SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2014) - Apttus, Kenandy, and ServiceMax today announced the formation of Force United, a group of leading software companies across multiple industries built 100 percent native on the Salesforce1 Platform. The consortium's mission is to accelerate customer success, simplify adoption, and solve large, complex business challenges by leveraging the Salesforce1 Platform. To that end, Force United also announced an inaugural "CIO Innovators Summit" for technology leaders from large companies to discuss how cloud, mobile, and social technology tools are shaping a new era of business software.

Force United is the first organized forum for businesses built natively on the Salesforce1 Platform. As leading native Salesforce1 companies, Apttus, Kenandy, and ServiceMax formed Force United to better harness ideas and initiatives across fellow Salesforce1 natives to create business software to impact our world.

"We believe that in addition to powering a new era in cloud-based software, Salesforce1 can be a platform for solving global problems," said Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing Officer at ServiceMax. "By establishing this consortium, we're building a forum of innovators to share best practices and together learn how best to leverage Salesforce1 to have the greatest effect possible in each of our industries."

Specifically, the group's charter is to encourage problem-solving and inspire companies across all industries, geographies, and product types through:

• Monthly meetings to share insights, best practices and ideas.

• Larger events focusing on broader business and technology trends.

• Promotion of Salesforce1 Platform-built software through content, marketing initiatives and other industry partnerships.

"Global enterprises will need to replace every legacy system over the next decade with one that is architected from the ground up for agility and innovation," says Sandra Kurtzig, Chairman and CEO of Kenandy. "Salesforce1 has allowed us to build an ERP Business Infrastructure for Innovation. It's easy to use, implement and change, and creates the business foundation for the Internet of Things. Force United will bring together like-minded companies that will share ideas on how modern enterprises will be transforming their companies."

"Any cloud platform can claim to deliver advanced tools for enabling a great user experience. Only Salesforce1 has actually done it, and has the usability statistics across thousands of large-scale enterprises to prove it. The real value from a cloud platform comes from being able to get departments, divisions and entire companies up and running fast, using applications to accomplish more," says Kamal Ahluwalia Chief Marketing Officer, Apttus. "With the combined efforts of Force United, we will be able to accelerate success in business transformation."

Force United will hold their inaugural event, the "CIO Innovators Summit," on July 16 at the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel in Menlo Park, Calif. In addition to senior executives from Apttus, Kenandy, and ServiceMax, Esat Sezer, the SVP and Chief Information Officer at Coca-Cola Enterprises will deliver a short keynote on the future of the technology landscape. The conference will feature topics such as the future of mobile apps for the global enterprise and how companies are developing agile, innovative business processes using cloud ERP. Participants will vote on different topics to discuss in specialized breakout sessions from a list covering developments in cloud, mobile, big data, predictive analytics, and more.

For more information on the consortium, please visit http://forceunited.org/cio-summit/.

About ServiceMax
There are more than five million field service technicians in the United States alone tasked with keeping our world running, yet today there is no standard technology for managing the way companies empower them to truly delight their customers in the field. ServiceMax is rethinking field service, and delivering cutting edge technology to help companies perfect service delivery, drive revenue and growth, and delight customers. The impact of ServiceMax is simple: lower costs, greater efficiency, happier customers; all while increasing revenue. ServiceMax has helped customers on average increase productivity through mobile by 26 percent, service revenue by 22 percent, and customer satisfaction by 15 percent. ServiceMax customers include large enterprises such as Electrolux, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Elekta, and smaller businesses like McKinley Equipment and Kinetico. Based in Pleasanton, California, they are a company of innovators, thinkers, and doers who care passionately about changing the world of field service. To learn more, please visit: www.servicemax.com.

About Apttus
Apttus, the category-defining Quote-to-Cash software company, drives the vital business process between the buyer's interest in a purchase and the realization of revenue. Apttus is delivered on the Salesforce1 Platform, the world's most trusted and comprehensive cloud delivery infrastructure. Applications include Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ), Renewals, Contract Management and Revenue Management. Additionally, Apttus' patent pending X-Author technology enables Microsoft Office to be a user-interface with full interaction and control between Salesforce and Microsoft Office. Apttus is based in San Mateo, California, with additional offices in London, UK, Bozeman, Montana and Ahmedabad, India. For more information visit: apttus.com.

About Kenandy
Kenandy is the cloud ERP platform for the modern enterprise. Kenandy Empowers Real People™ to work the way they want to work on any device anywhere in the world -- it's easy to use, implement and change. Kenandy automates all of your core business processes including order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, planning and production, and global financials. Kenandy is based in Redwood City, California with additional offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and southern California. For more information visit: www.kenandy.com.