Microsoft's Nadella banks on LinkedIn data to challenge Salesforce

Nadella's bigger vision is to have all products take advantage of a common set of business data that can be mined for new insights with artificial intelligence.

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp is rolling out upgrades to its sales software that integrates data from LinkedIn, an initiative that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Reuters was central to the company's long-term strategy for building specialised business software. 

The improvements to Dynamics 365, as Microsoft's sales software is called, are a challenge to market leader Salesforce.com and represent the first major product initiative to spring from Microsoft's US$26bil (RM114bil) acquisition of LinkedIn, the business-focused social network.