The combination of cloud CRM, advances in mobile devices, and declining development costs are making custom-built mobile apps the next must-have CRM tool.

Here’s what 2011 promises: more Salesforce.com versus Oracle, further “platform shift” wars, the rise and rise of social CRM (sometimes with a business upside), the impending debut of Oracle Fusion CRM, and an iPad in every stocking.

Salesforce’s Dreamforce 2010 conference was a smash hit — lots of enthusiasm, new products and expanded capabilities demonstrated, and even practical ways to improve sales, marketing and service operations.

It’s not every day that you get to hang out with a former president of the United States. Join us for a cocktail party after Bill Clinton’s keynote at Dreamforce 2010.

iPads, Fusion CRM Apps, the Exalogic Elastic Cloud and R18 of CRM On Demand — the CRM news updates you need from #oow10

What keeps pharmaceutical executives awake at night, and how can CRM help?

Why bother custom-coding integrations between applications, if you can avoid it? Ease of integration is just one more reason to pursue SaaS CRM, rather than using on-premise CRM.