Partnering with Apple, Salesforce iOS apps feature deeper integration with the popular mobile operating system. With Siri integration and other advanced features, Salesforce becomes more appealing to corporate users.
By Chand Bellur
November 18, 2019 at 7:32 p.m. PDT
The Salesforce and Apple Partnership
Mobile devices have been a boon to sales professionals for decades. Before the iPhone, and even before the Palm Pilot, salespeople dragged bulky laptops around the world for the sake of conducting business. As devices have diminished in size and become far more capable, sales professionals have even more power at their fingertips.
A partnership between Apple and Salesforce makes perfect sense. Apple has made great inroads into the corporate world, particularly with the iPhone and iPad. Working together, both companies were able to get the most out of Salesforce apps running on iOS.
Salesforce Plays Well with Siri
Siri is Apple’s popular personal digital assistant. It enables users to control apps, settings and obtain information, using natural language voice commands. Such technology can offer assistance to sales professionals who are always on the go.
New features in Salesforce take advantage of Siri’s ability to work with third-party apps. Sales reps can ask where their next meeting is, and Siri will reply with information extracted from Salesforce CRM.
Salesforce Embraces Apple Ecosystem with Handoff
Handoff is one of the more useful Apple Ecosystem features. The technology allows users to complete tasks started on one device using another device. For example, if I am writing a document in Pages on my MacBook Pro, I can easily open this document on my iPad.
This is clearly beneficial for sales professionals using multiple devices. They can quickly pivot from their iPhone to a Mac or iPad, depending on their current travel situation.
Largest Pilot Ever
Although iOS 13 has been a rocky release, Apple takes quality seriously. They didn’t enter into this partnership with Salesforce lightly. After all, Apple stands to gain from device sales, if their devices become the de facto standard for Salesforce deployments.
The pilot program for the new, tightly integrated Salesforce apps involved 1000 different companies. It’s the largest pilot program Salesforce has ever had.
Salesforce SDK for iOS
The partnership between Salesforce and Apple didn’t leave developers out in the cold. Coders will be getting a new Software Development Kit (SDK), making it even easier to develop Salesforce solutions for iOS. Software engineers will be able to write Salesforce apps in Swift and package and deploy them with new, easy-to-use tools.
Cooperation Instead of Competition
The partnership is a perfect example of how companies often cooperate, rather than compete. Salesforce is not interested in getting into the device business. Apple’s offerings are complementary to Salesforce software. In the end, the combination will provide a better user experience for sales professionals, making them more productive.