Salesforce.com, a customer relationship management, or “CRM,” software provider, is a dominant force in the telecom industry. And, being such a leading company in the telecom, and specifically CRM industry, Salesforce.com (News - Alert) partners and collaborates with many other software companies to expand the company’s portfolio.
After recently selecting inContact for the company’s partner program, and launching the non-profit foundation for services in India, Salesforce.com seemed to be doing everything it could to keep its professional relationships as diverse as possible. And, the company’s recent announcement of Ribbit’s (News - Alert) latest version of its software for Salesforce CRM only solidified this professional tactic.
Ribbit will showcase the new Salesforce CRM compatible software at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce Global Gathering Event 2009.
“Salesforce.com customers actively look for opportunities to broaden the tools they provide to salespeople to improve collaboration between the field and the office to win more business,” Kendall Collins, chief marketing officer, Salesforce.com, said. “With Salesforce.com and partners like Ribbit on the AppExchange, companies have enterprise-ready options for empowering the field sales team. The proliferation of mobile devices as a sales tool is an example of how cloud computing enables companies to adapt communication models to maximize sales efficiency.”
Built using the Force.com platform, the new version of Ribbit for Salesforce CRM will be available for a free test drive and deployment following the Dreamforce launch on the AppExchange.
Using the same cloud computing principles as salesforce.com, Ribbit is providing the first service that enables mobile professionals to unify the communication and CRM tools they are already using, and dramatically improve productivity, company officials said. Additionally, Salesforce.com customers voted Ribbit as the “Best Mobile App” in 2008.
Ribbit allows users to keep the same phone number, CRM system and email account, and now offers new SMS functionality, stronger voice-to-text features and deep integration for mobile access to Salesforce.com. Additionally, the software features the “find me, follow me” technology and an upgraded user and administrative interface. Ribbit is the first service that enables CRM customers to easily program how voice and SMS interact with their Salesforce CRM workflow.
Through Ribbit's SMS integration, users can now send personal or automated text messages from Salesforce CRM, respond to voicemails with SMS messages or create SMS reminders for events and tasks in Salesforce CRM. Ribbit also sends users SMS notifications for new voice messages, including the voice-to-text conversion.
“Customers have been asking us how to take the next step in tying mobile communications to Salesforce CRM, especially around SMS and dictating information into CRM,” Greg Goldfarb, vice president and general manager of enterprise applications at Ribbit, said. “Ribbit's extensible platform has enabled us to quickly integrate new capabilities that are instantly accessible without any new software or hardware. We've gone a significant step further in blending mobility and CRM and as a result, salespeople are now able to spend less time on tedious tasks, and sell more.”
Offered in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Ribbit offers free enterprise pilots and pricing starts at $15 per user per month, with no additional set-up fees.
Kelly McGuire is a TMCnet Web editor, covering CRM and workforce technologies, and anchor of its daily TMC Newsroom video broadcast. Kelly also writes about eco-friendly "green" technologies and smart grids, compiling TMCnet's weekly e-Newsletters on those topics, as well as the cable industry. To read more of Kelly's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Kelly McGuire