blueprint salesforce services 2015

Thriving In The As-a-Service Economy

Khalda De Souza

Principal Analyst, Services Strategies

[email protected]

Charles Sutherland

Chief Research Officer

[email protected]

HfS Blueprint Report

Salesforce Services 2015

Excerpt for NTT Data

October 2015

Proprietary │Page 1 © 2015 HfS Research Excerpt for NTT Data

TOPIC PAGE

Executive Summary 2

Research Methodology 12

Salesforce Services In The As-a-Service Economy 17

Service Provider Grid 20

Service Provider Profile 24

Market Wrap-Up and Recommendations 27

About the Authors 33

Table of Contents

Executive Summary


Introduction to the HfS Blueprint Report:

Salesforce Services 2015

The 2015 HfS Salesforce Services Blueprint Report continues our theme of looking at the services sets around the planning, implementation, management and operations of leading Software-As-a-Service platforms. Unlike other quadrants and matrices, the HfS Blueprint identifies relevant differentials between service providers across a number of facets under two main categories: innovation and execution.

HfS Blueprint Report ratings are dependent on a broad range of stakeholders with specific weightings based on 1,109 stakeholder interviews from the 2014 State of Outsourcing Survey that covered:

• Enterprise Service Buyers

• Service Providers

• Industry Influencers (sourcing advisors and management consultants)

• HfS Sourcing Executive Council Members

• HfS Research Analysts


Salesforce Technologies Supported By Services

HfS has defined the services set for this Blueprint to be built around all of the Salesforce technologies within the Customer Success Platform, including:

Sales Cloud

Service Cloud

Marketing Cloud

Salesforce 1 platform

Wave Analytics

Community Cloud

App Cloud

IoT Cloud platform: announced at Dreamforce 2015

The Customer Success Platform is Salesforce’s complete CRM offering and represents the software provider’s move away from individual products to an integrated end-to-end CRM offering for clients

The vast majority of the client references discussions that were conducted for this Blueprint were based on services in support of the Sales, Service Clouds as well as Wave Analytics. The Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud and IoT Cloud will likely feature much more significantly in the next update to this Blueprint.


Salesforce Services Market Growth Drivers

Salesforce is one of the most established SaaS technologies in the market today. It remains a growth market with continued service opportunities driven by the current inter-linked focus of Salesforce, enterprises and Salesforce service providers.

• Enterprise focus on CRM: The increasingly competitive landscape across industry sectors, is forcing enterprises to refocus on CRM initiatives – to identity, understand, and better serve their clients. Many enterprises who implemented at least one Salesforce technology several years ago are now revisiting their CRM strategy to ensure that they are receiving the maximum business benefits from their Salesforce investments.

• Salesforce focus on Platforms: Salesforce is increasingly focused on the platform sell with its Customer Success platform, encouraging clients to adopt an end-to-end view of their CRM environment.

• Service providers’ focus on Digital: Service providers, especially large, global providers are focusing investment and marketing efforts on delivering Digital services to clients. CRM, including Salesforce initiatives, are often at the heart of Digital services, and for many service providers they are in the same organizational business unit.


Salesforce Service Partner Ecosystem

Huge partner ecosystem: As one of the earliest and most established SaaS products in the market, Salesforce has a vast consultant partner ecosystem. It consists of a mix of service providers that are either global, regional/in-country or Salesforce focused. This makes it a competitive space for service providers and a complicated provider selection exercise for clients.

Salesforce Appexchange web site resource: This site provides information on Salesforce applications, tools and consultant partners, with top level profiles, statistics and client reviews available for the latter. While it is worth noting that the statistical information is not always up-to-date on the site, it remains the key resource to find information on all the service partners in one place. This is a perfect first point of call for enterprises to find a suitable partner. For this reason, the partners must update Salesforce regularly to ensure the accuracy of the information presented.

CSAT scores conducted and shared by Salesforce: Salesforce conducts customer satisfaction surveys of its service partners and shares the scores on the appexchange web site. This is one of the most useful criterion for clients to help drive differentiation between the service partners.

Salesforce Success Community: An online resource of information, where clients can also collaborate and post questions to experts. This is a valuable tool for clients to get additional support and advice on their Salesforce deployments.


Salesforce Certifications Are Important To This Market

Partner Levels Solution Architect

Global Strategic Fullforce Master Certification*

Technical Architect***

Platinum Fullforce Industry Solution

Certification**

Domain Architect

Gold Domain Specialist

Silver

Registered

* Mastery of specific Salesforce product ** Best-of-breed industry solutions *** The highest level with a very demanding examination process. At Dreamforce ’15 Salesforce announced plans to now allow for product and capability specific version of the Technical Architect approvals which should result in a significant increase in certifications in the coming year.


HfS Salesforce Services Value Chain

PLAN

• Business case development for SaaS deployment

• Cloud advisory services, including cloud readiness assessment

• Compliance and risk assessment

• Security implications

• CRM strategy

• Salesforce process design and configuration support

• Change management

• Governance model/ structure

IMPLEMENT

• Project management

• Business process execution

• Data migration

• Custom development services to comply with industry, geography or other business requirements

• Integration services

• Extensions, tools or custom development to fill functional gaps of Salesforce

• Testing

• Initial user training

• Change management execution

• Initial implementation hand-off plans

MANAGE

• Governance management

• Upgrade support

• Salesforce help desk

• On-going integration

• On-going testing

• On-going training

• Salesforce uptime, data accuracy, and access interface responsibility

• On-going employee adoption support

• Just in time usability content/aides

• Periodic solution and service delivery reviews

• Identify any required changes in Salesforce or process to account for changing business requirements: M&A, divestment, new investments in IT

OPERATE

• Business process outsourcing (BPO),

e.g. CRM BPO, Marketing BPO

OPTIMIZE

• New Salesforce module value identification and benefit analysis

• On-going Salesforce module adds/upgrades, migrations, and consolidation

• On-going CRM strategy and system alignment

• CRM analytics and measurement

• Best practice content curation

• User community facilitation


Key Highlights – State of the Salesforce Services Market -

Services Plan: Opportunities to offer general SaaS readiness

services as well as Salesforce specific consulting services. It is paramount to be able to link technical advice and client business objectives, with a holistic view of CRM

Implement: Implementation services remain the biggest chunk of the Salesforce service market

Manage and Optimize: Management services demand is growing as enterprises recognize the need for ongoing support services. Proactivity is key here – helping clients to understand new releases and ensuring they remain consistent with dynamic business objectives

Operate: Only service providers with BPO skills in general have some Salesforce BPO business, but this remains a small market today.

Percentage of Employees Engaged Across Different Types

of Services*

Plan, 16%

Implement, 45%

Manage, 16%

Operate, 12%

Optimize, 11%

* Aggregate responses of service providers in this Blueprint


Key Highlights – State of the Salesforce Services Market –

Technologies

Majority of business in Sales Cloud implementation services: For many service providers this remains the bulk of their Salesforce service business. There are still many green-field opportunities in the market and enterprises often implement Sales Cloud as the first step on their Salesforce journey. For the service providers in this Blueprint, an average of 50% of employees are working in Sales Cloud engagements with clients.

Service Cloud implementations second largest business: Service Cloud implementations represent the second largest business segment for most service providers.

Interest in Marketing Cloud but fewer capabilities in the market. Clients are increasingly interested in Marketing Cloud but there are fewer service providers with the experience of large-scale implementations at this level, as many are still building out these practices, including establishing the relevant partnerships to deliver the solution to clients.

Platform development is rife: Salesforce’s increasing focus on the platform has led to a flurry of customised development work on the platform by service providers. This includes industry-specific proprietary solution development that drives differentiation between service partners. For the service providers in this Blueprint, an average of just under one third of employees are working with clients to develop platform solutions.

Research Methodology


Research Methodology

Data Summary

The data for this Blueprint was collected in Q2 and Q3 2015, covering services buyers, service providers, and advisors/influencers of Salesforce services.

This report was concluded prior to the closure of the acqisition of Cloud Sherpas by Accenture and so they are reviewed independently.

This Report Is Based On:

Tales from the Trenches: Interviews were conducted with buyers who have evaluated service providers and experienced their services. Some were supplied by service providers, but many interviews were conducted by HfS Executive Council members and participants in our extensive market research.

Sell-Side Executive Briefings: Structured discussions with service providers were intended to collect data necessary to evaluate their innovation, execution and market share, and deal counts.

HfS “State of Outsourcing” Survey: The industry’s largest quantitative survey, conducted with the support of KPMG, covering the views, intentions, and dynamics of 1,100+ buyers, providers, and influencers of outsourcing.

Publicly Available Information: Financial data, website information, presentations given by senior executives, and other marketing collateral were evaluated.

Participating Service Providers

Additional Mini Profiles


Key Factors Driving the HfS Blueprint

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Two major factors:

• Execution represents service providers’ ability to deliver services. It includes:

– Solutions in the Real World – Quality of Customer Relationships – Market Share

• Innovation represents service providers’ ability to improve services. It includes:

– Concrete Plans to Deliver Value Beyond Cost

– Experience Delivering Industry-Specific Solutions

– Partnership Strategy – Investment in Proprietary

Technologies

CRITERIA WEIGHTING

Criteria are weighed by crowdsourcing weightings from the four groups that matter most:

• Enterprise Buyers [$5B+] (20%)

• Buyers (20%)

• Service Providers (30%)

• HfS Research Analysts Team (20%)

• Advisors, Consultants, and Industry Stakeholders (10%)

Weightings from this report come from HfS’s July 2014 State of Outsourcing Study


HfS Blueprint Scoring Percentage Breakdown

EXECUTION 52.69%

Quality of Customer Relationships 22.70%

Quality of Account Management Team 11.30%

How Service Providers Engage Clients and Develop Communities Around Salesforce 4.66%

How Service Providers Incorporate Client Feedback 6.74%

Real-World Delivery Solutions 26.47%

Actual Delivery of Services for Each Sub-Process 10.80%

Plan 2.16%

Implement 2.16%

Manage 2.16%

Operate 2.16%

Optimize 2.16%

Scale of Design, Implementation and Management Capabilities 6.18%

Usefulness of Services to Specific Client Needs of All Sizes 9.49%

Flexibility to Deliver End-to-End Solutions and Point Solutions 4.20%

Experience Delivering Industry-Specific Solutions 5.29%

Flexible Pricing Models to Meet Client Needs 3.52%

INNOVATION 47.31%

Vision for Value Delivery 13.10%

Concrete Plans to Deliver Value Beyond Cost 4.17%

Partnership Strategy 8.93%

Vision for Salesforce Effectiveness in Clients 16.86%

Ability to Leverage Value Drivers 17.35%

Integration of Third Party Capabilities Into Salesforce Solutions 8.58%

Investment in Proprietary Tools, Accelerators and Solutions 8.77%

TOTAL 100.00%


Blueprint Scoring Definitions: Execution

EXECUTION How well does the provider execute on its contractual agreement and how well does the provider manage the client/provider relationship?

Quality of Customer Relationships How engaged are providers in managing the client relationship based on the following metrics: quality of account management, service provider / client engagement, and incorporation of feedback?

Quality of Account Management Team What is the quality level of professional skills in the account management team?

How Service Providers Engage Clients and Develop Communities Around Salesforce

How well does the service provider engage clients and develop client communities around Salesforce?

How Service Providers Incorporate Client Feedback

How have service providers taken feedback and incorporated that feedback into their services?

Real-World Delivery Solutions Does the solution provided compare favorably to the service agreed upon when taking into account delivery of services for each sub-process and geographic footprint and scale?

Actual Delivery of Services for Each Sub-Process

Taking into account each sub-process and the entire macro process, does each sub-process sum to successful delivery of the service being provided?

Scale of Plan, Implement, Management Capabilities

Does the service provider have scale in Planning, Implementation and Management Capabilities around Salesforce including the availability of certifications at all levels?

Usefulness of Services to Specific Client Needs of All Sizes

How flexible and experienced are providers when tailoring solutions based on client size, location, and type of solution (end-to-end and single point)?

Flexibility to Deliver End-to-End Solutions and Point Solutions

How flexible are providers with delivering multi-process end-to-end solutions versus single point solutions?

Experience Delivering Industry-Specific Solutions

How well does the provider deliver industry based solutions including Fullforce (for example, depth in verticals such as insurance, retail)

Flexible Pricing Models to Meet Customer Needs How flexible are providers when determining the pricing of contracts? Are they willing to make investments into the client’s firm for long-term growth?


Blueprint Scoring Definitions: Innovation

INNOVATION Innovation is the combination of improving both services and business outcomes.

Vision for Value Delivery The strategy for delivery of services to each part of the value chain of processes.

Concrete Plans to Deliver Value Beyond Cost What are the plans of the service provider to deliver value beyond cost savings alone?

Partnership Strategy How does the service provider integrate with other parties in the Salesforce ecosystem (including Salesforce itself) to deliver value for clients?

Vision for Salesforce Effectiveness in Clients What is the vision of the service provider for the evolution of its Salesforce services offering and how will it contribute over time to client effectiveness and value creation?

Ability to Leverage Value Drivers How well have providers integrated value drivers into their services? Examples include third party solutions, internal investments and more?

Integration of Third Party Capabilities into Salesforce Solutions

How well does the provider leverage new technologies / enhancements, mobility functionality, and cloud capabilities into their solutions?

Investment in Proprietary Tools, Accelerators and Solutions

What is the provider doing to invest in proprietary capabilities, tools, accelerators and other solutions to enhance the value of Salesforce for clients?

Salesforce Services In The As-a-Service Economy


Legacy technology investments which limit agility

and create masses of exceptions addressed

through adding internal and external FTEs

1. Write off Legacy Using platform based solutions, DevOps, and API ecosystems for more agile, less exception oriented systems

Resolving problems by looking first at the process as the source of the solution

2. Design Thinking Understanding the business context to reimagine processes aligned with meeting client needs

Focusing governance staff on managing to the letter of the contract and the decimal points of

service levels 3. Brokers of Capability

Orienting governance to source expertise from all available sources, both internally and externally, to address capability gaps

Evaluating relationships on baselines of cost, effort, and labor

4. Collaborative Engagement Ensuring relationships are contracted to drive sustained expertise and defined outcomes

Operating fragmented processes across multiple

technologies with significant manual interventions 5. Intelligent Automation Using of automation and cognitive computing to

blend analytics, talent, and technology

Performing ad-hoc analysis on unstructured data

with little integration or business context 6. Actionable & Accessible Data Applying analytics models, techniques and

insights from big data, real-time

Responding with post-event fixes. Little focus on

end-to-end process value chains. 7. Holistic Security Proactively managing digital data across service

chain of people, systems & processes

Undertaking complex, painful technology

transitions to reach steady state

8. Plug & Play Digital Business Services

Plugging into “ready to go” business-outcome focused, people / process / technology solutions with security measures

Salesforce Services are Based on Realizing the Eight Ideals of the As-

a-Service Economy

LEGACY OUTSOURCING AS-A-SERVICE ECONOMY Simplification


Salesforce Services Incorporate the Ideals of the

As-a-Service Economy

IDEAL AS-A-SERVICE

IDEAL DEFINITION NON

EXISTENT INITIAL EXPANSIVE EXTENSIVE

ALL PERVASIVE

Write Off Legacy

Using platform based solutions, DevOps, and API ecosystems for more agile, less exception oriented systems

2015

Design Thinking

Understanding the business context to reimagine processes aligned with meeting client needs

2015

Brokers of Capability


2015

Collaborative Engagement

Ensuring relationships are contracted to drive sustained expertise and defined outcomes 2015

Intelligent Automation

Using of automation and cognitive computing to blend analytics, talent, and technology 2015

Accessible & Actionable Data

Applying analytics models, techniques and insights from big data, real-time 2015

Holistic Security Proactively managing digital data across service chain of people, systems & processes 2015

Plug and Play Digital Business Services


2015

Service Provider Grid


WINNER'S CIRCLE:

Organizations that demonstrate excellence in both execution and innovation.

• From an execution perspective, providers have developed strong relationships with clients, execute services beyond the scope of hitting green lights, and are highly flexible when meeting clients’ needs.

• From an innovation perspective, providers have a strong vision, concrete plans to invest in future capabilities, a healthy cross-section of vertical capabilities, and have illustrated a strong ability to leverage external drivers to increase value for their clients.

HIGH PERFORMERS:

Organizations that demonstrate strong capabilities in both execution and innovation but are lacking in an innovative vision or execution against their vision.

• From an execution perspective, providers execute some of the following areas with excellence, but not all areas: high performers have developed worthwhile relationships with clients, execute their services and hit all of the green lights, and are very flexible when meeting clients’ needs.

• From an innovation perspective, providers typically execute some of the following areas with excellence, but not all areas: have a vision and demonstrated plans to invest in future capabilities, have experience delivering services over multiple vertical capabilities, and have illustrated a good ability to leverage external drivers to increase value for their clients.

To distinguish providers that have gone above and beyond within a particular line of delivery, HfS awards these providers a “Winner’s Circle” or “High Performer” designation. The below provides a brief description of the general characteristics of each designation:

Winner’s Circle and High Performers Methodology


Salesforce Services Service Provider Matrix 2015 IN

NO

VA

TIO

N

EXECUTION

Winner’s Circle

High Performers

CSC

Dell Services

Accenture

NTT DATA

Deloitte Capgemini

Bluewolf

Cognizant

IBM

Tech Mahindra

Cloud Sherpas Wipro

PwC


Major Service Provider Dynamics: Highlights

EXECUTION

• Account Management: SaaS deployments are no different from other projects in that success for clients often comes down to the contribution from and the comfort with the service provider’s account team. Clients interviewed for this Blueprint were especially enthusiastic about Accenture, Deloitte, Cloud Sherpas, Cognizant, NTT DATA, PwC and Wipro.

• Scale of Design, Implementation and Management Capabilities: Salesforce services is no a market that benefits overwhelmingly from economies of scale from service providers but scale is still important. Its important in access to people, in allowing clients to retain key personnel in a growing, high demand market and in securing the investment $s for industry solutions as well as tools and accelerators. Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, and Cognizant have the current lead but with additional acquisition activity being likely this could change soon.

• Industry Specific Solutions: One of the major trends that we see at the moment around Salesforce services is the interest around investments being made to develop comprehensive industry solutions that wrap around many of the different Salesforce Clouds. During this Blueprint we saw significant efforts being made by Accenture, Deloitte, PwC and CSC already with the other service providers making current investments to bring additional solutions on line in 2016.

INNOVATION

• Partnership Strategy: Creating value for clients from Salesforce can be highly dependent on understanding the different third party solution partners who can be added to the capabilities. Accenture, Deloitte, Cloud Sherpas and NTT DATA led the way in our assessment with regards to the depth of their partnership strategy around Salesforce.

• Vision for Salesforce Effectiveness: Having a vision for where the processes supported by Salesforce are headed in the future is an important element of Innovation. We saw this vision come out particularly clear from Accenture, Bluewolf, Cognizant, and PwC.

• Investment in Proprietary Tools, Accelerator and Solutions: It’s not enough today to just build your capabilities around the Salesforce Customer Success Platform alone. Implementing and managing Salesforce deployments for clients is enhanced by having a suite of unique tools, accelerators and other solutions to maximize the attainment of benefits for both clients and service providers. In our review of the investments in these capabilities we saw particular focus here from all of the Winner’s Circle service providers: Accenture, Bluewolf, Capgemini and Deloitte.

Service Provider Profile


PLAN

IMPLEMENT

MANAGE

OPERATE

OPTIMIZE

HfS Salesforce Services Value Chain: Key to Profiles

Value Chain coverage is indicated by blue shading. Grey shading indicates that the service provider does not offer these services.

For Example:

Full Value Chain offered

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

MANAGE

OPERATE

OPTIMIZE

Operate not offered

Each profile also includes an ‘Operations’ box where we list service provider statistics.

‘N/A’ indicates that the service provider does not have this today. It should be noted that in many cases the service provider

may have these certification applications in progress.


NTT DATA

Relevant Acquisitions/Partnerships Key Clients Operations Technology Tools and Platforms

Acquisitions include: • Buzz Solutions(2014) • everis (2014) • Centerstance, Inc. (2012) • Oakton (2014) acquired by

Dimension Data (NTT’s sister company)

Partnerships include: • Apttus • Coveo • FinancialForce • Informatica • ServiceMax • SteelBrick • TerraSky

NTT DATA targets mid to enterprise Clients and Public Sector (with a focus on State & Local). Regions include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pac, China.

Industry Coverage: Financial Services, Insurance, Retail & CPG, Manufacturing & Automotive, Public Sector, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Telecom

Some publicly disclosed clients include: • Commonwealth of Kentucky • Commonwealth of Massachusetts • Daimler • DDR • Honeywell • Isilon • Regence BC/BS • Vodafone

• Partner Level: Global Strategic • Fullforce Master Certifications: 1 • Fullforce Industry Solutions: N/A in

progress • Salesforce Certified Consultants: 360+ • Certified Technical Architects: 2 • Total number in practice: 450+ • Number of projects completed: 3,000+ • Customer satisfaction score: 9.14/10 Key delivery locations for Salesforce practice in order of strength: • US, Canada • India • Japan and China • Western Europa (Germany, UK, Spain,

Italy) • Latin America (Brazil, Argentina) • Australia and South East Asia

• Fullforce Master Certifications: Sales Cloud • Retail Execution Accelerator: application for mobile

devices (iOS, Android) on force.com platform • Loyalty Rewards Accelerator: Pre-configured IP built

on force.com • Insurance Accelerator: Salesforce broker/agent portal

and Underwriters Optimization Solutions that integrate with Insurance legacy systems

• Extension Platform (EP): Data integration proxy • Government Permitting & License Management

Accelerator: Pre-configured solution on Force.com that enables online permitting and licensing for State & Local governments; dashboard reporting and mobile access

• Salesforce over VPN (NTT Communications): Secured VPN access network from client site/remote to SFDC Datacenter in Japan. Available only in Japan

• TrustBind/Secure Gateway: Encryption and Tokenization tool for data records

Strengths Challenges

• Global Coverage of Salesforce Service Capabilities: NTT DATA has pursued an acquisitive strategy to build Salesforce capabilities with local feet-on-the-street. The most notable acquisition was that of Centerstance, which was a dedicated Salesforce consulting provider. NTT DATA is pursuing an integration strategy to unify brands, drive common methodologies and deliver seamless Salesforce services to clients. To maintain client relationships, NTT DATA strives to retain account managers at acquired entities. Clients tell us that they appreciate this consistency in the touch points as well as the consistency in the team members during an engagement.

• Technical Skills in Salesforce, Multi-Vendor IT and Telecommunications: NTT DATA leverages capabilities across the NTT Group to enhance its Salesforce service offerings. For example NTT DATA has built Salesforce IP solutions in mobile and security supported by the NTT Group’s strength in the telecommunications industry. This cross collaboration promotes a culture of innovation for developing Salesforce solutions. One client said that NTT DATA was ‘at the cutting edge of Salesforce technology’.

• Industry Go-to-Market: NTT DATA is focused on developing industry-specific IP and acquisitions are often targeted for their vertical expertise. It makes an effort to understand industry and business objectives beyond the technology. In its acquisition integration strategy, NTT DATA is also identifying client solutions that it can develop as repeatable assets for other clients in the same industry.

• Brand Awareness: NTT DATA is early into a global branding exercise which sensibly begins with communicating with the installed base of clients. Internally, the global Salesforce practice (across acquisitions) is unified under the NTT DATA brand. However NTT DATA still has some way to go to communicate its complete set of capabilities to all existing and prospect clients. Many clients still spoke of the service provider as Centerstance therefore NTT DATA will be in a more competitive place once it builds a broader brand in this space.

• No “Operate” Services: NTT DATA offers the full value chain of services apart from Operate/BPO services. It offers advisory services and application management services to assist clients with their own operations but the service provider typically does not manage business processes for them. While it is not the only service provider in our Blueprint without this offering, it is a credible opportunity for NTT DATA, especially given its access to telecommunications and data center skills across the NTT Group.

Blueprint Leading Highlights

• Quality of Account Management Team

• How Service Providers Incorporate Customer Feedback

• Flexibility to Deliver Both End-to-End Solutions and Point Solutions

• Investment in Proprietary Tools

High Performer

Acquisitive service provider building global coverage and capabilities across Salesforce with depth in telecoms, retail and public sector

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

MANAGE

OPERATE

OPTIMIZE

Market Wrap-Up &

Recommendations


Buyer Challenges To Consider Around Salesforce Services

Lack of Understanding of Salesforce and the Implications of Using SaaS in General:

How can we achieve a consistent CRM environment?

What are the benefits and pitfalls of using SaaS?

How can we leverage Salesforce technologies and platform to meet our specific business objectives?

What ongoing support services are required to ensure continued success and do we have sufficient in-house resources to meet this requirement?

Lack of Collaboration Between IT and Business:

How do we collaborate better internally to ensure that our Salesforce investment is consistent with our overall CRM strategy?

How do we ensure that we have centralized purchase decisions and guaranteed support services?

Lack of skills to integrate Salesforce across the enterprise:

How do we integrate Salesforce technologies with other on premise and cloud applications?

How do we stay abreast of all new developments in Salesforce technology and service solutions that are relevant to our enterprise?


2015-16 Recommendations: Service Providers

Invest in functional understanding and adopt a holistic approach to CRM: In order to be a true Salesforce business partner to clients, service providers must invest in more than technical implementation skills. Service providers must also have a wider understanding of CRM and the overall business objectives of clients. Leading service providers position CRM and Salesforce in particular at the heart of clients’ digital transformation journeys, rather than view it as discrete, tactical technology implementation projects.

Stay abreast of Salesforce technology developments: Service providers must be up-to-date on new and emerging Salesforce technologies to identify the key areas in which to invest in terms of skilling up and developing additional tailored solutions for target markets. Leading service providers are ahead of the curve here and always invest ahead of time so as to establish leadership positions with credibility in chosen markets.

Keep the Salesforce appexchange profile up-to-date: Service providers should not assume that the information on the appexchange is always up-to-date or even accurate. In one case, we found that one of the provider’s customer satisfaction score was erroneously entered as 0/10! Service providers should let Salesforce know of any mistakes immediately so as not to be mis-represented and miss potential client opportunities.



Invest in industry sector solution development: Many service providers have developed Salesforce industry specific solutions. However, there are only currently 38 Fullforce industry certified solutions in the market, which is disappointingly low given the size of the partner ecosystem. Moreover Dreamforce ‘15 focused more on horizontal rather than vertical industry solutions. Visionary service providers that continue to invest in industry specific solutions and strive for Fullforce industry certifications have opportunities to establish a leadership position in selected markets.

Identify valuable partnerships: Leading service providers are able to identify valuable partnerships, including equity investments, that will enhance and tailor Salesforce solutions. This drives differentiation and client loyalty as the service provider is able to stay relevant to client business objectives. Some of the service providers in this Blueprint for example partner with Vlocity and Informatica for industry and analytics expertise respectively.

Focus on resource acquisition, planning and management: Ongoing resource management is a challenge for all service providers in all service markets. Clients tell us that the Salesforce service market is no different in this respect and service providers must stay on top of this to maintain client relationships to ensure repeat business. Acquiring the right talent remains a big challenge as there is a shortage in the market. Allocating projects to consultants and managing their time in a way that provides transparency to clients and does not leave clients without support at critical times is the holy grail that all service providers need to aim for.



Be bold to stand out: Clients across IT services are demanding more innovation from their service provider and the Salesforce service market is no exception. Service providers should think out of the box, present innovative approaches and ideas to stand out from the crowded partner ecosystem. Strict methodologies remain important, but clients highlight that increased flexibility in engagements and approaches, as well as suggestions involving the latest technology such as IoT Cloud and Lightning are appreciated. Learning with the client is not always a weakness, rather it is true collaboration.

Tell the market what you’re doing! All of the service providers in this Blueprint have made significant investments in developing their Salesforce practices, including developing proprietary technologies. However, fewer have marketed this capability effectively to the market. Leading Salesforce service providers need to market their strengths to Salesforce so that it can recommend the relevant providers to enterprises, as well as to potential clients themselves. Too many times technical capabilities seem very similar across service provider so it is imperative to be able to effectively communicate differentiators to the market to remain competitive in this crowded market.


Salesforce Services are Incorporating the Ideals of the

As-a-Service Economy

IDEAL AS-A-SERVICE

IDEAL DEFINITION NON

EXISTENT INITIAL EXPANSIVE EXTENSIVE

ALL PERVASIVE

Write Off Legacy

Using platform based solutions, DevOps, and API ecosystems for more agile, less exception oriented systems

2015 2017

Design Thinking

Understanding the business context to reimagine processes aligned with meeting client needs

2015 2017

Brokers of Capability


2015 2017

Collaborative Engagement

Ensuring relationships are contracted to drive sustained expertise and defined outcomes

2015 2017

Intelligent Automation

Using of automation and cognitive computing to blend analytics, talent, and technology 2015 2017

Accessible & Actionable Data

Applying analytics models, techniques and insights from big data, real-time

2015 2017

Holistic Security Proactively managing digital data across service chain of people, systems & processes 2015 2017

Plug and Play Digital Business Services


2015 2017

About the Authors


Khalda De Souza

Principal Analyst, Services Strategies, HfS Research – United Kingdom

Overview

• Khalda De Souza covers developments in IT and BPO across Europe for HfS and globally covers the emergence of services around software as a service (SaaS) offerings.

• She has extensive experience in providing strategic advice to both IT services providers and customer organisations globally. For providers, this includes, but is not limited to, channel strategies, product positioning, competitive intelligence, market trends and forecast analysis. For Clients, Khalda has provided insightful guidance on sourcing and vendor selection strategies.

Previous Experience

• Prior to HfS, Khalda has been a senior level IT services research analyst at Gartner for nearly 20 years. In that time, she has managed the European research for several areas including network and IT security and business applications. Khalda has led key research deliverables such as Magic Quadrants for both Europe and global markets at Gartner.

Education

• Khalda has a BSc. from Aston University in International Business and French.

[email protected]


[email protected]

Overview Charles Sutherland is the Chief Research Officer at HfS. Charles is responsible for the overall

research agenda for HfS across the “as a service” economy. He personally covers the areas of automation, business platforms, supply chain, procurement and various vertical processes. Since joining HfS in 2013, Charles has had the opportunity to speak at various industry forums including NASSCOM and has had his research covered widely in the business and outsourcing press as well.

Previous Experience Charles has been in the business services market for 20 years including previous roles as the

Chief Strategy Officer for a BPO service provider and the Managing Director, Growth & Strategy for Accenture’s Operations Growth Platform. In these roles he has had a breadth of experience in thought leadership, strategy development, acquisitions, business development and long term investment planning in both BPO and ITO.

Charles has also had Growth & Strategy roles for Accenture in Infrastructure Outsourcing and for the Communications, Media and High Tech Operating Group. Prior to that he was a Strategy Consultant in London for Accenture serving clients in the Media, Communications and Consumer Goods industries. If you go even further back in time he was also a Marketing Director for Olivetti in Canada and Europe.

Education MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France Honors BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Charles Sutherland Chief Research Officer, HfS Research – Dallas, TX

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


About HfS Research

HfS Research is the leading analyst authority and global network for IT and business services, with a specific focus on global business services, digital transformation, and outsourcing. HfS serves the research, governance, and services strategy needs of business operations and IT leaders across finance, supply chain, human resources, marketing, and core industry functions. The firm provides insightful and meaningful analyst coverage of best business practices and innovations that impact successful business outcomes, such as the digital transformation of operations, cloud-based business platforms, services talent development strategies, process automation and outsourcing, mobility, analytics, and social collaboration. HfS applies its acclaimed Blueprint Methodology to evaluate the performance of service and technology in terms of innovating and executing against those business outcomes.

HfS educates and facilitates discussions among the world's largest knowledge community of enterprise services professionals, currently comprising 150,000 subscribers and members. HfS Research facilitates the HfS Sourcing Executive Council, the acclaimed elite group of sourcing practitioners from leading organizations that meets bi-annually to share the future direction of the global services industry and to discuss the future enterprise operations framework. HfS provides sourcing executive council members with the HfS Governance Academy and Certification Program to help its clients improve the governance of their global business services and vendor relationships.

In 2010 and 2011, HfS Research's Founder and CEO, Phil Fersht, was named “Analyst of the Year” by the International Institute of Analyst Relations (IIAR), the premier body of analyst-facing professionals, and achieved the distinctive award of being voted the research analyst industry's Most Innovative Analyst Firm in 2012.

In 2013, HfS was named first in rising influence among leading analyst firms, according to the 2013 Analyst Value Survey, and second out of the 44 leading industry analyst firms in the 2013 Analyst Value Index.

Now in its seventh year of publication, HfS Research’s acclaimed blog “Horses for Sources” is widely recognized as the most widely read and revered destination for unfettered collective insight, research, and open debate about sourcing industry issues and developments. Horses for Sources today receives over a million web visits a year.

To learn more about HfS Research, please email [email protected].

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