Google and Salesforce.com team up to serve business

Salesforce.com and Google have announced they're linking up to offer Google Apps integrated with Salesforce.com's CRM applications.

The companies announced that Salesforce.com's customers now have the option of using versions of Calendar, Google Apps, Gmail and Google Talk that are tightly linked to Salesforce.com.

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An email response from a customer can be appended to the customer information stored within Salesforce.com, meaning all customer interaction can be accessed from a single place, for instance. That dynamic applies to Google Talk conversations and other applications, too.

The company already offers integration with Microsoft's Office and Outlook desktop applications. But this is the company's first foray into offering a more wide-ranging web-based application package, cutting the ties to desktop applications.

On the question of whether Salesforce will make similar tie-ups with Microsoft's Office Live, Kraig Swensrud, vice president of Applications at Salesforce.com, said: "Salesforce.com is open to working with a myriad of office applications. What made this possible is that Salesforce and Google...both deliver native web applications."

He added: "We're looking to [Idea Exchange] for what people want us to build. People voted for Google Apps." Swensrud expects a "huge" percentage of Salesforce.com's customer base will be interested in the new feature.

Likewise, Google hasn't ruled out working with other partners. Scott McMullan, of Google Apps partner, Google Enterprise, said: "We're committed to advancing the web as the platform and partners are key to our growth, whether it's a developer doing custom applications and gadgets, a company like Appirio making calendar sharing even easier, or Salesforce.com deeply integrating Google Apps into their CRM products."

Salesforce.com won't charge for the integration with Google Apps. Existing customers will get it for no additional charge. So far, 10 Salesforce.com customers have tested the integration in a beta test mode, said Swensrud.

The company, however, will offer a service called Salesforce for Google Apps Supported that will include telephone support for end users, unified billing and provisioning, and additional application programming interfaces for a fee of $10 per user, per month.

Original article: Google, Salesforce link up for business apps from CNET News.com