickly becoming the business choice for email.
The number 1 talking point for those that already have Salesforce and look to move to the Gmail is the interface between the both.
These people almost exclusively are looking to move away from Microsoft Outlook, in fact I have yet to meet anyone using any other email client. They are passionate about using Gmail, they can see the benefits of Gmail and their staff want to move to Gmail.
Salesforce provide a feature rich and "works in the background" intgegration tool for Microsoft Outlook:
Nice, but Salesforce has a Gmail equivalent of it's Outlook toolbar, no:
Unfortunately it never seems to cut the mustard (read the comments on Salesforce's Google Apps Marketplace entry) and it's certainly not something I've heard of being utilised with 100% success for those moving off Outlook. There are, of course, some highly competent third-party vendors current filling the gap.
But surely (SURELY!) the fine developers at Salesforce can get in their cars and drive the 50 minutes down the road to Google and spend a happy day hacking an official integration service.
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Please ... it would make EVERYONE'S life so much easier.
[I currently work with the Google side of Cloud Sherpas which recently merged with a Salesforce focused organisation]
And in the past Google and Salesforce have been, at a company level, very happy partners ...
Which fits with my experience that all organisations of size (more than 50) that are moving to the cloud will have one, or more likely, both companies products being used - Salesforce is almost the de facto cloud CRM and Gmail is very quickly becoming the business choice for email.
The number 1 talking point for those that already have Salesforce and look to move to the Gmail is the interface between the both.
These people almost exclusively are looking to move away from Microsoft Outlook, in fact I have yet to meet anyone using any other email client. They are passionate about using Gmail, they can see the benefits of Gmail and their staff want to move to Gmail.
Salesforce provide a feature rich and "works in the background" intgegration tool for Microsoft Outlook:
Salesforce for Outlook is a Microsoft® Outlook® integration application that lets you log emails in Salesforce. You can also sync contacts, events, and tasks between Outlook and Salesforce.
[more: http://login.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/outlookcrm_sfo_about.htm]
Nice, but Salesforce has a Gmail equivalent of it's Outlook toolbar, no:
Work with the email applications you already use every day. Whether your company uses Microsoft Outlook or Gmail, no one needs to change the way they work, so everyone stays productive.Seemingly they do and they even give instructions on how to:
Gmail to Salesforce will automatically store emails and chats you send from your Gmail account in Salesforce CRM and link the communication to the right contact, lead or opportunity as an activity record.
[more: http://www.salesforce.com/smallbusinesscenter/faq/email.jsp]
Unfortunately it never seems to cut the mustard (read the comments on Salesforce's Google Apps Marketplace entry) and it's certainly not something I've heard of being utilised with 100% success for those moving off Outlook. There are, of course, some highly competent third-party vendors current filling the gap.
But surely (SURELY!) the fine developers at Salesforce can get in their cars and drive the 50 minutes down the road to Google and spend a happy day hacking an official integration service.
View Larger Map
Please ... it would make EVERYONE'S life so much easier.
[I currently work with the Google side of Cloud Sherpas which recently merged with a Salesforce focused organisation]
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