SaaS help desk provider Zendesk has two pieces of news out this week: First, a $19 million round of Series C funding led by Matrix Partners, and second, integration with the Salesforce.com CRM platform. Here’s the scoop.

Zendesk VP of Product Management Maksim Ovsyannikov says that the $19 million is going to be funneled into research and development — specifically, in finding new ways to engage with customers and support their IT problems. Moreover, as a SaaS provider, Ovskyannikov says that much of their money goes to keeping their infrastructure up to snuff with demand.

And on the Salesforce integration end, Ovsyannikov says that this is the first time administrators have access to sales, marketing, and help desk data all from the same pane. In other words, by using Zendesk with Salesforce CRM by way of the AppExchange, users can get a customer view that ranges from sales to support.

Ovskyannikov says that the entire range of Zendesk services is available from Salesforce and vice versa — support tickets show up in CRM and customer profiles appear when doing support tasks. Moreover, executives can crunch analytics from both ends of the spectrum and give a broader informational view.

The pitch to MSPs and other IT pros is simple, Ovskyannikov says — it’s a “360-degree view” into who your clients are, which is especially useful when you’re supporting multiple organizations at once.

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