Dive Brief:
- On Thursday, Salesforce.com Inc. announced the release of SalesforceIQ Inbox for Outlook, an application that will expand the company’s integration with Microsoft's email service.
- The new application is designed to help sales representatives streamline tasks and will allow them to work directly from within Outlook on their desktop computers, automating some steps during interaction with customers.
- The new app uses predicative, machine-learning technology Salesforce gained after acquiring RelateIQ in 2014.
Dive Insight:
Once rivals, Salesforce and Microsoft have enjoyed an increasingly harmonious relationship over the last few years. Since Microsoft has the most popular enterprise cloud email service, Salesforce's new application could potentially reach more customers than if it worked with another provider.
SalesforceIQ Inbox for Outlook uses technology that helps erase manual steps.
"There are all these data sources that sales reps are trying to access -- they’re drowning in the information," Steve Loughlin, chief executive officer of the SalesforceIQ unit said, according to Bloomberg. "This is a way to pull it all together into a single place and deliver it where they are working."
During the past year, Salesforce raised its revenue forecast several times as companies continue to lean toward cheaper cloud software services, foregoing the more traditional CRMs from companies like Oracle and SAP.
