SalesForce.com Partners with KDDI

KDDI has allied with San Francisco-based CRM solution provider salesforce.com to deliver wireless CRM functionality to mobile phones. Available to salesforce.com Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition subscribers in Japan, the service enables users to download data from the service to KDDI phones and then view, edit and input new data that can be synchronized with search data both offline and online. The pilot will be extended to customers between 1 August 1 and 30 September, becoming generally available in October at a cost of JPY 1,575 incl. tax per month, per user.

As part of the partnership, salesforce.com will deliver mobile versions of its applications, in conjunction with KDDI-designed middleware to run on BREW mobile data applications. The middleware enables KDDI phones to communicate with the salesforce.com on-demand service via the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) high-speed XML-based messaging protocol.

As outlined in a joint press release, the partners plan to initiate service in three phases; kicking off in July with on a complimentary pilot basis but only to select customers. The joint wireless solution also includes security measures designed to safeguard customer data. If a customer’s phone is lost or stolen, they can call salesforce.com Japan and request the deletion of any salesforce.com data residing on the phone without affecting data housed on the salesforce.com server itself.