Whilst the irony is not lost on us that just last year Marc Benioff was calling
Microsoft ‘a disaster’, is it any wonder that we feel some scepticism over the recent announcement from Benioff and Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, of their intention to join forces in a strategic partnership?
How will this partnership benefit us?
Well for starters, better and more streamline integration, as they announce the following:
- New capability to connect data from Salesforce.com CRM into Microsoft’s Excel and Power BI for Office 365 software.
- The Salesforce1 platform will be available for Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 system, to enable people to run its software and Microsoft’s cloud based Office 365 software.
- The ability for Salesforce.com users to work with Office files inside of Salesforce.com
How will this partnership benefit them?
The deal seems to be a ‘win-win’ for both Salesforce.com and Microsoft, as it allows Microsoft quick access to Salesforce.com growing pool of SaaS customers. Plus, it enables Salesforce.com to work with legacy enterprise technology providers, such as their previous partnership with Oracle.
And, while it seems this is not a short stroll in the park, as they say general availability of their products will not be until 2015, tellingly, there was no mention of Microsoft Dynamics, which is a direct competitor of Salesforce.com Sales Cloud. So, it would seem the duelling pistols have been firmly holstered, for now at least, but could this be the prequel to an acquisition?