June 4th, 2007
The Salesforce/Google Killer App: Not Coming Any Time Soon
I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching the hype-fest around the Salesforce.com/Google “alliance”, trying to stifle a yawn at what I keep thinking will have to be a massively underwhelming deal once the truth is out. And I fully intended to to just sit tight and let others speculate ad nauseum, until it finally dawned on me how Salesforce.com and Google really could turn the enterprise software market on its head. The only problem is I don’t think Google Apps can actually do what I have in mind, and I don’t think Salesforce.com would know how to capitalize on it anyway.
Here’s my best case scenario: Google announces that Google Apps can be “programmed” to function as a sophisticated interface to Salesforce.com and its App Exchange partners, much like SAP’s Duet and Microsoft’s OBAs function as interfaces to SAP’s, and others, ERP systems. In this fantasy world a Google spreadsheet or document or, gasp, Gmail, could be a new interface to the on-demand world that Salesforce.com and its partners have created or hope to create.
It would be a pretty cool thing if the two companies could pull it off. Microsoft Office is becoming a major platform for new development in the ERP space, Duet is selling like hotcakes, and everyone else – Oracle, IBM, among others – is waking up to the fact that these familiar desktop environments are one of the best places in which to place new functionality for ERP users. At a minimum Office-the-ERP-interface guarantees that training costs stay low and user acceptance remain high.
I admit I’m not an expert at the ins and outs of Google Apps (I was washing my hair that week), but from what I have read from my fellow bloggers that there is no way that Google Apps can perform a Duet-like function for Salesforce.com. There is just too much missing, and that’s before you add Sharepoint and SQL Server to the mix. And I don’t know if Salesforce.com would know what to do with a Duet-equivalent: I think Salesforce.com would be scared that a good Office UI would expose the shortcomings of the native Salesforce.com UI, something Marc Benioff wouldn’t like anyone to dwell on.
So, I’m pretty confident that Salesforce.com and Google are going to lay an egg when they finally announce their deal, if only because their best chance for a real paradigm-shifting announcement is pretty much impossible. Better luck next time, guys.
Joshua Greenbaum's opinions on enterprise software have annoyed enough vendors that he now checks under the hood of his PC every morning before he boots up. For disclosures of Joshua's industry affiliations, click here.
