Salesforce.com Launches New Salesforce Platform Mobile Services to Accelerate Mobile App Development for Every Customer Company

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], the enterprise cloud computing company, today launched new Salesforce Platform Mobile Services, the latest in a series of innovations to empower customer companies to transform for the mobile era. Salesforce Platform Mobile Services extend the world's most trusted cloud platform to accelerate mobile app development, delivering new tools, programs and events for developers and partners to turn ideas into powerful mobile apps faster than ever. Now, companies can combine industry-leading tools and frameworks with real-time customer data to deliver engaging mobile experiences anywhere, on any device.

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Comments on the News

"With these new mobile services, CIOs can immediately accelerate every mobile app dev project in their backlog," said Mike Rosenbaum, EVP of Salesforce Platform, salesforce.com, "By combining the world's leading customer platform with the mobile tools and frameworks developers love, we have made it possible for CIOs and web developers to deliver the mobile apps their customers, partners and employees are screaming for."

"In just 12 weeks, Zimmer launched a custom iPad app to share the latest details on new surgical techniques and how Zimmer's medical devices function within the human body," said Don Lamping, Associate Director of Sales Operations, Zimmer. "Helping patients regain mobility is our top priority, and now surgeons can be supported by Zimmer's field reps and have instant access to all the information they need to make the best medical decisions possible for every patient, anywhere and anytime...even in the operating room. Leveraging the Salesforce Platform saved time and resources in the development process and transformed our relationships with doctors and patients."

"With a field team of thousands across 29 states, mobile apps delivered through the Salesforce Platform have been instrumental in helping us continually innovate and fine-tune our processes," said Dave Schwehm, VP of Community Solutions, Time Warner Cable. "We've empowered our mobile workers to do their jobs through iPads or smart phones, helping them work faster and more effectively. Having everything at their fingertips—wherever they are—helps Time Warner Cable connect with its customers in entirely new ways."

"Application development today is increasingly mobile-first, built with open source frameworks", said James Governor, Founding Analyst, RedMonk. "Salesforce.com is responding by packaging up popular mobile and web tooling to make it easier to extend its apps and rethink process interaction models."

The Platform for the Customer Revolution

The proliferation of mobile devices has redefined what it means for customers and employees to be connected, sparking new opportunities to access, create and interact with data. Consumers commonly book airline reservations, conduct bank transactions, connect with friends on social networks, monitor health and even pay for goods—from anywhere, on any device. And now employees expect a similar level of productivity and innovation from their business apps, all with seamless access to business data.

Companies have struggled to deliver mobile apps because they have been forced to make trade-offs between a killer experience, access to business data and development speed. To provide a great mobile experience, investments must be made in specialized developers who are well-versed in the latest tools and frameworks that deliver the performance, design and usability that users are accustomed to in today's most popular consumer apps. Often these apps are built using teams and technologies that cannot connect to relevant business data and don't deliver long-term business value. In contrast, enterprise developers looking to deliver apps that seamlessly tie in data from business systems have had to use legacy app development environments that are slow, cumbersome and can't provide the experience and engagement users want.

With the Salesforce Platform, there are no trade-offs. Companies can leverage the trusted, enterprise cloud platform that holds all of their business and customer data along with new developer services to deliver the engaging mobile apps users want, with the data that makes them valuable.

Mobile Developers Hit the Ground Running with New Mobile Services

New Salesforce Platform Mobile Services extend the world's most trusted cloud platform to provide customer companies with the fastest path from ideas to mobile apps. Now, enterprise developers have the tools, programs and events designed to jumpstart app development and deliver engaging, connected mobile experiences in days or weeks, not months or years.

New Salesforce Platform Mobile Services include:

• Salesforce Mobile SDK 2.0—The open source project will make it easier than ever for any enterprise developer to securely connect enterprise data to any mobile app—native, hybrid or HTML5—on any iOS or Android device. The SDK will also enable HTML5-based apps to leverage device features like the camera and geolocation, and provides additional libraries for key enterprise requirements such as authentication and secure offline storage.
• Developer Mobile Packs—These open source "quick start" packs enable any web developer to build highly responsive HTML5 or hybrid mobile apps on any platform and access real-time Salesforce data. Mobile Packs leverage the massively scalable and trusted Salesforce Platform REST APIs through a choice of popular, lightweight JavaScript frameworks—AngularJS, Backbone.js and jQuery Mobile—to offer greater development flexibility and deliver amazing data-centric mobile experiences.

New Partner Accelerator Program and Global Mobile Developer Week:

• Salesforce Mobile Accelerator Program—This new program for consulting and deployment providers is launching with leading Salesforce system integrators like Accenture, Aditi Technologies, Appirio, Bluewolf, Capgemini, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Detroit Labs and Tquila. The program will provide training and best practices on reference architectures, mobile architect curriculum and consultant certification.
• Salesforce Mobile Developer Week—Salesforce.com's global developer community will host developer events across 39 cities worldwide during the week of April 21 to inspire developers to build the next generation of mobile apps. Developers will get hands-on with the new Salesforce Platform Mobile Services, engage with leading mobile experts and connect with their peers.

Leverage Real-time Customer Data to Deliver New Mobile Experiences

Salesforce Platform delivers the only enterprise cloud platform that combines industry-leading tools and frameworks with real-time customer data to deliver rich, engaging mobile experiences. Before, a medical device sales rep would travel with the latest paper-based product catalog and devices to show how products work. Today, they have an interactive tablet app that can be personalized based on each patient's condition and procedure. Previously, field technicians would arrive at a job site to diagnose a problem. Now, they can monitor equipment in real-time from anywhere, and preventatively flag any issues immediately. And companies used to resort to impersonal "spray and pray" marketing techniques. But today, they can instantly deliver product offers to customers as they are walking toward their storefronts, using geolocation and customer preference data. With Salesforce Platform Mobile Services, enterprise developers can couple the native functionality of any mobile device with customized customer data to build enterprise apps that are as productive and engaging as consumer apps.

Salesforce Platform: The Cloud Platform of Choice for Customer Companies

Salesforce Platform is the world's most trusted cloud platform for building enterprise apps. It powers Salesforce CRM, 1,700 partner-built apps on the AppExchange, and more than three million custom apps built by customers. More than one million developers and business analysts use Salesforce Platform to quickly build and deliver apps on any device. Offering the same services, frameworks and ecosystem that are driving the explosion of consumer apps, Salesforce Platform is bringing the app revolution to business and helping customer companies connect to customers, employees, partners and products in new ways.

Pricing & Availability

• Developer Mobile Packs are available today: www.developerforce.com/mobile/services/mobile-packs
• Salesforce Mobile SDK 2.0 will be available in June via GitHub: www.github.com/forcedotcom  

Additional Information

• Start building mobile apps today with Salesforce Platform Mobile Services: www.developerforce.com/mobile
• Learn more about Salesforce Platform: www.salesforce.com/platform/overview
• For more information on Salesforce Mobile Developer Week, and to find the event nearest you, please visit: www.developerforce.com/mobile/developer-week
• Like Developer Force on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forcedotcom
• Follow @forcedotcom and @salesforce on Twitter

About Salesforce.com

Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Salesforce.com's social and mobile cloud technologies enable companies to transform into customer companies by connecting with their customers, employees, partners and products in entirely new ways. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's apps and platform revolutionize the way companies sell, service, market and innovate.

• Grow your business with the #1 sales app, Salesforce Sales Cloud
• Deliver amazing customer service with the #1 service app, Salesforce Service Cloud
• Listen, engage, advertise and measure social marketing with the #1 social marketing app, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
• Build and deliver social and mobile apps with the Salesforce Platform, and extend success with the world's leading enterprise app marketplace, the AppExchange

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE

© 2013 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, AppExchange, Salesforce Platform, and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other brands featured herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com