Salesforce.com is moving quickly to enhance the new mobile application it unveiled at November's Dreamforce conference, with some 30 new features aimed at helping customers work through complex business processes in a single environment on their phone or tablet.
Some of the updates simply tie the mobile application deeper into Salesforce.com's CRM (customer-relationship-management) software, such as the ability to directly access reports and dashboards. The application also supports offline data access, giving salespeople a way to work when there's no Internet connection available.
Salesforce1 Mobile also has been integrated with Salesforce.com's Service Cloud software, said Michael Peachey, senior director of mobile products. That means a customer support representative can access knowledge bases and respond to customer inquiries by email or social channels, he said.
In addition, Salesforce.com's Marketing Cloud has been more closely aligned with the mobile application, as marketers will be able to view data such as customer contacts and marketing collateral through it, according to a statement.
Another key component of Salesforce1 Mobile are partner applications. Partners can create a custom view of their software that runs inside Salesforce1 Mobile, or create custom actions that can be part of a multi-process workflow, Peachey said. More than 65 partners have taken part so far, according to a statement.
The mobile app already supported Apple iOS and Android devices, but the update introduces support for the Windows 8, BlackBerry Z10 and Good Access Secure mobile browsers. It also will deliver notifications to Samsung wearables, which is "just the first step" in that direction, Peachey said.
Salesforce1 Mobile is provided to subscribers at no additional charge and will be rolled out as part of Salesforce.com's Summer '14 release, which is set for later this year.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
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