Customer Relationship Management - News, Features, and Slideshows

• Salesforce taps Instagram's new API with tailored marketing tools

  Users of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud on Tuesday gained easier access to Instagram's roughly 300 million users thanks to an integration made possible by a new API.

• Microsoft's buys sales-gamification startup with eye to CRM combo

  Microsoft has acquired Incent Games and plans to integrate the Texas startup's FantasySalesTeam sales-gamification software into Dynamics CRM.

• Microsoft snaps up FieldOne to enrich Dynamics CRM

  Microsoft and FieldOne have been partners for several years already, but on Thursday Microsoft took the relationship a step further and acquired the New Jersey-based provider of field-service software.

• Salesforce sweetens the deal for growing SMBs with new Desk.com edition

  Salesforce has long targeted SMBs with its Desk.com application for customer support, but on Wednesday the cloud powerhouse launched a new version of the software designed specifically for rapidly growing firms.

• New Salesforce line helps enterprises deliver in-app customer support

  Companies large and small are scrambling to keep up with the demands of an increasingly mobile world, and on Thursday Salesforce unveiled a new line of tools that's designed to help.

• The future of Dynamics in a Nadella-led Microsoft

  Microsoft's Dynamics ERP and CRM product lines seemed safe immediately following former CEO Steve Ballmer's sweeping reorganization of the company last year. But now that longtime Microsoft executive Satya Nadella has been named Ballmer's successor, the time is ripe for more focused speculation on the future of Dynamics. Here's a look at what could be in store.

• After getting star billing, Oracle's Fusion Applications take a supporting role

  Last week's OpenWorld conference made on thing clear: Oracle remains committed to its next-generation Fusion Applications but massive growth in the product line is probably not around the corner.

• Salesforce.com's Benioff lays out future strategies

  Salesforce.com's second-quarter earnings conference call featured the usual dose of chest-thumping by CEO Marc Benioff as the company posted US$957 million in revenue and raised its full fiscal year forecast to at least $4 billion.

• Why Oracle bought Eloqua, and what it means for the market

  Oracle surprised many tech industry observers by announcing Thursday it would pay US$871 million for marketing automation software vendor Eloqua. The move seemed a bit unlikely given the amount of sales and marketing software Oracle already had.

• Six ways social media affected the enterprise in 2012

  Social media has changed more than the way companies market and promote themselves. Social networking has also changed the way companies recruit, how they communicate internally and how they handle sensitive data.

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