When Salesforce reported what Benioff called the best first quarter in its history, the CEO predicted that it was « imminent » to outperform SAP as the largest enterprise applications company.
Salesforce has set itself the goal of surviving SAP as the largest company for enterprise applications in the world. The momentum is underscored by the company’s strong growth in the company’s final quarter, CEO Marc Benioff said Thursday.
During the company’s quarterly interview with analysts, Benioff referred to the first quarter of Salesforce’s April 30, 2022 fiscal year as that best first quarter in the company’s history. Revenue for the quarter rose 23 percent year over year to $ 5.96 billion.
[See also: Salesforce channel boss Tyler Prince has 11 tips for channel partners]
Regarding Salesforce competitor SAP, Benioff said that SAP is less present in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) market than in the past. According to the research company IDC, which the company published in October, Salesforce has by far the largest market share in the CRM industry – with 19.8 percent of the global market compared to 4.8 percent for SAP in the first half of 2020.
During Thursday’s quarterly call, Benioff predicted that « we will overtake SAP as the largest enterprise application company in the world ».
Benioff has not specified what measurement he uses or offered a specific timeframe. All he said was that Salesforce, which outperforms SAP, is « imminent. »
According to Benioff, San Francisco-based Salesforce expects revenue of $ 50 billion by fiscal 2026, compared to $ 21.25 billion in fiscal 2021, which ended January 31. SAP reported total sales of 27.34 billion euros (33.16 billion US dollars) for 2020.
« We are really seeing a certain momentum and cadence that is very strong for the company, » said Benioff. « And the quarter shows once again the strength and longevity of our business, the quality of our management team. » The company is also investing in delivering its « Slack first » cloud offerings, he said, with the company’s agreement to acquire the Slack collaboration app for $ 27.7 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in late July.
Benioff also noted that Salesforce will hold its Dreamforce conference in person from September 21-23 at locations in San Francisco, New York, Paris and London. The conference will also offer digital elements, he said.
Executives from Salesforce channel partners told CRN that they are satisfied with the response from customers to the vendor’s products and services.
Eran Gil, CEO of AllCloud with offices in Denver, Tel Aviv, Germany and Romania, said customers continue to leverage industry-specific Salesforce clouds and Salesforce Marketing clouds. Customers have sought the cloud for data analytics and improved customer interactions, Gil said. And the global pandemic accelerated digital transformation for consumer products companies that go direct to customers, he said. « Salesforce continues to grow at impressive rates and AllCloud is working hard to keep up, » said Gil. “We’ve made significant investments in people, solutions, and new specialties and skills.” Earlier this month, Salesforce channel boss Tyler Prince told CRN that the vendor is happy to say that 90 percent of deal profits are Salesforce- Include partners.
« Without our partners pushing us, without our partners contributing to us, without our partners developing services and software for what we do, I’m not sure we’re in the position to be we are, « said Prince during the interview. « And we appreciate that. »
At solution provider Anexinet, customers have adopted Salesforce’s Sales 360 data management platform to deliver personalized experiences to end customers, said Steve Tranchida, vice president of digital solutions at Anexinet in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania , opposite CRN.
The Salesforce sales partner has even developed its own accelerator program that allows customers to quickly develop a strategy around Customer 360 with the Salesforce clouds for marketing, commerce, experience and service, said Tranchida.
« Salesforce has done a good job putting yourself in a leadership position and providing a truly end-to-end platform for the customer experience, » he said.
The solution provider has invested in recruitment, certification, training and an improved onboarding process for the Salesforce suite at another Salesforce partner, Perficient of St. Louis, said Brent Teiken, general manager of Salesforce Practice of Perficient. Perficient has invested in the professional development of its people to expand Salesforce’s technical and advisory skills.
In terms of what he hopes in Salesforce, Teiken wants the company to remember that investing in new Features and enhancements should also come with an investment in helping partners communicate progress with end users.
« As Salesforce continues to add new features and evolve its platform, it is critical that the partner ecosystem is able to successfully deliver the overall value of the Salesforce platform, » he said.
Gil is excited that further services and solutions are integrated into Salesforce products, especially when it comes to the vendor’s industry-oriented clouds.
« We see many of our Salesforce customers asking for integrated solutions for many of the hyperscalers, especially for AWS, « said Gil. « You’re looking for that front-office and back-office connection that is an untapped market that Salesforce would like to expand into. »
In the first quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year, revenue was from subscriptions and support to $ 5.54 billion, up 21 percent year over year.
Revenue for the Tableau and Mulesoft divisions was approximately $ 716 million for the quarter, an increase of approximately 46 percent over the previous quarter Last year.
Salesforce expects revenue of around 6.22 billion US dollars for the second quarter, an increase of 21 percent over the previous year.
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