Salesforce.com to 'unlock' SAP's core software for 'social enterprises'

21.10.2011
Salesforce.com is rolling out a set of consulting and integration services aimed at SAP customers who want to build a "social enterprise" with Salesforce.com's Force.com platform.

"Our customers have spoken loud and clear," Salesforce.com said in a Thursday. "They want to transform the way they collaborate, communicate and share information with both customers and employees. They want to shift IT from being a cost center to a catalyst for innovation and a driver of business growth."

But these customers are challenged by SAP's back end, which "houses their most critical data but limits data accessibility," Salesforce.com claimed.

The new offerings will allow customers to integrate Force.com with their core SAP systems, allowing them to use data that's now "trapped" there in "custom social and mobile cloud apps," the company said.

Salesforce.com is offering companies a free, half-day evaluation to develop a plan for implementing Force.com. The vendor has also lined up data-integration vendors to work on the projects, including IBM and Informatica.

An SAP executive downplayed the significance of the announcement.