Cisco cheats on Ericsson with Salesforce

A tough day for Ericsson’s collective ego saw strategic partner Cisco get in to bed with Salesforce to make sweet, sweet productivity.

Cisco and Ericsson moved in with each other back in November of last year but things soon descended into monotonous routine. Ericsson has been really busy at work and in the evening just wants to have a glass of wine in front of the telly and go to sleep. Cisco, on the other hand, is only human and has needs, so it can’t be blamed for playing the field a bit. Salesforce is young, pert and full of joie de vivre, and has reminded Cisco that it might not be ready to settle down just yet.

“Cisco wants to deliver simple, magical experiences,” said Rowan Trollope, SVP and GM of IoT and Applications Groups at Cisco. “Our goal is for technology to fade into the background so people can get their best work done. Cisco and Salesforce coming together to form a strategic alliance can eliminate the friction users experience today so they can become more productive.”

“Nothing is more important than making our customers more successful,” said Ryan Aytay, EVP of Strategic Product Alliances at Salesforce. “We’re thrilled to announce this strategic alliance with Cisco, which will simplify the customer experience across sales, service and IoT and empower our mutual customers to be far more productive.”

Ericsson is understood to be hurt and disappointed after all it’s done for Cisco, especially since Cisco knows it has been recently snubbed by BT, but might open to exploring a three-way relationship. More light is shed on the implications of this development here.