Google joins with Salesforce to mix online, offline customer analytics
Google also becomes a preferred Salesforce infrastructure partner
Google’s enterprise momentum is building, as Google and Salesforce have combined online and offline analytics, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology‘s sister publication).
Google also becomes a preferred Salesforce infrastructure partner – but not the preferred infrastructure partner, a Salesforce executive noted carefully.
The analytics collaboration will allow enterprises to aggregate analytics for both online and offline customer interactions, according to company executives at a press conference.
“The number one ask that I get is to combine our online and offline data together and map the customer journey,” says Paul Muret, Google’s VP of display, video and analytics.
Enterprises will be able to gain insights about customer interactions with salespeople, email, website visits, ads and Google searches, the companies say.
In addition to offering each others’ services to customers, Google will continue to use Salesforce as its preferred internal CRM provider to connect with cloud customers, and Salesforce will use G Suite as its preferred email and productivity provider for its own use.
Salesforce isn’t kicking Amazon Web Services (AWS) to the curb. Salesforce now has “multiple best friends,” as one analyst said during Q&A at a press conference announcing the Google-Salesforce partnership . And Heroku, Salesforce’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), will continue to run on AWS.
Google Cloud will be a preferred public cloud provider for international Salesforce customers, while AWS will be an infrastructure partner for Canada and Australia, Salesforce says.
In addition to infrastructure, Google and Salesforce are integrating G Suite with Salesforce. Eligible Salesforce customers that are new to G Suite will be able to use the Google productivity platform for free for up to a year.
Salesforce has an existing partnership with Microsoft on Office 365 integration, but the Google partnership goes deeper, Ryan Aytay, EVP for business development and strategic accounts, states. For example, users will be able to surface Salesforce information during Google Hangouts sessions.
Microsoft is increasingly competing with Salesforce, as Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 CRM about a year ago. At the same time, Salesforce introduced integration with Google Gmail and Google Sheets.
Salesforce opposed Microsoft’s LinkedIn acquisition last year, saying the LinkedIn data would give Microsoft an unfair competitive advantage.
Microsoft is dominating the global software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, according to a March analyst report.
At its Dreamforce conference this week, the company is focused on showing off its artificial intelligence (AI) technology to demonstrate how even non-technical users can get more value from customer insights.
