Salesforce.com and Google announce tie-up

Global - Salesforce.com and Google have announced a strategic global alliance aimed at allowing businesses to leverage on the internet for their business needs, jointly launching a product called Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords.

The product combines Salesforce on-demand CRM applications with the Google AdWords platform and is pitched at small and medium sized businesses - the product follows the customer lifecycle of advertising, creating leads, closing business and retaining customers.

"The Internet has completely changed the landscape for small and medium businesses and the alliance between Google and salesforce.com enables companies of all sizes to acquire new customers and streamline their business to experience success," Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com said.

"This is an online destination for businesses of all sizes to attract and acquire new customers, while closely tracking the return on their marketing dollars," Sheryl Sandberg, VP, global online sales and operations at Google said. "This alliance is about introducing new audiences to the benefits of online advertising, marketing and sales through the integration of two solutions to help small and medium businesses succeed in today's global marketplace."

As part of the alliance, salesforce.com now acts as an official distribution channel for the Google AdWords product. The alliance runs across 43 countries and encompasses distribution, technology and co-marketing efforts.