David Needle

Business social network LinkedIn announced improvements to Sales Navigator, its “system of engagement” for salespeople launched in 2014. The update covers three key areas, but the most significant for salespeople is the improved integration with Salesforce.com’s cloud customer relationship management platform. Instead of having to manually add leads and accounts to Sales Navigator, the update […]

Cloud computing services for consumer and business have grown immensely, but there are still concerns about security, particularly in highly regulated industries such as health care and finance. These industries also are bound by strict compliance regulations that can limit how practical it is to adopt so-called off-premise, cloud computing alternatives. Salesforce.com aims to address […]

A joint agreement by rivals Microsoft and Salesforce shows the two companies clearly believe in the old adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Two years ago the software giants agreed to a strategic partnership to develop compatibility and integration features between their respective platforms, and Microsoft Office in particular. The latest announcement on […]

Salesforce.com is releasing an update to its Pardot marketing automation software, which is designed to give marketers a more detailed yet easier visual view of how various aspects of a campaign are performing. Salesforce describes the new Engagement Studio feature, available June 21, as an online command center where B2B marketers can see and manage […]

Computer-aided-design has come a long way since the days when high-powered workstations were required to run and develop such sophisticated applications. Today, it’s more about the cloud and, in the case of Autodesk, its Forge platform. At a two-day developer conference in San Francisco that kicks off June 15, Autodesk will show off the latest […]

Aiming to grow developer interest in the Lightning platform of tools and technologies that power its Salesforce1 Platform, Salesforce is hosting its TrailheaDX developer conference in San Francisco June 7-8. Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, Salesforce co-founder Parker Harris and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak all are scheduled to present keynotes at the two-day event, […]

Sales professionals, particularly Millennials, are increasingly using social media to find prospects, make a pitch and even close deals, according to a LinkedIn-sponsored survey. The survey of more than 1,000 sales professionals across the United States covering a cross-section of industries and company sizes, found that 90 percent of the top salespeople surveyed said they […]

SAN JOSE—Virtual stores, virtual worlds, immersive environments, 360-degree cameras, developer tools and more were on display here at one of the biggest events focused on virtual reality. With almost 150 exhibitors, the third annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference and expo, running April 27-29 has come a long way since 2014. “We had 34 exhibitors […]

Salesforce.com is wasting no time updating the SteelBrick CPQ (Configure Price Quote) software it acquired three months ago. That’s a pretty quick turnaround to integrate the company and its key product into the Salesforce platform, not to mention adding new features. The company credits the fact that SteelBrick was built using Saleforce’s own Lightning developer […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Intel gathered enterprise developers, customers and media here for a Cloud Day event that featured new products and some impressive customer examples of private and hybrid cloud systems they have implemented. Intel declared the trend toward cloud computing is at least as important as the chip architectures the company developed to power the PC […]