While it has emerged as a serious contender to Microsoft Corp. in cloud-based productivity software, Google still lacks many of the features provided by its rival. But the search giant has a broad network of partners working to fill the gaps.

Among them is ProsperWorks Inc., which raised $24 million today for its customer relationship management extension. The tool blends with Google Apps for Work and can be configured in under 10 minutes thanks to an automated data entry feature. When a user connects ProsperWorks to their account, the function scans the inbox to identify important contacts who should be added to the built-in sales database. It then displays its findings in a menu that makes it possible to quickly filter out false positives and have related information like job titles pulled from Gmail into the relevant fields.

From there, users can start putting their records to work using the extension’s business intelligence capabilities. ProsperWorks provides the ability to visualize sales performance in interactive graphs, identify what activities generate the most opportunities and examine how many lead to successful deals. Complementary filters enable managers to sort the information based on specific factors like what representatives were involved in a deal to identify areas for improvement.

ProsperWorks’ tight integration with Google Apps is one of its most important advantages against rivals such as Salesforce.com Inc., which has also recognized the importance of providing customers with a cohesive feature set. The company last month acquired a word-processing startup called Quip Inc. for a reported $750 million in cash and stock to address the demand. Microsoft, meanwhile, also provides integration between Office 365 and its Dynamics CRM service.

ProsperWorks planss to use the funding to add new functions and fuel customer acquisitions efforts. The startup has some 63,000 business customers to date. Former Salesforce product management vice president Anshu Sharma participated in the funding round alongside over half a dozen other backers. Next World Capital led the investment.

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