Salesforce.com mobile app developers gain security tools

Good Technology has integrated its Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform with Salesforce.com's Mobile SDK to help developers build mobile applications that are more secure and easily managed.

The growing popularity of smartphones and tablets combined with the BYOD (bring-your-own-device) trend presents several challenges to IT departments, including developing mobile applications and then efficiently managing and protecting them. Salesforce.com's Mobile SDK (software development kit) helps with the former and Good's Secure Mobility Platform offers the latter.

The goal with the integration is to make it easier for Salesforce.com developers to build apps compatible with Good's containerization technology, which offers features such as app-level encryption as well as compliance and jailbreak detection. Enterprises can also put in place data loss prevention and automated actions that lock and wipe applications without impacting a user's device or personal data, according to Good.

The Mobile SDK, which is available for Android and iOS, is a key part of Salesforce.com's accelerating mobile push. It lets developers choose between building applications directly for Apple and Google's OSes, web applications or so-called hydrid applications -- which make it possible to embed HTML5 apps inside a native container.

Recently, Salesforce.com announced version 2.0 of the SDK, which added the SmartSync data framework allowing developers to create applications that work with data both off and online.

Good isn't the only mobile management tool vendor that's working with Salesforce. On Tuesday, competitor MobileIron announced Anyware. The hosted enterprise mobility management service lets administrators distribute mobile apps to employees as well as manage their devices from the Salesforce administration console, MobileIron said.

Salesforce.com launches Sales Performance Accelerator

Salesforce.com is hoping customers will tap more pieces of its growing cloud software portfolio with a new product, Sales Performance Accelerator, that combines its CRM software with its Work.com performance management application as well as customer lead information from Data.com.

“We’re basically trying to make every sales rep an A-player,” with the combined package of applications, said Mark Woollen, vice president of product marketing, Sales Cloud.

Information from Salesforce.com’s Data.com service can help increase the amount of “pipeline,” or early-stage deals, salespeople have to work with, Woollen said.

Meanwhile, Work.com’s Facebook-like software environment gives managers a way to provide their sales teams with better coaching, leading to more consistent “win rates,” he said.

“One thing we find when we talk to sales organizations is that reps don’t know why they won or lost a particular deal,” said Nick Stein, senior director of marketing and communications.

While Salesforce.com customers were already able to purchase subscriptions for the three applications included in Sales Performance Accelerator, the points of integration have now been made much deeper, according to Stein and Woollen.

Salesforce.com is also offering a temporary break on pricing. For the next 90 days, Sales Performance Accelerator can be obtained for as little as $90 per user per month. Pricing will start at $110 per user per month after the promotional period.

Early users of Sales Performance Accelerator include Enterasys and CareerBuilder, according to Salesforce.com.

Beyond an attempt to generate more revenue through attractive bundling, Sales Performance Accelerator also represents a return of focus by Salesforce.com to its core sales force automation software business.
Led by CEO Marc Benioff, of late the company’s marketing efforts have focused on a theme of “customer companies,” with Salesforce.com positioned as a purveyor of tools that can help businesses make stronger connections with their partners and customers.


Salesforce.com has also been spending big on acquisitions in order to enter adjacent product areas, such as marketing. It recently paid $2.5 billion to acquire marketing software vendor ExactTarget, with Benioff saying that marketing could end up being a $1 billion annual business for Salesforce.com.