Adobe Forms Strategic Alliance with Salesforce.com

Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com Increases Developer Productivity for Creating Rich Internet Applications in the Cloud

SAN FRANCISCO — Oct. 26, 2009 — Salesforce.com [NYSE:CRM], the enterprise cloud computing company, and Adobe Systems Incorporated [NYSE:ADBE], today announced the availability of a new offering that unites the power of the Force.com platform with the richness and ubiquity of the Adobe® Flash® Platform to enable a new generation of cloud-based rich Internet applications (RIAs).

The new offering, Adobe® Flash® Builder™ for Force.com, integrates the two platforms to bring the richness of the consumer Web to enterprise cloud applications to enable a significantly improved level of developer productivity.

“Adobe and salesforce.com share a common vision for accelerating developer success with cloud computing,” said Ariel Kelman, vice president, platform product marketing, salesforce.com. “Bringing together Adobe Flash Platform and Force.com will enable the creation of exciting new kinds of business applications that run in the cloud and are as compelling and easy to use as the best of the consumer Web.”

“This strategic partnership with salesforce.com has opened up a significant opportunity to tightly integrate our platforms for the development and delivery of rich, highly productive business applications that can be quickly deployed in the cloud, adapted and scaled as the business changes and grows,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe.

Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com – Empowering Developers from Cloud to Client
Developers can use Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com to build applications that work the way people work:

* Add intuitive, interactive user interface (UI) features, such as drag and drop, to shorten application learning curves, increase user acceptance, improve productivity and reduce help-desk support calls.
* Incorporate advanced data visualizations, such as charts and dashboards, for better decision support.
* Turn multi-step business process applications into a one-screen experience that increases usability and efficiency.
* Provide light-weight client-side integration to unify user experiences across systems inside and outside the firewall into a single application for better business visibility.

The solution also gives developers flexibility to scale their applications to fit a variety of business needs by:

* Building new applications supporting both browser and desktop deployment scenarios.
* Creating new application components that are tailored to specific job functions or business use cases and integrated into existing applications.
* Adding rich UI elements to existing Salesforce CRM or Force.com applications.

Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com includes:

* Professional Eclipse®-based IDE, unifying Adobe Flash Builder and the Force.com IDE into a common, highly productive environment for building a variety of Force.com applications.
* Code-editor, design-view, browser and cross platform compatibility.
* User interface capabilities with more than 100 easily customized, reusable components, including access to motion graphics, drag and drop capabilities and more.
* Data visualizations including built-in interactive charting and animation components capable of processing large data sets.
* Pre-built integration with Adobe LiveCycle® Data Services for client-side data management and synchronization services, automatically synchronizing data between the Force.com database and an Adobe AIR secure local data store on the client, allowing developers to build apps that seamlessly span connected and disconnected environments.

Pricing and Availability
The developer preview of Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com is now available on the salesforce.com developer web site at http://developer.force.com/flashbuilder. Expected final delivery is currently scheduled for the first half of 2010.

Comments on the News
“Bringing together Adobe Flash technology and Force.com has completely changed the speed at which we can deliver great user interfaces for our clients’ business applications,” said John Barnes, CTO, Model Metrics. “Our customers have been thrilled with the ease of use, and the ability to continue working whether connected or not.”

Additional Resources

* A blog post with additional information is available at http://blogs.salesforce.com.
* A video demo of Flash Builder for Force.com is available at http://developer.force.com/flashbuilder.

Force.com – the Industry’s Leading Enterprise Cloud Computing Platform:

* Force.com is salesforce.com's enterprise cloud computing platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/cloud-platform/).
* Force.com provides everything companies need to quickly build and deliver business applications in the cloud, including a cloud database, powerful analytics, real-time workflow and approvals, programmable cloud logic, integration, mobile deployment, programmable user interface and Web site capabilities.
* Customers and partners have built more than 120,000 custom applications on Force.com to run their businesses, including, supply chain management, compliance tracking, brand management, accounts receivable, claims processing, time-off applications and much more.
* Force.com enables companies to build and deliver applications 5 times faster, at about half the cost of traditional client/server software platforms.

Source: Adobe