SAN FRANCISCO, May 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce, the
global leader in CRM, today announced a new $50 million fund from Salesforce Ventures, the
company's corporate investment group. The new SI (system
integrator) Trailblazer Fund will be dedicated to the
next-generation of cloud consulting firms, enabling them to
accelerate their growth and drive greater customer success. In
conjunction with the fund, Salesforce is also launching a new SI
Trailblazer Alliance Initiative to provide portfolio companies with
resources and training to build out their service capabilities for
the future.
Today, growing demand for Salesforce solutions is creating new
opportunities for consulting partners to empower companies to
transform their businesses by focusing on their customers. In fact,
consulting partners are seeing their Salesforce practices grow more
than 50% annually.1 However, this increased
demand is also creating a need for new partners that can provide
additional skilled capacity to deploy the full family of Salesforce
offerings to customers.
New SI Trailblazer Fund Supercharges Consulting Ecosystem
Growth
The new $50 million SI
Trailblazer Fund will provide the next generation of cloud
consulting companies with the capital required to build and scale
their Salesforce services capabilities for the future—and empower
customers to transform their businesses with Salesforce. New SI
Trailblazer Fund investments include:
- 7Summits: As a leading online community consulting partner
focused on the social community space and the Salesforce Community
Cloud, 7Summits will use this investment to further fund its growth
plans.
- Arxxus: Arxxus is a leading provider of Salesforce professional
services in Australia that will
leverage this investment to further expand its services capacity in
the mid-market sector and its expertise in public sector.
- ATG: ATG provides quote-to-cash (CPQ) advisory and
implementation services, and will leverage the investment to
continue providing CPQ and billing expertise, services, training
and tools to leading Salesforce partners as they build their
practices across North America,
EMEA and APAC.
SI Trailblazer Alliance Initiative Empowers Consulting Firms
with Resources and Training to Scale Their
Businesses
Launching in parallel with the SI Trailblazer
Fund, the new SI Trailblazer Alliance Initiative will provide SI
Trailblazer portfolio companies with access to a wide-range of
concierge resources, training and tools including:
- Accelerated onboarding experience: With guided
interactive training through Trailhead, priority access to boot
camps and workshops and a Partner Onboarding Specialist, consulting
partners can join the Salesforce Partner Program and get ramped up
quickly.
- Marketing and sales mentorship: Portfolio consulting
companies can learn marketing best-practices with courses delivered
by Salesforce experts; utilize a Partner Marketing Specialist to
build custom marketing plans; and access Marketing Development
Funds (MDF).
- Implementation guidance: With mentoring from tenured
partners and assistance in developing Salesforce solutions
(including Fullforce and Lightning Bolt), portfolio companies are
empowered to deliver successful implementations—creating thriving
businesses.
Comments on the News:
- "Consulting firms play a pivotal role in the Salesforce
ecosystem, implementing Salesforce solutions that meet the needs of
customers of all sizes, industries and geographies," said
John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate
Development and Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce. "This new fund
will foster the next-generation of SIs and supercharge the growth
of the Salesforce ecosystem."
- "Growing customer demand for Salesforce has created a critical
need for more Salesforce-trained consulting partners as part of the
thriving 'Salesforce Economy,'" said Tyler
Prince, EVP of Worldwide Alliances and Go-to-Market
Innovation, Salesforce. "The new SI Trailblazer Fund and SI
Trailblazer Alliance Initiative will help fuel our consulting
partner ecosystem and empower the next generation of high-growth
cloud consultancies."
New SI Trailblazer Fund and Alliance Initiative Supports
Thriving 'Salesforce Economy'
The cloud represents an
enormous opportunity for partners to transform every industry,
create jobs and accelerate economies around the world. In fact,
according to IDC, Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and
partners will drive more than $389
billion in new GDP impact and 1.9 million new jobs worldwide
by 2020.2 Coupled with Salesforce
Trailhead—Salesforce's free online learning platform—the new SI
Trailblazer Fund and Alliance Initiative supports the thriving
"Salesforce Economy" with an infusion of capital and resources to
empower partners to drive customer success.
Connect with Salesforce Ventures and Partners
- Learn more about Salesforce Ventures:
http://www.salesforce.com/ventures
- Learn more about the Salesforce Partner Community:
https://partners.salesforce.com/
- Follow @SalesforceVC on Twitter
- Follow @partnerforce on Twitter
- Get the skills needed for the workforce of the future with
Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/
About Salesforce
Salesforce, the global CRM leader,
empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new
way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit:
http://www.salesforce.com.
1
http://s1.q4cdn.com/454432842/files/doc_financials/2017/Q4/CRM-Q417-Earnings-Transcript-2017-2-28.pdf
2 Source: IDC white paper, August 2016, "The Salesforce Economy: Enabling
1.9 Million New Jobs and $389 Billion
in New Revenues over the Next Five Years." Ecosystem includes all
companies that provide the products and services that surround a
Salesforce implementation.
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SOURCE Salesforce