Adobe and Salesforce.com Form Strategic Alliance

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

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 is a jointly developed integrated development environment (IDE) that provides a single, powerful tool for building cloud-based RIAs, which can easily be deployed to end users through the browser using the Adobe Flash® Player or directly to the desktop via Adobe AIR®. This tight integration enables client-side data management and synchronization between cloud and client, simplifying the development of applications that seamlessly run online or offline across operating systems and devices, while taking full advantage of the proven scalability, security and reliability of the Force.com platform. Developers can use Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com to extend or enhance existing Salesforce CRM implementations and custom-built Force.com applications, or build entirely new applications to provide customized user experiences for any business need.

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 Flash 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 ½ the cost of traditional client/server software platforms.

About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/crm/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company's Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) helps customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud.  Based on salesforce.com’s (http://salesforce.com) real-time, multitenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing. 

As of July 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 63,200 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all.  Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.  Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

About Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is the leading Web design and development platform for creating expressive applications, content, and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices and reach over 98% of internet-enabled desktops. Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 93 percent of computers in just the first ten months since its release. According to comScore Media Metrix, approximately 75 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the number one format for video on the Web. Seven out of the top ten ISVs develop applications with the Adobe Flash Platform. For more information visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.