Salesforce has built up practices solely focused on developing the Indian domestic marketplace

Charles Woodall
Senior Vice President Alliances and Channel Sales APAC - Salesforce

“I was recently talking to our partner ecosystem which is growing almost 100% year-on-year in the Indian marketplace. And it is no longer an SMB or mid-market discussion, but we have global partners in the marketplace.” 

Salesforce has a partner first methodology. Its partner ecosystem is growing almost 100% year-on-year in the Indian marketplace. And it is no longer an SMB or mid-market that Salesforce is seeing growing, but today it has global partners in the marketplace such as Accenture, Deloitte, Wipro, and Infosys, with whom Salesforce works together in the domestic market. Salesforce has seen this huge shift over the last two and a half or three years, where it typically has these global players in the marketplace, servicing the global market in America or Asia, Middle East and Africa. What’s actually happening now is that they have realized the market opportunity within India. Therefore, they have practices built up which are solely focused on developing the Indian domestic marketplace.  

The number one thing that Salesforce asks its partners is to be bold. The investment that is required to take advantage is to invest ahead of the curve. The reality is that there is a crisis of talent at a global level. And that’s not exclusive to Salesforce but across the whole technology industry. Salesforce is doing everything within its power by enabling its partners to be able to capture that opportunity and growth that exists in the marketplace today.

Salesforce is playing a big role in all industries outside of the public sector. It has 12 industry clouds which are focused on taking the customer experience into each of those individual industries. Be it Manufacturing, BFSI, or Automotive, Salesforce plays a role in each of these specific industries. Across these 12 industries, Salesforce has customer-facing IP, already pre-built into its platform for customers to enable themselves. Salesforce is always on the lookout to capture market opportunities. Salesforce itself has grown with a 360° view of its customer base. Digital transformation is a part of that. It looks towards the integration layers, which Salesforce has through MuleSoft and Tableau. Its partners often ask Salesforce how they can grow from being just a CRM focused organization into one which actually embraces digital transformation as a platform. Salesforce believes that's an exciting opportunity for partners as well, but they are always asked for sufficient education in that space.