Salesforce Mobile: Salesforce.com Meets The iPad

When Apple launched its much-anticipated iPad device on April 3, not every company in enterprise IT was poised to take advantage of the new platform.

That's a shame because with Apple saying it had sold 500,000 iPads during their first week of availability in the U.S., it represents tremendous opportunity for the first enterprise tech providers to this space. (Apple has now reported 1 million sold in the first 28 days.)

Here's why Apple's new iPad is a great mobile device for business applications:

It's light, it has battery life of more than 12 hours even when used as much as a laptop, it's got a bright display and it's a fast, snappy device based on the iPhone operating system and Apple's proprietary A4 processor. With basic Wi-Fi configuration, it supports Microsoft Exchange out of the box, has superior contact and calendaring interfaces and provides what amounts to instant-on and instant-off capabilities--either by putting it into "sleep" mode or just turning it off and on. The Transportation Safety Administration allows iPads to be carried through airport security checkpoints without having to remove them from the bag (a big advantage over laptops).

The problem is that while the iPad has been designed in a way that would be great for business use, the ecosystem hasn't been as aggressive as it could be in developing business apps. To be sure, several good business apps are available for iPad, including Exchange, Citrix software that provides for remote desktop service, and some nice productivity apps such as FileMaker's Bento. But Salesforce.com, the company that provides cloud-based CRM solutions, has been among the earliest providers of mobile enterprise solutions and, when the iPad was launched, it was already in solid position.

The CRN Test Center looked at Salesforce.com's Salesforce Mobile app on the iPad to get an idea of how the application leverages the unique form factor, keyboard and feel of the device. The bad news was that, like most other apps that were first built for the iPhone as a platform, Salesforce.com hadn't yet updated its mobile app to take full advantage of the larger, 9.7-inch touch screen that's now available on the iPad. Instead, Salesforce Mobile's iPhone app works on the iPad platform but with reduced resolution and without being able to take advantage of the iPad keyboard configuration (it still uses an iPhone keypad configuration).

Starting out by setting up a Web-based Salesforce.com CRM Sales evaluation account, we populated our account with some sample data. We then downloaded Salesforce Mobile to the iPad via Apple's iTunes App Store, where we were disappointed to see it had not yet been custom-designed for the iPad. Still, we set the app to appear at two-times iPhone size--a standard iPad setting for iPhone apps--and found its appearance to be fine.

Between the Salesforce.com Web service and Salesforce Mobile on the iPad, we were able to sync customer and account data--and other information such as tasks and contacts--between the platforms. Even with the iPhone look and feel, the iPad version of Salesforce Mobile is a terrific way for employees to manage sales information and messaging on the go; unlike other apps, Salesforce Mobile is still free for download to iPhone or iPad platforms.

Unlike its use on laptops or desktops, Salesforce Mobile's use on the iPad provides for a truly great mobile business experience. The iPad is easier to take out during a sales call or conference room meeting than a laptop, and there is also no aggravation or awkwardness of needing to "plug in" during meetings toward the end of a busy day--given the iPad's monster battery life.

The bottom line: Though Salesforce.com didn't launch a unique iPad application when the Apple device launched, the work it put into making its iPhone app great, easy and powerful to use does translate into the iPad form factor. On iPad, Salesforce.com is easy to use, effective and much easier during sales call scenarios than a notebook. It's worth a look and it's a solution we have no problem recommending.