Salesforce.com and NetSuite announced Thursday "partner applications" to connect their SaaS systems. It's about time the two biggest vendors in CRM and ERP SaaS presented a united front on integration. Still, the announcement is more symbolic than technical, since these partner capabilities already existed.NetSuite calls it SuiteCloud Connect for Salesforce.com, which is essentially the brand name it created for letting customers know that SaaS integration providers such as Boomi and Cast Iron Systems offer pre-built connectors for the two systems. So is this none-news news? Well, yes, in the sense that it's not a software co-development story, which is what it might look like on the surface. But if it means Salesforce.com and NetSuite are taking the wise step of showing the world that they plan to work more like partners and less like competitors, it's important.

That would be a win-win for both, but particularly beneficial for NetSuite to get its name in front of more of Salesforce.com's 50,000-plus customers. NetSuite describes SaaS integration partners' offerings as providing an "integrated lead-to-cash process" and "deep customer visibility for sales." NetSuite also appears to be the more committed one in this relationship, and I base this on years of reading press releases: no Salesforce.com executive is quoted in this one.

The offerings come from companies that specialize in SaaS integration software. Celigo offers the Salesforce.com-NetSuite Connector product; Boomi touts its existing integration platform called AtomSphere for connecting the two platforms; Pervasive Software touts its existing Pervasive Data Integrator for the job; and Cast Iron says it has a pre-configured connector for the two platforms. All of these companies play in the growing SaaS integration market, and also offer connectors between Salesforce.com, and SAP, Oracle, etc. So the technology isn't new, but the message is.

It's also interesting to note the Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is the largest shareholder of NetSuite (but revoked his voting rights when the company went public last year); has a minority stake in Salesforce.com (not sure of the exact amount, but based on Salesforce.com's latest proxy, it's not more than 5%); and Ellison and crew seem to have a sudden blood thirst for Salesforce.com's CRM sales with their own CRM On Demand platform. Don't you love that tangled web that is Silicon Valley.