Salesforce.com is joining forces with Dun & Bradstreet on Data.com, a cloud-based storehouse of company and customer contact information for use in CRM (customer relationship management) systems, the companies said Wednesday.
Data.com builds on Salesforce.com's earlier acquisition of contact provider Jigsaw in 2009. Jigsaw uses a crowd-sourcing model to collect up-to-date information, with users of the service contributing data and helping keep records clean of errors.
Accurate contact information is crucial to the salespeople and sales managers that use CRM software as they attempt to secure new business leads as well as reconnect with past customers.
The Dun & Bradstreet partnership will provide Data.com users with access to 200 million businesses, according to a statement. That information will "seamlessly integrate" with the Jigsaw contact data and be accessible from within Salesforce.com's on-demand CRM application.
Data.com users will also be able to slice-and-dice data to target specific markets, making for more effective sales campaigns, Salesforce.com said.
The Dun & Bradstreet information will be available later this year. No pricing information was disclosed on Wednesday.
This is only the first in a series of similar partnerships to come, according to Salesforce.com. Other contact-information providers include ZoomInfo, Hoover's and Spoke.
Data.com ties into Salesforce.com's broader strategy of late, "the social enterprise," which is based on the notion of products and services companies can use to build closer relationships with their customers as well as help internal teams work more effectively. Salesforce.com had already integrated Jigsaw with Chatter, its social collaboration platform, allowing users to see changes to contact data in real time.
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is expected to discuss the company's strategy further during a keynote address Wednesday at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
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