While other leading cloud providers like Amazon Inc. regularly undercut the competition to try and attract new users, Salesforce.com Inc. hopes to set itself apart by moving in the opposite direction of the price curve. Last week saw the customer relationship management giant introduce a new iteration of its platform that offers a host of value-added features for organizations willing to pay a premium.

The roster includes the invoicing automation functionality that the company obtained through its acquisition of partner SteelBrick Inc. last year and an analytics tool for estimating the chances of converting a lead into a paying client. But perhaps the most signficant addition is a native calling feature that makes it possible to contact prospects directly through the Salesforce.com interface, thereby removing the need to switch back and forth from an external teleconferencing service. For salespeople who spend much of their work days talking with customers, the resulting time savings can add up quickly.

Microsoft also set out to make communications easier for its users last week by pushing out a free Yammer license to every Office 365 account. The move is a last-ditch attempt at boosting the adoption of the struggling enterprise social network that will see new integrations added in conjunction to increase its appeal. Starting in the second quarter, it will be possible to schedule calls through the platform and access files from OneDrive, as well as synchronize important events to the Outlook calendar.

The functionality is meant to provide the same kind of centralized experience that Salesforce.com is looking to deliver with its built-in calling feature. Druva Inc. is pursuing a similar strategy over in the managed data protection world with its Phoenix service, which was updated against the backdrop of the cloud giants’ announcements to support continuous backup of important data. Coupled with its existing snapshot management and archiving features, the addition enables administrators to check all three of the most important boxes in their disaster recovery do-to lists through a single interface. 

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