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Salesforce.com on Tuesday announced the second release of its Customforce customization tool, promising that any customizations done with the tool will carry over from previous versions of the companys hosted application services.
Customforce 2.0 will preserve all customizations done with Customforce 1.0 as well as all customizations done on earlier revs of the companys namesake service, Salesforce.com officials said.
“Any customization done will move forward with any upgrade, whether youre upgrading Customforce or any version of the application itself,” said Phil Robinson, vice president of global marketing at Salesforce.com Inc.
“We have backward compatibility, just like Xbox. That hasnt been the case when youre responsible for upgrading client-server software.”
This version of Customforce adds support for custom business processes, allowing users to embed packaged business logic such as lead scoring, case aging and commission calculations in any field of an application. There is support for more than 100 business processes, officials said.
Customforce 2.0 also supports adding custom analytics and spreadsheet calculations to business applications.
Salesforce.com on Tuesday also previewed its Summer 05 release, which is expected to be available to subscribers in June. The release will include the companys Multiforce operating system, which will unite the companys hosted application services with other application services that customers create using Salesforce.coms development environment.
“You can switch from one application to the next within our online environment,” Robinson said. “You have a single data schema, a single security model across all applications.”
The company is working with other hosted ASPs (application service providers) to allow their offerings to be accessible this way within Multiforce, Robinson said.
Also on Monday, Salesforce.com announced one of its largest deals to date, a 5,000-seat deal with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., as well as a strategic relationship with Accenture Ltd. that calls for Accenture to deliver consulting services for hosted CRM (customer relationship management) around Salesforce.com. Accenture has long had a strategic relationship with Salesforce.com arch-rival Siebel Systems Inc.