Is MSFT or Salesforce leading the market in business app development?

The basis of Microsoft attempting to purchase Salesforce is due to the fact that Salesforce has perfected rapid business app development in a way that Microsoft has never managed. Salesforce CRM offers open integrated platforms and connects easily with other vendors and competitors, a feature that Microsoft Dynamics still struggles to seamlessly integrate.

For the past 15 to 20 years, Microsoft has tried to head the app development business. However, they made the process too monolithic and complex, leading to less success. Salesforce has made it easy to build incredibly effective business apps that have connectivity everywhere. Salesforce apps and platform processes can speak easily to a wide range of other processes and platforms. This has left Microsoft trying to play catch-up with Salesforce.

Microsoft has been moving in that direction with Microsoft Dynamics, but it is not quite as far along as Salesforce CRM (the product Microsoft wanted to buy). Microsoft is also beginning to move in the same direction as Salesforce in terms of business app development, one example being PowerApps. PowerApps doesn't require the user to be an expert developer to create a great business app.

This is a smart strategic move on the part of Microsoft. However, it may be foolish to go to all this trouble, and then play fast and loose with the communication channels with which the apps will work.

Organizations should want to win based on innovation, not on the basis of cutting off an opponent's potential performance. This can only lead to enmity of the opponent in the business app development marketplace, as well as the enmity of all their users.