Seagate was at a crossroads. The world leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions was managing hundreds of custom, on-premise Java applications. This maintenance had become cumbersome and expensive. Seagate could either proceed in the same direction, or find a solution that would modernize their app development.

As a longtime Salesforce.com customer Seagate already had some in-house expertise. They've moved to the Salesforce Platform, resulting in numerous benefits.

• The previous complicated infrastructure and demanding maintenance that came with it has been eliminated.
• Seagate’s enterprise apps now live in the cloud, where they can be easily connected for external usage with clients and partners when needed.
• The apps have modern capabilities such as mobile and social built right in.
• Many of the simpler apps were prototyped by business analysts and easily onboarded.
• The more extensive apps were quickly built and deployed by developers. 
• Seagate has also seamlessly integrated their back office data from Oracle ERP, using their integration partner Informatica.

Seagate’s first custom applications were CRM extensions with sales and marketing. The types of apps have since spread across more than seven lines of business, including customer service, human resources, and IT, with plans to expand to legal and inventory management in the near future. Below are examples of just a few of the 40-plus apps Seagate has developed using Salesforce Platform.

Health App: Ergonomic Assessment

This app is multi-lingual and is used by Seagate’s 13,000 global office employees. It has replaced a previously paper-based process. Users are able to do self-assessments of their ergonomic needs on the app. These forms are easily reviewed, with solutions quickly found and implemented.

Finance and HR App: Sea-time

The Sea-time app is where hourly U.S. employees record their timecards. It can also be used by all of Seagate’s U.S. staff to make vacation requests and get their time off approved. Sea-time is integrated with the company’s payroll vendor. The app is a hybrid mobile app for the iPhone and the web.

Sales Apps: PMI and Sales Center

Seagate’s Pipeline Management Initiative (PMI) application features the social and collaborative nature of the Salesforce Platform through Chatter. The company’s Sales Center was built to be accessible by all employees and serves as a portal for multiple sales apps.

Safety App: Site Inspection

The Site Inspection app will launch globally in late 2013. This mobile application is intended for use in the field. Inspectors will be able to input the health and safety data while on-site. Once saved into Salesforce.com, that information will be accessible to anyone using the app on a mobile device such as an iPad or iPhone and via the web version.

To learn more on about Seagate’s modernized app development watch the free webinar, How Seagate Unlocked Its Back Office and Built 40 Modern Cloud and Mobile Apps.