Salesforce.com - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• How PostgreSQL just might replace your Oracle database

  Although heavily dependent on Oracle today, Salesforce seems to be seeking database freedom—and its efforts could result in the same freedom for all enterprises

• Salesforce boosts Quip’s team collaboration cred with LiveApps integration

  The move enables users to embed third-applications directly into Quip documents and spreadsheets. Analysts say the company sees documents as team workspaces for collaboration.

• Freshly-funded Message.io buddies up with Microsoft on chatbots

  Starting from behind the likes of Slack and HipChat with its new workplace collaboration Teams service, Microsoft can use all the help it can get. Startup Message.io is among those coming to its aid.

• Hot job alert: Become a Salesforce coder

  Making the switch to Salesforce’s ecosystem can prove lucrative for biz-savvy programmers

• Salesforce Aura ventures into open source -- to a point

  Salesforce's Aura framework for designing business apps is open source, but you'll have to pay for its drag-and-drop design tools

• What does the future hold for Microsoft Dynamics?

  Alongside the news that the Microsoft teams that make devices like Surface and Surface Hub will now be in the same division that makes the operating system on which they run, Microsoft's latest reorg moves Dynamics to the Cloud & Enterprise group (Microsoft Dynamics is the company's line of ERP and CRM applications). That shifts it from the Applications & Services division that builds productivity products and cloud services like Office 365, and puts it alongside Azure, SQL Server, Intune, Power BI, Visual Studio and BizTalk.

• Boost your security training with gamification -- really!

  Getting employees to take security seriously can be a game that everyone wins.

• Salesforce at 15: Industry disruptor wards off midlife crisis

  Salesforce.com recently celebrated its 15th year in existence, and as the SaaS (software-as-a-service) vendor races toward US$5 billion in revenue its influence on the industry is being felt more than ever. At the same time, some signs indicate that Salesforce.com is having a few growing pains, as well as showing some trappings of the mega-vendors it once mocked with its "End of Software" marketing campaign.

• Eight eye-openers from Salesforce.com's annual report

  Last week, Salesforce.com reported its fourth-quarter and year-end fiscal 2014 results, announcing a major bump in revenue and even raising its guidance significantly. But the fast-growing cloud vendor is also continuing to post significant losses as it spends big on sales, marketing and acquisitions.

• Enterprise apps in 2014: What's in store

  If recent history is any indication, 2014 will be a busy year for the enterprise applications industry as vendors jockey for position and customers ponder moves from legacy ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) implementations to cloud-based services. Here's a look at what some of the sector's main players are likely to do as the year unfolds.

• Oracle's Q2: What to expect

  Oracle is gearing up to report its second-quarter earnings Wednesday and given the restrained expectations CFO Sandra Katz earlier set for key areas such as software revenue, Oracle's results are sure to come under even more scrutiny than the tech bellwether already gets.

• The year in tech quotes

  With 2013 coming to an end, we took our annual look back at quotes from news stories over the last 12 months. Here are a handful that stuck with us through the year:

• Salesforce.com's Dreamforce: What to expect

  Salesforce.com is gearing up for its annual Dreamforce conference, which is set to be the biggest yet, with 120,000 people expected to register.

• Salesforce.com's Benioff lays out future strategies

  Salesforce.com's second-quarter earnings conference call featured the usual dose of chest-thumping by CEO Marc Benioff as the company posted US$957 million in revenue and raised its full fiscal year forecast to at least $4 billion.

• Oracle joins rivals to advance cloud computing

  Ending a bitter feud, Oracle has entered into a cloud-centric deal with Salesforce.com, and it has reached similar agreements with Microsoft and NetSuite.