Look out for Salesforce

Salesforce.com has introduced its Microsoft Outlook e-mail integration solution. The offering is said to provide the flexibility to communicate with customers using either application without concern that vital information will be trapped in desktop silos.

Salesforce.com says the solution builds on its on-demand platform to tightly couple Outlook with its CRM service, without Exchange server integration. Instead, the solution is said to use real-time data lookups via salesforce.com's XML API to deliver immediate benefit without additional cost. Reportedly, sales and customer service personnel can easily send and receive e-mail messages through Outlook and log relevant messages in salesforce.com through familiar Outlook controls to ensure a 360-degree customer view.

Users can associate inbound and outbound e-mails with the appropriate lead or contact in salesforce.com, the company claims. Because it provides users with the flexibility to decide which e-mails to log in salesforce.com, the offering reduces e-mail clutter while ensuring that complete information on all deals and every customer service issue is captured and transparent to team members and management. By eliminating double entry in favor of full information capture, salesforce.com's Outlook integration solution increases productivity, as well as effectiveness of sales, according to salesforce.com.