Salesforce and Google Apps

Salesforce.com recently announced that it has integrated its system with Google Apps (link to announcement). Not all of you may be familiar with Google Apps but basically it is a set of online applications that mimic the Microsoft Office suite. At MyloanBiz we have been using Google Apps for about 2 years and have been very happy with it. All our email communications run on Gmail, we us Google Calendar to coordinate schedules and Google Docs and Spreadsheets to collaborate on projects. We also find ourselves talking back and forth on Google chat when we have a quick question to ask a colleague.

Using both Salesforce and Google Apps has caused us to do some double entry between the two applications, for example we would have to update our Calendar in two places or copy and paste emails we sent from Gmail into the Activity History section of a Salesforce Contact record. With this new integration that will no longer be necessary and it will function much more like a combined solution.

I realize that most MyLoanBiz customers are still using Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) and this integration will not provide major new functionality, however I do suggest that if you have not already try taking a look at the Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I have used this extensively and have found the ability to access these documents from any computer very useful. Plus now you can link them to Deals and Contacts in Salesaforce and share them with clients.

If you are starting a new mortgage company I would suggest taking a serious look at Google Apps as an alternative to going the traditional Microsoft route. There is a very functional free version up to 25 users and a more advanced paid version that is $50 per user per year (edition comparison).