There’s perhaps no better indicator of the key role partners play in Salesforce.com Inc.’s strategy than the fact that 87 percent of its customers use outside apps. Today, the software-as-a-service giant announced a major update that should put those partner-developed offerings even more front and center.

Salesforce has rolled out a new version of its AppExchange marketplace that aims to help customers find relevant ecosystem solutions more easily. The first big change is the introduction of product recommendations. It’s a feature that the company has borrowed from the e-commerce world, where personalized results are used to great effect by the likes of Amazon.com Inc.

AppExchange customizes recommendations based on a variety of factors. The algorithms under the hood take into account a company’s location, what applications have been installed in its deployment and other relevant profile details.

Above all else, however, Salesforce looks at the activity of the specific users searching for products. If an administrator starts looking into, say, backup tools, the recommendations will be tweaked to show offerings that match the description. AppExchange automatically refreshes the lineup when a product is installed to keep the results relevant.

The recommendations feature is joined by tighter integration with Salesforce’s Trailhead learning portal. AppExchange now shows tutorials and other content designed to help users find ways of improving their deployments, as well as identify products that could potentially ease the task.

The update will affect much more than just third-party applications. According to Salesforce, the new version of AppExchange also features two types of offerings that weren’t displayed before: third-party data sources and so-called Lightning Bolts. The latter products are prepackaged component bundles that can be used to create specialized websites such as customer feedback portals.

Effectively, the new AppExchange release aims to kill two birds with one stone. Salesforce hopes that the revamped marketplace will make it easier for enterprise clients to customize their deployments while helping partners better reach potential buyers.

The upgrade is the latest in a series of moves the company has made in recent months to boost its ecosystem. Previously, Salesforce launched a $100 million fund to support third-party app developers.

Image: Salesforce