Salesforce to Walk on Wall Street

An adviser who uses the new service could mouse over the name of a client and instantly see what investment news is relevant, and easily fire off an action alert. The service also tracks the usual customer contact and tracking information built into Salesforce's standard applications.

More important than tweaking the nose of Hizzoner, though, is winning the business of prestigious Merrill Lynch. The financial services industry has become one of the most fertile grounds for software sales; Oracle(ORCL Quote), which eventually acquired Siebel, recently upped its stake in iFlex, the Indian financial services software company, to over 80%, and considers the segment one of its most important markets.

It also helps quiet the skeptics who say Salesforce software isn't robust enough to serve the needs of major enterprises.

In recent trading, shares of Salesforce were off 67 cents, or 1.4%, to $46.77.