Salesforce and IBM released their first set of joint solutions on Thursday, deepening the partnership first announced in March between the two technology giants.
The two tech giants
announced the availability of two new data solutions, IBM Weather Insights for Salesforce and IBM Cloud Integration for Salesforce. The partnership enables Salesforce users to incorporate IBM
weather data into their applications, and IBM customers will be able to utilize Salesforce data in app building as well.
The IBM Cloud Integration enables customers to unite on-premise and
cloud-based data streams within Salesforce, uniting IBM and Salesforce data for more actionable insights. The integration allows customers to leverage IBM’s AI capabilities, such as Watson Tone
Analyzer and Natural Language Classifier, to develop their own set of cognitive solutions.
The Weather Company, an IBM business acquired in 2015, will now be powering three new Lightning
components on the Salesforce AppExchange. IBM Weather Insights for Salesforce enables marketers to send more intelligent promotional campaigns that align with local weather reports. For example, a
swimsuit email promotion may be ill-advised in a region experiencing high snowfall.
The Weather Focus Lightning component visualizes how weather might affect company accounts, such as
how a shipping company might need to update delivery routes and schedules based on predicted weather conditions. The Weather Recorder Lightning component allows users to save weather data and context
to client case records, and the Scheduling Assistant Lightning component helps users schedule meetings at an optimal time based on forecasted weather conditions.
Salesforce also offers several
expanded weather data packages available for purchase on the AppExchange, and is releasing a new Salesforce Trailhead Project to give developers hands-on experience on how to incorporate data from The
Weather Company into Salesforce.
Salesforce and IBM partnered six months ago to help each other sell its artificial intelligence products, prompting Adobe and Microsoft to announce a
joint-partnership two weeks later.