More than 5 million companies use Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and Google Docs, representing a sizable audience with unmet enterprise needs. This is exactly what Cirruspath aims to address.

The Laguna Hills, CA, company, founded in 2011, developed its Cirrus Insight software to integrate Gmail and other Google applications with Salesforce.com. Users can create, view, and manage leads, contacts, tasks, cases, and opportunities from their Gmail inboxes; data syncs automatically.

Cirrus’ technology is based on a browser extension that installs in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and instantly displays contextual customer information alongside email in Gmail. Users can also save email and attachments to their CRM systems with a single click.

But Cirrus doesn’t only work with Salesforce.com and Google. In the past year alone, it partnered with Eloqua, Pardot, Hubspot, ExactTarget, Zendesk, Desk.com, and Quickbooks for out-of-the-box integrations with Gmail.

Cirrus’ newest app, released in late May, is Cirrus Files: Google Drive Integration for Salesforce.com. The app enables users to manage and sync files between Salesforce.com and Google Drive. As users create new contacts, accounts, opportunities, or any other object in Salesforce.com, Cirrus Files will create a corresponding folder in Google Drive.  

In November, the company unveiled a pilot program for its new iOS mobile app for use with Apple iPhone devices. Android and iPad versions are planned.

Cirrus also announced a partnership with UberConference to bring free video conference calling to Gmail. After a call is completed, Cirrus Insight logs it and adds the relevant information to the Salesforce.com and Gmail records.

To top off a year that saw the company expand up-market beyond its core base of smaller businesses, Cirrus was named one of five finalists in the 2013 CRM Idol competition. 

Brent Leary, cofounder of CRM Essentials, says the company isn’t working on rocket science, but that doesn’t diminish its value. “They’re helping folks who use two of the most common business applications—Salesforce.com and email—use them together to be more productive,” he says. “It really gets to the heart of how people need to leverage CRM and email together in a more cohesive manner.”

The company is constantly on the move, Leary says. “They’re pulling more experiences together all the time and improving on them.” —Leonard Klie