11/10/2003

iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, granted salesforce.com, the “software-as-service” company, the exclusive right to market Mobile Sales for salesforce.com.

Developed by iAnywhere as a customized version of its Mobile Sales solution, this service “leverages salesforce.com's software-as-service model to lower the cost and technology barriers of sales force automation (SFA) deployment,” salesforce.com says. “The service enhances salesforce.com's existing mobile and wireless solutions, providing both wireless and "sync and go" access to key salesforce.com customer information from PDAs and smartphones.”

"Mobile Sales for salesforce.com has significantly improved my productivity. Now, I can access important customer information during a meeting, without waiting for my laptop to boot up," said Doug Maxwell, marketing representative at Olan Mills Portrait Studios. "In addition, the interface is designed so I can find the information I need very quickly, enabling me to answer customer questions more effectively."

"Through a partnership established with iAnywhere in early 2003, we've been able to fulfill customer demand for always available access to key customer information from the convenience of a handheld device," said Roger Goulart, vice president of global alliances at salesforce.com. "This agreement helps round out our mobile solution portfolio and enables us to meet the needs of our mobile customers very quickly with a proven solution."

"Salesforce.com is recognized as a pioneer in software-as-service CRM, making it the ideal partner to deliver this service to its mobile customers," said Brian Vink, vice president of marketing at iAnywhere Solutions. "Leveraging our technology, salesforce.com can now provide its base of more than 110,000 subscribers with convenient access to customer information that's always available from handheld devices, resulting in improved productivity and customer service."

Using Mobile Sales for salesforce.com, sales reps can read, modify and create key salesforce.com accounts, contacts, opportunities and activities using Pocket PC and Palm OS-based PDAs and smartphones, salesforce says. “Information updates are delivered via periodic synchronization of the handheld with the desktop or over a wireless connection. This "always available" model delivers business critical information using offline, wired, public wireless or Wi-Fi access, ensuring that mobile sales professionals can be productive anytime, anywhere. By utilizing the solution in a hosted environment, businesses can avoid the substantial cost, resource, and time investments associated with implementing or upgrading legacy client/server CRM software.”