When Salesforce emerged in 1999, it stood out as a pioneer of enterprise applications.
Though Salesforce began as nothing more than an experiment in Founder Marc Benioff’s apartment, it’s quickly become the catalyst in transforming business and sales experiences. Almost 20 years from inception, Salesforce is now more diverse, complex, and incredible than ever, and the company owes much of its success to the potential of its ecosystem.
The Salesforce ecosystem of partners and developers was built atop a unique business model centred around collaboration. Salesforce believed that an open, creative partnership would create tremendous opportunities in the enterprise app space, and they were right.
Here’s how the Salesforce partner ecosystem has evolved over the years.
New Opportunities, New Expertise
A 2016 report into the Salesforce ecosystem from IDC indicates that Salesforce will be responsible for up to 1.9 million new jobs and $349 billion in GDP up to 2020. The study discovered that the Salesforce ecosystem would also create up to 2.8 million indirect jobs at the same time.
The partner and developer ecosystem is a powerful extension of Salesforce, anywhere up to four times larger than the company itself. Over the years, Salesforce has expanded that ecosystem through the acquisition of new companies, strategic partnerships with industry leaders, and advanced opportunities for budding developers.
Salesforce launched a new kind of software-based career in the technology space, as the first and most popular customer relationship management platform in the world. Every year, the Salesforce ecosystem grows more impressive.
Promoting New Partnerships
The right connections count in any business. Salesforce prides itself on having one of the largest Salesforce partner ecosystems in the world, which includes in-depth connections with market leaders like Google, IBM, and Amazon.
The partnerships that Salesforce builds with these industry pioneers create new possibilities for independent software vendors and developers that have built entire companies around their offerings on the Salesforce app store, the “AppExchange.”
Salesforce’s relationship with IBM gave them access to the company’s state-of-the-art artificial intelligence “Watson,” which empowers Salesforce’s own AI solution, Einstein. At the same time, access to Google’s consumer-focused business model gives Salesforce greater market penetration.
At the latest Dreamforce event (the largest software event in the world), Salesforce announced new strategic alliances with AWS and Apple. With Apple, Salesforce will be re-designing their iOS platform, and introducing a new developer SDK optimised for the Apple programming language, “Swift.” With AWS, Salesforce will make it easier to share and synchronise data securely across their apps.
Creating Advanced Opportunities for Developers
Partners are just one section of the Salesforce ecosystem. The world’s favourite CRM also develops new opportunities through their developer scheme. Salesforce provides innovators in the world of digital automation and growth with a broad toolbox of cloud-based app services and software development kits.
Salesforce Lightning provides the quickest and easiest platform for software development on the market, speeding up app building with quick-start tools, and a platform that exchanges coding for drag-and-drop app creation. The recently-announced Salesforce Lightning Object creator makes it easier for anyone to become a Salesforce developer and join the “AppExchange.”
The Salesforce AppExchange is the heart of the Salesforce ecosystem. Developed more than a decade ago, it provides a simple place for developers to create and share transformative applications. The AppExchange has created countless new companies and business opportunities in the CRM technology space. According to IDC, the Salesforce Economy will drive $859 in business revenues thanks mainly to the AppExchange.
Expected to create more than 3.3 million jobs within Salesforce by the end of 2022, the AppExchange is continually growing more innovative and insightful. Recently, Salesforce updated the AppExchange with artificial intelligence. The enhanced system provides smarter recommendations to companies who need help building and buying solutions for digital transformation.
The Future of the Salesforce Partner Ecosystem
Thanks to new partnerships, advanced options for developers and investments into the latest disruptive technology, the Salesforce ecosystem is one of the factors pushing the transformation of the technology recruitment sector.
The Salesforce business built their company culture around the Hawaiian concept of “Ohana,” which concentrates on ideas of family and inclusion. Over the years, this focus on community has helped Salesforce to grow into something truly exceptional.
As Salesforce continues to experiment with things like Einstein voice for voice-assisted search, artificial intelligence, and even the potential of blockchain, the CRM may even prompt the rise of new professions in the software sector. Fortunately, Salesforce also provides the education that budding experts need with the “Trailhead” learning platform.
As new skills emerge in the years ahead, business development plans may even include investing in specific “trails” for your software developers, maintenance experts, and engineers.
About Resource On Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company, now also focusing on growth Cloud markets.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations to grow their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill Cloud roles that span across Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, Human Capital Management and the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532