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Salesforce has become a dominant player in the world of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, providing innovative services that make it stand out from its competitors. With rapidly increasing popularity and a wide range of features and customizations, there are many interesting Salesforce facts that may surprise even those well-versed in the industry.
Founded by visionary technology entrepreneur Marc Benioff, Salesforce is often credited with pioneering modern cloud computing, as one of the first Software-as-a-Service(SaaS) companies. A top employer in several countries and ranked the #4 World's Best Workplace last year, Salesforce prioritizes company culture and employee experience. This dedication to building a strong foundation has helped the company create a powerful platform that continues to revolutionize the CRM industry.
So let’s dive into the past, present, and future of Salesforce and see what we can learn about the software giant!
Salesforce was founded in 1999 by entrepreneur Marc Benioff. Before becoming a leading cloud computing and CRM platform, Salesforce was just an idea – one that was conceived during a six-month sabbatical that Benioff took in India and Hawaii, where he developed a lifelong interest in yoga and Eastern religions. He was also inspired by Amazon, his idea being to deliver business applications cheaply through a Web site that was “as easy to use as Amazon.com.” Luckily Salesforce followed in Amazon’s footsteps by surviving the dot-com crash and today, the company has grown exponentially and boasts over 72,000 employees globally.
From a young age, founder Marc Benioff demonstrated a natural entrepreneurial spirit, always looking for opportunities to start businesses. At just 12 years old, he began knocking on doors to offer his services in repairing antennas. By the age of 15, he had already sold his first piece of computing software.
Even while in college, Benioff continued to develop and market software, paying for his education through the royalties he earned. Then, at just 26 years of age, he became the youngest vice president of Oracle. His drive and passion for entrepreneurship have been evident throughout his life, paving the way for his success in the tech industry.
Throughout its history, Salesforce has acquired a portfolio of over 60 companies, totaling more than $60 billion in investment. These companies have been strategically integrated into Salesforce's platform, enhancing its capabilities and expanding its offerings.
For instance, Exact Target was rebranded as Marketing Cloud, BuddyMedia and Radian6 were integrated into Social Studio, and GroupSwim was transformed into Chatter. These acquisitions have enabled Salesforce to stay at the forefront of the tech industry, providing innovative solutions to businesses worldwide.
One more recent notable acquisition was Mulesoft, a software company specializing in integration and connectivity, which Salesforce acquired in 2018. This enabled the company to offer its customers enhanced integration capabilities to connect applications, data, and devices seamlessly.
Another significant acquisition was Tableau, a leading data visualization and analytics company, which Salesforce acquired in 2019. The addition of Tableau empowered Salesforce users to better visualize and analyze complex data sets, leading to more informed decision-making processes. Apart from acquisitions, Salesforce has also made investments in innovative startups and emerging technologies, demonstrating its commitment to staying at the forefront of the tech industry.
Salesforce is widely recognized for its core product, the CRM platform. Customer Relationship Management is a technology used for managing a company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. Salesforce's CRM system is aimed at improving business relationships and helping businesses grow.
Salesforce's CRM platform offers a variety of features, such as:
The benefits of using Salesforce's CRM platform include:
Some of Salesforce's main competitors in the CRM space include Oracle and Microsoft. While Salesforce maintains a significant market share, it faces strong competition from these rivals.
According to a report by Ithaka Group, Salesforce held the largest market share in the global CRM software market with 31.3% in 2021, followed by Oracle, and Microsoft. This indicates that Salesforce remains a dominant player in the industry, and is well-regarded for its core product, the CRM platform.
In conclusion, the Salesforce CRM platform is an industry-leading solution that offers key features and benefits to assist businesses in managing their customer relationships effectively. With its customizable nature and data-driven tools, Salesforce continues to innovate and maintain its position as a market leader in the CRM space.
When you hear the term "App Store," you immediately think of Apple. However, what many people don't know is that Salesforce had already launched its own AppExchange in 2005, three years before Apple's App Store. In fact, Salesforce had originally planned to call it the App Store and had trademarked the phrase and registered the URL before ultimately settling on AppExchange.
In a 2008 interview, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revealed that he had gifted the term App Store to Steve Jobs as a token of gratitude for all of his support over the years (more on that later!).
Despite Salesforce's early adoption of the term, Apple's App Store has become the more widely recognized and celebrated platform for app distribution. However, the Salesforce AppExchange is now a leading enterprise cloud marketplace, offering a wide range of applications tailored for various industries, specific business needs, and integrations to enhance the functionality of Salesforce products. flair covers all key HR processes, including recruitment, onboarding, shift planning, absence management, time tracking, payroll, and employee engagement and is the top-rated HR app on Salesforce AppExchange!
A crucial part of Salesforce's ecosystem is the Trailblazer Community, consisting of over 15 million members across the globe. Trailblazers are Salesforce users who share their knowledge, insights, and experiences to help others succeed in the Salesforce world. By actively participating in forums, meetups, webinars, and various online platforms, they promote a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
Some Trailblazers get involved in the Salesforce education initiative through Trailhead, which offers free, guided learning paths to develop and enhance Salesforce skills. Trailhead's mission is to empower individuals to gain technological expertise and transform their careers, businesses, and communities.
The Salesforce community doesn't stop at Trailblazers and education – it also extends to Salesforce partners who contribute to the Salesforce ecosystem by building apps, implementing solutions, and offering expert-credentialed consulting services. As an interconnected network, the community fuels Salesforce's growth and enables its success.
Salesforce customers can benefit from a variety of cloud solutions that cater to different business needs. In this section, we will focus on two major cloud offerings: Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud.
The Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive platform designed to help businesses better connect with their customers. It provides tools for marketing automation, email marketing, social media management, and data analytics. One of its key components is Pardot, a powerful marketing automation tool that helps marketers create targeted marketing campaigns, manage leads, and measure the effectiveness of their efforts.
Marketing Cloud simplifies the process of managing and coordinating marketing efforts across various channels. This enables companies to better understand their audiences, personalize content, and deliver relevant messages at the right time. By leveraging the power of cloud computing, the platform ensures businesses have access to real-time data to make informed decisions and optimize their marketing strategies.
Commerce Cloud is another essential Salesforce offering, designed to streamline the end-to-end commerce experience for both B2B and B2C enterprises. It provides a suite of tools for managing online stores, order management, and customer engagement.
The primary goal of Commerce Cloud is to facilitate seamless and personalized shopping experiences for customers. The platform integrates with other Salesforce clouds to ensure businesses have a unified view of their customers and can easily share information across sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
Some key features of Commerce Cloud include:
Salesforce is committed to offering cutting-edge solutions in the form of innovative technologies to its users. The company consistently invests in new developments, partnerships, and acquisitions that improve its platform's capabilities and deliver value to customers.
One of these impressive innovations is the integration with Slack, an enterprise communication tool that has become essential in the modern work environment. By bringing together CRM and collaboration, Salesforce has enabled its users to work together seamlessly, keeping all relevant information and communication in a centralized platform. Users can now effectively collaborate with their teams, share critical Salesforce data, and get real-time updates on leads, opportunities, and cases without having to leave Slack.
Another significant advance within the Salesforce ecosystem is the integration of Tableau Analytics. Following the acquisition of Tableau, Salesforce enhanced its platform with powerful data visualization and reporting capabilities. By incorporating Tableau into the Salesforce platform, users can create interactive dashboards, use advanced reporting options, and easily make data-driven decisions.
Through Tableau, Salesforce users can:
In 2016, Salesforce released Salesforce Einstein, an AI tool that enables developers and administrators to add AI capabilities to the CRM. It leverages machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to automate routine tasks, analyze customer data, and provide insights for optimized workflows, improved customer experience, and increased revenue. Salesforce Einstein is also highly customizable, allowing businesses to create their own AI models and algorithms. It represents a major milestone in the evolution of CRM and AI, providing businesses with the tools they need to stay competitive.
Salesforce is well-known for its commitment to philanthropy and corporate responsibility. The company follows a unique 1/1/1 model, devised by founder Marc Benioff, which allocates 1% of equity, 1% of employee hours, and 1% of Salesforce's product to charitable causes. This model ensures that the company continuously gives back as it grows. Over the years, Salesforce has donated more than half a billion dollars in grants, 3.5 million hours of community service, and offered product donations for over 39,000 not-for-profits and educational institutions.
Salesforce also encourages its employees to engage in corporate philanthropy, with a strong focus on education and workforce development. The company believes that an equitable future begins with equal access to quality education, so it partners with schools and nonprofits to create opportunities for students. Employee volunteering and engagement have become a cornerstone of Salesforce's philanthropy efforts, as the company provides its team members with paid time off for volunteering and encourages them to participate in various community service activities.
In 2021, Salesforce achieved net-zero residual emissions and 100% renewable energy for its global operations. The company is committed to accelerating the global transition to clean and renewable sources of electricity. Earlier this year, Salesforce announced its Nature Positive Strategy and made sustainability a core company value. The company's carbon accounting solution, Net Zero Cloud, is available worldwide.
Salesforce has a global presence, with offices in 95 cities across 84 countries. The company currently operates eight Salesforce Towers in major cities including Atlanta, Indianapolis, London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Dublin, and Chicago.
In addition to these towers, Salesforce is currently developing a new tower in Sydney, which will further expand its global footprint. These towers serve as hubs for innovation and collaboration, bringing together employees, customers, and partners to drive growth and success.
The Salesforce Tower in San Francisco is an architectural marvel and a symbol of the company's success. It is the tallest building in the Bay Area and the second tallest in the United States, standing 1,070 feet tall. This height surpasses both The Shard in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The tower is also environmentally friendly, as it features the largest onsite water recycling system in a commercial high-rise in the United States, filtering up to 30,000 gallons of water daily.
According to Zippia data, there are over 6,349 Salesforce developers currently working in the United States. That's a lot of talented people! 27.6% of them are women, while 72.4% are men, showing that the tech industry is slowly becoming more inclusive.
If you're a Salesforce developer looking for work, you might want to check out New York, where these roles are in high demand. And if you're looking to make the big bucks, San Francisco offers the highest annual average wage at $131,281.
It's also great to see that in 2020, women Salesforce developers earned 94% of what men earned, showing that the gender pay gap is closing. Also worthy of note: Salesforce developers are 57% more likely to work at public companies than private companies.
Founder Marc Benioff looked up to Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, who mentored Benioff early in his career, inspiring him to think differently and innovate. The relationship between the two is well-documented, and the influence of Steve Jobs on Benioff's approach to business is evident in the success of Salesforce.
Underrepresented groups make up nearly half of Salesforce's US workforce. That's a significant number, and it's great to see that the company is committed to further increasing diversity and inclusion.
In fact, Salesforce has pledged that underrepresented groups will account for 50% of its workforce by 2023. Currently, LGBTQ+ employees make up 3.2% of the company's workforce, while people with disabilities account for 3.1% of the staff. Additionally, 2.3% of the group's employees are veterans. It's inspiring to see a company take such a proactive approach to promoting diversity and inclusion, and we hope that other companies will follow suit.
Salesforce has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes, helping them manage their customer relationships and expand their reach. It is no surprise that Salesforce was been named the world's most innovative company by Forbes four times in a row. The platform's flexibility and adaptability have enabled it to cater to businesses of all sizes, ensuring that companies can grow and thrive with the help of Salesforce.
And that’s exactly why we chose to build flair on Salesforce. We wanted to join the ranks of top brands like Spotify, Toyota, American Express, and even the US Bank, that trust Salesforce to help them deliver the very best.
With its unique offerings, company culture, and dedication to giving back, Salesforce continues to pave the way for customer relationship management and business growth, and we’re extremely proud to be part of the community.
Discover all the reasons we partnered with Salesforce here.
Salesforce has a strong reputation for data security. Learn more about the CRM platform’s data protection measures and what makes it ideal for storing HR data.
Get the lowdown on choosing your Salesforce career path, as well as CRM community insights from a three-time MVP and expert consultant.
Peter Ganza, aka the AppExchange Whisperer, chats to flair about perfecting app listings and the spirit of the Salesforce community.
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