Salesforce.com launches sforce, new alliances.

Salesforce.com, which specializes in delivering software-as-service, has announced the launch of sforce, the salesforce.com client/service application development utility; announced strategic alliances with BEA Systems, Microsoft and Sun; and plans to work with Borland to enable enterprises to more rapidly build and deliver business applications using the software-as-service model. Sforce was designed to allow business application developers to use the tools they love, combined with the Web services provided by sforce, to more rapidly develop and deploy business applications at a lower cost than has previously been available. Using the same utility computing model as salesforce.com, sforce was designed to provide the services that developers need to build business applications directly over the Internet. Sforce helps enable enterprises to drive business processes as a Web-based service for a monthly per-user fee. Developers can build applications on the sforce architecture using the tools they already know, leveraging the power of Web services standards. Strategic alliances and relationships with tool vendors allow developers to use products such as Sun's Sun ONE Studio tools, Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, Borland JBuilder and BEA WebLogic Workshop to build enterprise solutions, with sforce providing core application services such as authentication, data management, document management and text search. The sforce online application development utility allows companies to deploy Web services using the write-once, run-anywhere capabilities of the Java platform. Using industry-standard Web service protocols like XML, WSDL and SOAP, sforce developers can build applications for PCs, PDAs, smart phones and other Internet-aware devices without buying additional software or servers. Sforce developers can also extend salesforce.com's functionality and integrate salesforce.com with other applications. www.salesforce.com