SalesForce vs. Google or SalesForce + Google… The Reprecussions

VS.

Today SalesForce announced their new product, content exchange on TechCrunch. Now the real beauty is not in their acquisition of Koral, but their new stated mission statement by Maric Benioff:

…A decisive step towards our vision of managing all information on demand.

Now let’s take a look at Google’s mission statement:

…To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

So it seems these companies are on a Collision course, with the real question being: Will they fight as one or become bitter enemies. As CEO of an on-demand startup that has many of the same beliefs, I’m going to take a stab at some different ideas:

First, the web is nothing but billions of pieces of content…

We all consume content on the Web. Photos, videos, blogs,etc. I’m sure you’ve never realized that when you use on-demand software in the enterprise you’re consuming content such as files, contacts, appointments, etc. In this case we see Google organizing your everyday consumer information such as blogs, news, videos, photos,etc. whereas SalesForce is trying to organize the world’s information on the Enterprise side. Google has started building an online suite of applications via internal development and acquisitions such as writely. They do not have a simple CRM or contact management system. Salesforce would give google a huge inroad to start selling its apps for domains. SalesForce already offers a 30 day free trial… could Google offer a free waterered down and basic version of SalesForce with adsense thrown on top? I think so. Most people who use Gmail wouldnt mind a good CRM, but need almost 10% of the functionality. Google has the cash to buy SalesForce and really start to dominate the on-demand apps space.

Second, Google could do it better. Build over Buy makes sense to some degree…

Google has a much farther reach than SalesForce. SalesForce, well they’re complicated, and from what I’ve seen need some work in the whole usability department. Google could make a much simpler HighRise-esque CRM application. Throw in some document management, and you have SalesForce without the acquisition. Companies who are already hooked into Google will be more likely to use Google, especially with the cheaper price tag that is sure to come. This could desperately hurt SalesForce in the long run. wildcard: Google acquires Netsuite before it IPOs and officially donates to the buy Larry Ellison a bigger boat fund.

Third, Google can start to play nice with AppXchange to hurt MSFT…
I doubt seeing this happen. With proprietary languages such as Apex on the back-end of SalesForce, it’s a long shot. Google could make their applications such as Google Docs,etc. start to play nice with SalesForce and its ContentXchange. Both would benefit from new customers, and most certainly hurt MSFT in the longrun. Google could in turn lend some of its search technology to SalesForce and in hand get its orgasm for mining more information. Hmm, this isn’t so doubtful after all…

I think, no I know that the next few years will be dominated by the enterprise and how it is going to radically change. Google and SalesForce are the two big players in the space. Either way, the dust is going to settle somehow.

[tags] salesforce, koral, tech crunch, nick gonzalez, michael arrington, web 2.0, google, goog, google office, google docs, domain apps, appxchange, contentxchange, msft, marc benioff, ceo, acquisition, publictivity [/tags]