Microsoft and Salesforce.com have been fiercely competing with each other for years over their respective products -- primarily Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce1 -- for the customer relationship management market.
The rivalry has been peppered with lawsuits, insults, aggressive ad campaigns and a resistance to cooperation that primarily hurt the users of their products, who were stymied by the poor integration between the competing cloud applications. Some customers found that writing their own software was easier than trying to integrate different clouds.
But the clouds have cleared and both companies have seen the light. Microsoft and Salesforce.com announced May 29 they have formed a strategic partnership to better integrate their products to provide mutual customers with a more satisfying and productive experience. It is hoped each company's strengths -- Microsoft Office and Windows, and Salesforce.com's CRM apps -- when more closely integrated will grow both companies' revenues.
The announcement was made by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.
"We are excited to partner with salesforce.com and help customers thrive in a mobile and cloud-first world. Working together, we'll deliver new solutions that connect the customer insights of Salesforce to the cloud productivity of Office 365, cloud platform and the mobility of Windows, so our customers can do more," said Nadella.
Salesforce.com's Benioff added, "Today is about putting the customer first. Together with Microsoft, we are building bridges that allow customers to be more productive."
The partnership will connect Salesforce.com's CRM applications and platform to Microsoft Office and Windows.
The solutions offered within the agreement include Salesforce for Windows and Windows Phone 8.1, which will enable customers to access Salesforce and run their business from Windows devices. The introduction of Salesforce for Office 365 will provide interoperability that will give customers access to the content they need to collaborate, sell, service and market from virtually anywhere.
In Salesforce for Office, improved functionality and integration includes the ability to access, share, edit and collaborate on Office content from within Salesforce and on Salesforce1 using Office Mobile, Office for iPad and Office 365; access to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online as integrated storage options for Salesforce; the ability to use Salesforce and Outlook together with a new Salesforce App for Outlook; and to connect Salesforce data to Excel and Power BI for Office 365 to visualize information and find new insights.
The Salesforce1 App for Windows/Windows Phone 8.1 will be previewed this fall, and brought to market in 2015.
