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Feb 17, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- Salesforce Services Market | Outlook 2023-2029 | Pre and Post-COVID Research is Covered, Report Information | existing 128 Pages ReportSalesforce Services Market segmentation and trends, Key players and market share, Salesforce Services Market drivers and challenges, Salesforce Services Market opportunities and threats, Future outlook and projections, a research report focusing on this market would typically provide analysis and insights on various aspects of the market This evaluation offers a thorough examination of the worldwide and regional segments of the ""Salesforce Services Market. Tables contain information on deal volume, revenue, growth rates, and market share for the past and next periods. The research offers a thorough evaluation of the key participants in the international industry.
The major players covered in the Salesforce Services market report are:
● Accenture PLC ● IBM Corporation ● Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ● Capgemini ● Cognizant ● DXC Technology ● NTT DATA Corporation ● Wipro ● Infosys Limited ● Tech Mahindra Limited ● Tata Consultancy Services ● Fujitsu Limited ● HCL Technologies Limited ● Persistent Systems ● PwC ● Strategic Growth ● SLALOM LLC ● Simplus ● VirtusaPolaris ● Strategic GrowthGet a demo copy of the Salesforce Services Market Report 2023
Short summary Of Salesforce Services Market-2023 to 2029:
Market Analysis and Insights: Global Salesforce Services Market
The global Salesforce Services market size is projected to reach USD 12330 million by 2028, from USD 7010 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 7.9% during 2022-2028.
Fully considering the economic change by this health crisis, Planning accounting for of the Salesforce Services global market in 2021, is projected to value USD million by 2028, growing at a revised CAGR in the post-COVID-19 period. While Financial Services segment is altered to an CAGR throughout this forecast period.
China Salesforce Services market size is valued at USD million in 2021, while the North America and Europe Salesforce Services are USD million and USD million, severally. The proportion of the North America is in 2021, while China and Europe are and respectively, and it is predicted that China proportion will reach in 2028, trailing a CAGR of through the analysis period. Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia are noteworthy markets in Asia, with CAGR and respectively for the next 6-year period. As for the Europe Salesforce Services landscape, Germany is projected to reach USD million by 2028 trailing a CAGR of over the forecast period.
With industry-standard accuracy in analysis and high data integrity, the report makes a brilliant attempt to unveil key opportunities available in the global Salesforce Services market to help players in achieving a strong market position. Buyers of the report can access Verified and reliable market forecasts, including those for the overall size of the global Salesforce Services market in terms of revenue.
Overall, the report proves to be an effective tool that players can use to gain a competitive edge over their competitors and ensure lasting success in the global Salesforce Services market. All of the findings, data, and information provided in the report are validated and revalidated with the help of trustworthy sources. The analysts who have authored the report took a unique and industry-best research and analysis approach for an in-depth study of the global Salesforce Services market.
Global Salesforce Services Scope and Market Size
Salesforce Services market is segmented by players, region (country), by Type and by Application. Players, stakeholders, and other participants in the global Salesforce Services market will be able to gain the upper hand as they use the report as a powerful resource. The segmental analysis focuses on revenue and forecast by Type and by Application for the period 2017-2028.
It additionally affords the proper insights and evaluation which are crucial to lay out powerful commercial enterprise techniques and set the proper direction for an improved boom for all enterprise gamers involved. With this information, the ones in rate might be capable of creating new techniques, which consciousness available in the marketplace possibilities in order to advantage them, making their commercial enterprise efforts profitable withinside the process.
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Salesforce Services Market - Competitive and Segmentation Analysis:
This Salesforce Services Market report offers a detailed analysis supported by reliable statistics on sales and revenue by players for the period 2017-2023. The report also includes a company description, major business, Salesforce Services product introduction, accurate developments, and Salesforce Services sales by region, type, application, and sales channel.
Based on product type: this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into:
● Planning ● Implementation ● ManageOn the basis of the end users/applications: this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share, and growth rate for each application, including:
● Financial Services ● Retail ● Medicine ● OtherSalesforce Services Market - Regional Analysis:
Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Salesforce Services in these regions, from 2015 to 2027, covering
● North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) ● Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.) ● Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam) ● South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) ● Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Inquire more and share questions if any before the purchase on this report at https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/19950745
Some of the key questions answered in this report:
● What is the global (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, and Africa) sales value, production value, consumption value, import and export of Salesforce Services? ● Who are the global key manufacturers of the Salesforce Services Industry? How is their operating situation (capacity, production, sales, price, cost, gross, and revenue)? ● What are the Salesforce Services market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Salesforce Services Industry? ● Which application/end-user or product type may seek incremental growth prospects? What is the market share of each type and application? ● What focused approach and constraints are holding the Salesforce Services market? ● What are the different sales, marketing, and distribution channels in the global industry? ● What are the upstream raw materials and manufacturing equipment of Salesforce Services along with the manufacturing process of Salesforce Services? ● What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Salesforce Services market? ● Economic impact on the Salesforce Services industry and development trend of the Salesforce Services industry. ● What are the market opportunities, market risks, and market overview of the Salesforce Services market? ● What are the key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges of the Salesforce Services market, and how they are expected to impact the market? ● What is the Salesforce Services market size at the regional and country level?Salesforce Services Market - Covid-19 Impact and Recovery Analysis:
We were monitoring the direct impact of covid-19 in this market, further to the indirect impact from different industries. This document analyzes the effect of the pandemic on the zzzz market from an international and nearby angle. The document outlines the marketplace size, marketplace traits, and market increase for zzzz industry, categorized with the aid of using kind, utility, and patron sectors. Further, it provides a complete evaluation of additives concerned in marketplace improvement in advance of and after the covid-19 pandemic. The report moreover done a pastel evaluation within the business enterprise to study key influencers and boundaries to entry.
Our studies analysts will assist you to get custom-designed info to your report, which may be changed in phrases of a particular region, utility or any statistical info. In addition, we're constantly inclined to conform with the study, which is triangulated together along with your very own statistics to make the marketplace studies extra complete for your perspective.
The final Report will add an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.
TO KNOW HOW COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR WILL IMPACT THIS MARKET - REQUEST A SAMPLE
Salesforce Services Market Overview
1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Salesforce Services
2 Global Salesforce Services Market Landscape by Player
2.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Share by Player (2017-2022)
2.2 Global Salesforce Services Revenue and Market Share by Player (2017-2022)
2.3 Global Salesforce Services Average Price by Player (2017-2022)
2.4 Global Salesforce Services Gross Margin by Player (2017-2022)
2.5 Salesforce Services Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type by Player
2.6 Salesforce Services Market Competitive Situation and Trends
2.6.1 Salesforce Services Market Concentration Rate
2.6.2 Salesforce Services Market Share of Top 3 and Top 6 Players
2.6.3 Mergers and Acquisitions, Expansion
3 Salesforce Services Upstream and Downstream Analysis
3.1 Salesforce Services Industrial Chain Analysis
3.2 Key Raw Materials Suppliers and Price Analysis
3.3 Key Raw Materials Supply and Demand Analysis
3.4 Manufacturing Process Analysis
3.5 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials
3.6 Downstream Buyers
3.7 Value Chain Status Under COVID-18
4 Salesforce Services Manufacturing Cost Analysis
4.1 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis
4.2 Salesforce Services Key Raw Materials Cost Analysis
4.2.1 Key Raw Materials Introduction
4.2.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials
4.3 Labor Cost Analysis
4.3.1 Labor Cost of Salesforce Services Under COVID-19
4.4 Energy Costs Analysis
4.5 RandD Costs Analysis
Get a demo copy of the Salesforce Services Market report 2023
5 Market Dynamics
5.1 Drivers
5.2 Restraints and Challenges
5.3 Opportunities
5.3.1 Advances in Innovation and Technology for Salesforce Services
5.3.2 Increased Demand in Emerging Markets
5.4 Salesforce Services Industry Development Trends under COVID-19 Outbreak
5.4.1 Global COVID-19 Status Overview
5.4.2 Influence of COVID-19 Outbreak on Salesforce Services Industry Development
5.5 Consumer Behavior Analysis
6 Players Profiles
6.1COMPANY
6.1.1COMPANYDetails
6.1.2COMPANYMajorBusiness
6.1.3COMPANYSalesforce ServicesProductandSolutions
6.1.4COMPANYSalesforce ServicesRevenue,GrossMarginandMarketShare(2019,2020,2021,and2023)
6.1.5COMPANYRecentDevelopmentsandFuturePlans
7 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Region Wise (2017-2022)
7.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Market Share, Region Wise (2017-2022)
7.2 Global Salesforce Services Revenue (Revenue) and Market Share, Region Wise (2017-2022)
7.3 Global Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.4 United States Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.4.1 United States Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.5 Europe Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.5.1 Europe Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.6 China Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.6.1 China Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.7 Japan Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.7.1 Japan Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.8 India Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.8.1 India Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.9 Southeast Asia Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.9.1 Southeast Asia Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.10 Latin America Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.10.1 Latin America Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
7.11 Middle East and Africa Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022)
7.11.1 Middle East and Africa Salesforce Services Market Under COVID-19
8 Global Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue (Revenue), Price Trend by Type
8.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Market Share by Type (2017-2022)
8.2 Global Salesforce Services Revenue and Market Share by Type (2017-2022)
8.3 Global Salesforce Services Price by Type (2017-2022)
8.4 Global Salesforce Services Sales Growth Rate by Type (2017-2022)
8.4.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales Growth Rate of Standby (off-line) UPS (2017-2022)
8.4.2 Global Salesforce Services Sales Growth Rate of Line interactive UPS (2017-2022)
8.4.3 Global Salesforce Services Sales Growth Rate of Online UPS (2017-2022)
9 Global Salesforce Services Market Analysis by Application
9.1 Global Salesforce Services Consumption and Market Share by Application (2017-2022)
9.2 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2017-2022)
9.2.1 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Growth Rate of Private Data Center (2017-2022)
9.2.2 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Growth Rate of Commercial Data Center (2017-2022)
9.2.3 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Growth Rate of Government/Military Data Center (2017-2022)
9.2.4 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Growth Rate of Others (2017-2022)
10 Global Salesforce Services Market Forecast (2022-2029)
10.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.1.1 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Growth Rate Forecast (2022-2029)
10.1.2 Global Salesforce Services Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2022-2029)
10.1.3 Global Salesforce Services Price and Trend Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2 Global Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast, Region Wise (2022-2029)
10.2.1 United States Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.2 Europe Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.3 China Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.4 Japan Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.5 India Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.6 Southeast Asia Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.7 Latin America Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.2.8 Middle East and Africa Salesforce Services Sales and Revenue Forecast (2022-2029)
10.3 Global Salesforce Services Sales, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2022-2029)
10.4 Global Salesforce Services Consumption Forecast by Application (2022-2029)
10.5 Salesforce Services Market Forecast Under COVID-19
11 Research Findings and Conclusion
12 Appendix
12.1 Methodology
12.2 Research Data Source
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To view the original version on The Express Wire visit Salesforce Services Market Position And Company Are Improving And Sharing Worldwide With Great Growth Opportunities
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Salesforce has added new fields for gender identity and pronoun data across its product line, to help customers be more inclusive when it comes to collecting and using personal data.
The firm has launched two new fields across the Lead, Contact and Person Account objects on Salesforce. This opt-in addition lets customers and their users select, identify and capture pronoun options like he/him, she/her, they/them, and gender identity options like male, female, non-binary. Both fields also offer a ‘not listed’ option.
The fields are part of Salesforce’s core objects, which means they are populated through most of its products and available by default.
Organizations from airlines to hotels, restaurants to government agencies and healthcare companies all need this type of personal data to be able to serve their customers accurately. Standardizing the fields removes the need for admins to create custom versions, so companies can capture more accurate customer data in a more efficient way.
However, there is no pressure on customers to use the fields, as Salesforce's Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer, Paula Goldman, explains:
We understand this data can be sensitive, so we've designed it with a walkthrough process for admins setting this up. There's guidance that says you don't always need to be collecting this data. In fact, there are some times when it may not be as appropriate to collect this data. Then admins would choose to include it or not include it, as they're setting up various instances of Salesforce.
Salesforce worked in close contact with its Inclusive Language Steering Committee to develop the gender inclusive features. This included members of Outforce, the company’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group, and Out and Equal, an Oakland-based organization working on LGBTQ+ workplace equality.
Working in collaboration with relevant groups is a standard approach at Salesforce’s Office of Ethical and Humane Use. One of its core pillars is ethics and inclusion in Salesforce products, so the Office works hard to ensure the products the firm delivers are inclusive and accessible to all. Goldman says:
A core way we do that is knowing that I as an individual and my team, we don't have all the answers, and nor necessarily do the teams that are working on these specific products. Participation and gaining insight from folks that live these experiences directly is very important. That's why we worked both with our Employee Resource Group to understand first of all - what's the problem; second - what's the right solution, what's the right language to learn, which of these terms are the most important to address.
Similarly with outside experts, if our whole goal is inclusion in our product, then we need to be inclusive in the processes that lead to these outcomes as well. We need to be bringing in this expertise and designing based on that expertise.
Using the right identifiers is a key part of building trust with users, but the standard options in data systems and CRM tools don’t always capture peoples’ full identity, or make it simple to do so. By making these new fields available, firms can use the gender inclusive features they prefer, and if they don’t need or want to collect gender-related data, they can bypass the features. Goldman notes:
For airlines or hotels or restaurants, which are giving personalized experiences to their customers, they don't want to be making a mistake on sensitive data like this. They want to be giving the correct experiences to their customers and serving them well. If they were to make an error on something like this, you can imagine how that would break trust.
Conversely, when people feel included, they’re more likely to trust the company they're interacting with. Goldman adds:
Study after study shows that when people trust companies, they're willing to share more data. That in turn feeds a more accurate and trusted personalized experience with the company, which feeds the sort of data they're willing to share.
At a time when first-party data is so crucial for companies wanting to serve and market in different segments, this model creates a virtuous loop where they're going to have more customer loyalty and trust, and be able to better serve their customers.
The new identity fields are part of Salesforce’s ongoing efforts to develop and promote ethical and inclusive technology. The firm had already made updates to its technical language in 2021 to address implicit bias and increase racial inclusivity. Goldman says:
We spent a long time remediating language in our code and our product around racial terms, like master and slave or blacklist and whitelist, and replacing those with more inclusive terms.
Ethics and inclusivity are embedded across product development at the company, she adds. For example, in the area of Artificial Intelligence, Salesforce aims to ensure that the data sets it’s using to train models are representative of the populations it’s serving and as free from bias as possible.
The firm also puts intentional defaults in its products to make them as inclusive as possible. During the pandemic, one of the products it was developing for vaccination campaigns offered default pick lists associated with that product type. Goldman adds:
We decided that we shouldn't make an address field mandatory for people that wanted to sign up for vaccine. Why? Because if you are unhoused, that might exclude you from getting access to the thing that you're signing up for. Oftentimes it's these small design decisions that can make a world of difference in how inclusive products are when they launch and are used in the world.
A positive move.
Marc Benioff, cofounder and CEO of Salesforce, attends a session at the Congress centre during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17, 2023.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images
Dan Loeb's hedge fund Third Point has built a position in Salesforce, expanding the group of activists circling the business software maker, CNBC has confirmed.
The news comes two weeks after Salesforce said ValueAct Capital CEO Mason Morfit will join its board in March. Elliott Management and Starboard Value have also disclosed positions in Salesforce in accurate months.
Salesforce, which joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2020, has faced high-profile departures and slowing revenue growth of late and dealt with criticism for buying companies such as Slack and Tableau at high multiples. In November, Salesforce gave weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue guidance.
ValueAct's Morfit said in a statement last month that he looks "forward to helping them deliver profitable growth and shareholder returns."
Shares of Salesforce underperformed in 2022, declining almost 48% while the S&P 500 fell 19%. Starboard said in a presentation in October that Salesforce was trading at a discount to its peers mainly because of a "subpar mix of growth and profitability."
On Jan. 4, Salesforce shares rose more than 3% after the company announced a plan to cut 10% of employees.
"The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions," Marc Benioff, Salesforce's co-founder and CEO, wrote in a letter to employees.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Third Point's investment on Wednesday.
Last year, Third Point took a stake in Disney, and it later reached a deal with the media company that included adding former Meta executive Carolyn Everson to its board of directors. In 2020, the firm invested in Intel and urged the chipmaker to pursue "strategic alternatives" after losing market share.
WATCH: Salesforce: Cowen analyst Derrick Wood weighs in on the accurate stock surge
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Third Point joins other activist investors with stakes in Salesforce – potentially threatening co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff’s position with the vendor.
A fifth activist investor, Third Point, has taken a stake in enterprise applications vendor Salesforce, potentially threatening co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff’s position with the vendor.
New York-based Third Point, led by CEO and founder Dan Loeb, joins Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital Partners, Elliott Investment Management and Jeff Ubben’s Inclusive Capital as an activist investor taking share of the San Francisco-based vendor, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Third Point has taken stakes in Campbell Soup, Walt Disney Co. and Shell before pushing for changes, according to the Journal.
Notably, Third Point took a stake in Intel in 2020 before the chipmaker’s CEO Bob Swan stepped down and was replaced by VMware leader Pat Gelsinger.
[RELATED: Salesforce Board Of Directors: Who’s In, Who’s Out, Who Stays After Elliott Stake]
CRN has reached out to Third Point and Salesforce for comment.
Although the end goals of the activist investors aren’t publicly known yet, along with Third Point’s history of CEO changes, Elliott Management has a history of taking publicly traded companies private.
Elliott Management recently made headlines for its role in Citrix going private and merging with data applications vendor Tibco. The activist investors could potentially push Salesforce to make more job cuts or divest one or multiple subsidiaries – which include Slack, MuleSoft and Tableau.
Gerry Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital, a Québec-based Salesforce partner, told CRN in an interview that he has been happy with the company’s leadership.
“I’m pretty confident in the leadership with Salesforce,” Szatvanyi said. “I’m very confident that they are going to drive through this transformation quite well. So they still have my vote of confidence, hands down.”
OSF has experienced some of the slowdown in business discussed by Salesforce and other vendors, Szatvanyi said. But he still expects north of 20 percent growth in business from 2022 to 2023.
In January, OSF even announced the purchase of U.S.-based Salesforce partner Original Shift as part of OSF’s growth strategy.
“I would say demand, it’s still pretty healthy,” Szatvanyi said. “We see a lot of desire, on our customers’ side, to better use the technology that they already have. (To) better integrate between different (Salesforce) clouds, gain more efficiencies, drive higher return on the technology that they already have.”
He continued: “Salesforce is at the center of everything that we are doing.”
The activist investors come as Salesforce – and other tech vendors – contend with moderated customer demand for digital tools after a surge at the height of the pandemic. In January, Salesforce announced layoffs for about 7,000 employees.
The company also seen the departure of key leaders Bret Taylor, Benioff’s former co-CEO, and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.
Salesforce’s total market value in 2022 went from $250.3 billion at the start of the year to $132.6 billion by year’s end.
The activists appear to have had a hand in changes coming to Salesforce’s board of directors. Salesforce will have three new board of directors members come March 1 – and lose two longtime members.
Salesforce (CRM) shares rose as much as 3.4% Thursday after activist shareholder Third Point LLC reportedly took a stake in the embattled business software giant.
Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC is at least the fifth activist firm to make a significant investment in the company recently, joining Elliott Investment Management, Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital Partners, and Inclusive Capital. The size of Third Point's investment and its intentions could not be confirmed.
Shares of Salesforce plunged 48% last year, mirroring investors' broader distaste for technology stocks but also reflecting the company's financial challenges and concerns about its leadership.
Salesforce in November reported its fiscal 2023 third-quarter profit fell 55% from the same period the prior year, with rising expenses outpacing a 14% revenue increase.
In January, the company announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, totaling about 8,000 jobs, and reduce office space in a large restructuring—the company's first in its 23 years of existence—that could cost as much as $2 billion. The company will announce its full-year earnings results March 1.
The company's financial woes have coincided with disarray in its executive leadership. Co-CEO Bret Taylor left the company at the end of January after sharing the role with co-founder Marc Benioff since late 2021.
Taylor helped guide the company's $27 billion acquisition of Slack Technologies, the largest transaction ever for a firm that seemingly specializes in them. Salesforce has made 72 acquisitions in the past 16 years, and critics now question that buying spree.
Stewart Butterfield, Slack's former CEO who joined Salesforce upon completion of that deal, also recently left the company.
In a letter to employees announcing January's layoffs, Benioff conceded the firm hired too many employees as sales rebounded dramatically in the wake of pandemic shutdowns.
That explanation apparently didn't satisfy the company's workforce. About 500 Salesforce employees reportedly sent a letter to the company's leadership, demanding answers about the layoffs.
Meanwhile, Salesforce's shares have rebounded considerably since the start of the year, gaining 31% after rising as high as $175.37 per share Thursday. That's still 44% less than the stock's all-time high of $311.75 reached 15 months ago.
Morgan Stanley analysts, in a accurate research report, said they think the stock's rebound could continue. They raised their price target on the company's shares to $236, up from $228.
Despite the company's current turmoil, Morgan Stanley praised management's accurate shift from growth objectives to profitability.
Moreover, stakes from activist firms "with proven records of helping (or pushing) software companies to better realize inherent value, may help to bolster confidence Salesforce should continue to head in the right direction," the firm's report stated.
Salesforce has increased performance pressure on some employees as it executes its plan to reduce its workforce by 10%, multiple current and former employees tell Insider. Workers aren't sure if performance-related terminations are part of that 10%, they say.
The company is planning to introduce new performance metrics for engineers and has already forced some salespeople to choose between a 30-day performance improvement plan (PIP) or a severance option called a "Prompt Exit Package," according to several current and former Salesforce employees. PIPs are commonly used in the tech industry as a step prior to firing someone. The PEP, on the other hand, is basically voluntarily quitting, but Salesforce offers two months of severance with it, according to an email viewed by Insider.
"The company is pushing hard for productivity tracking and metrics on all facets," one employee told Insider.
"Performance pressure and return to office became big themes," a former employee, who was laid off from Salesforce in February, said of their last few months with the company.
One new metric Salesforce is planning to use to evaluate engineer productivity, the person said, is code check-ins, a controversial practice some say incentivizes quantity over quality and reduces trust between teams. A code check-in is when a developer makes a set of changes to a codebase.
The heightened focus on performance comes as the software giant works to shed 10% of its workforce, or some 7,000 people, after a two-year hiring spree. Salesforce increased its workforce from 57,000 to 73,000 in 2021, according to its annual report.
The company notified some employees on January 4 that their jobs were being eliminated, and sent another round of notifications on February 2. Insider has reported that more than 4,000 people have likely been laid off so far, but Salesforce has not confirmed how many more employees it has actually cut, leaving its remaining workforce anxious for their jobs.
Meanwhile, activist investors have been mobbing Salesforce, which has seen its market value shrink in half since its peak in 2021. Five such investors have revealed significant stakes since October, including Starboard Value and the feared Elliott Management, which is said to be mounting an effort to replace some board members, Reuters reports. Other activist investors include Mason Morfit's ValueAct, Jeff Ubben's Inclusive Capital, and Dan Loeb's Third Point Capital LLC, which just last week disclosed a stake.
Activist investors typically want their targets to trim expenses and focus on more profitable businesses, rather than pursuing growth at all costs. Starboard first approached Salesforce this summer, spoke with some of its executives and pushed for cost-cutting measures. Salesforce cut a few hundred salespeople in November, a person familiar with the matter told Insider, and the company told Insider the cuts were made for "accountability," implying that performance was a consideration.
Employees worry that so much activist attention will result in more performance pressure or further layoffs which, insiders say, the company has already contemplated. Sources say there's been internal talk on whether to cut an additional 10% of staff later this year.
One Slack message sent by an employee after the first round of layoffs in January said that Salesforce has a goal to reach 25% operating margin by the 2026 fiscal year and asked execs at the time if the target was a factor in layoffs.
Meanwhile CEO Marc Benioff has also repeatedly mentioned productivity to employees when discussing the cuts. "We don't have the same level of performance and productivity that we had in 2020 before the pandemic. We do not," he said during an all-hands meeting in January after the first notices went out.
Workers who spoke to Insider are concerned that the company's increased focus on performance could mean more people will be targeted for a PEP, leaving them with less severance than their colleagues who were simply laid off.
Laid-off workers will be offered a minimum severance of five month's pay and possibly more based on tenure as well as other benefits like company-sponsored COBRA, Benioff wrote in a January email to employees announcing the restructuring.
But employees who have been targeted for a PEP are offered eight weeks of severance and company-sponsored healthcare benefits under COBRA.
Employees are given two business days to elect the PEP option, according to an internal email viewed by Insider. If they don't choose the PEP, employees will then be allowed to view the 30-day PIP plan, which they then have to start within 3 days of declining the PEP offer.
Around Thanksgiving, the company offered some sales employees who had been deemed underperforming in certain areas, such as annual contract value and pipeline generation, the option to start a 30-day PIP or accept the PEP and immediately leave the company. In some cases, the company has presented employees with PEP offers in the same week it has executed mass layoffs, employees told Insider.
Four Salesforce employees who spoke to Insider, including two who had been offered a PEP, said the option to choose between PEP or PIP feels like a way of pushing employees out of their jobs.
"It's a shady optics play," said one person who was given a PIP or PEP offer last month. "From an outside perspective, it looks like these people quit."
They also said they felt like Salesforce had set some salespeople up to fail, saying the company expected them to hit unachievable quotas that bested their results during a pandemic-fueled boom for cloud software, even though the economy is weakening and post-pandemic demand is waning.
"The markets we all work in are only so big," a recently laid-off Salesforce sales executive said.
It is unclear how many engineering employees have been affected by the new performance management system, or if PEP offers are being made outside of sales teams.
A former Salesforce executive who left the company in accurate months told Insider that a push to accelerate the company's PIP system began in the fall. A common complaint held by Salesforce managers over the last decade has been that the system made it too difficult to fire underperforming employees, even if they were regularly labeled as such despite multiple changes in managers or roles.
The new performance management system implemented in the fall was designed to address those complaints, the former executive said, noting that it was "literally impossible" to manage anyone out of the company, including legitimately 'terrible' performers.
"This is a classic enterprise performance improvement plan, but faster," they said of the company's new system.
The sales employees who spoke to Insider say that plan has not worked out in practice, and has left the door open for colleagues they consider to be strong performers to be pushed out of the company.
Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.
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Salesforce is adding fields to its core products that allow for more options when it comes to gender and pronouns.
Why it matters: The business software giant's move not only allows customers to better represent transgender and nonbinary people but also helps make gender-related data more accurate.
How it works: Salesforce is adding two new fields across its software wherever people are referenced, one to include pronouns and another for gender identity.
Yes, but: Salesforce isn't requiring customers to collect such data, and indeed notes there may be instances where capturing data on gender isn't necessary or appropriate.
What they're saying: "At the end of the day, this is about more than inclusive language," Salesforce chief ethical and humane use officer Paula Goldman said in a statement to Axios. "It’s about giving businesses the tools to better understand and serve their diverse customer base."
Pedestrians near Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A fifth activist investor has taken a stake in Club holding Salesforce (CRM), making loud and clear that well-respected hedge funds see a money-making opportunity in the enterprise software giant. While that many activists in one stock is certainly unusual, we welcome the scrutiny and any push that boosts shareholder value.
Salesforce is looking at new ways to cut costs as activist investors continue to put pressure on the company. Today, Insider was reporting that the company is implementing much stricter performance measurements for engineering, with some salespeople being put under pressure to quit or succumb to harsh performance policies of their own. This is consistent with what sources have been telling TechCrunch.
This could include performance reviews based on the quantity of code produced for engineers, a flawed way to measure engineering productivity, which encourages quantity over quality. While salespeople are being put between a rock and a hard place, being asked to choose between signing a strict one-month performance improvement plan or taking an exit package.
When asked about this, Salesforce responded with this comment: “Our performance management process drives accountability and rewards excellence.” The company did not elaborate or answer follow-up questions regarding the timing or details of this policy.
TechCrunch has also been hearing that the company is mandating a return to the office, and according to a Salesforce spokesperson, it’s now up to the managers to decide. “Our hybrid approach empowers leaders to make decisions for their teams about which jobs need to be in the office or remote.”
That’s an interesting attitude shift for a company has been promoting the idea of the “all digital, work-from-anywhere workplace” since the pandemic hit in 2020, something they call the Digital HQ. It’s a big part of why the CRM leader spent almost $28 billion to buy Slack in 2020.
But neither is it surprising since CEO and chair Marc Benioff practically telegraphed this at the end of last year, suggesting that folks working from home weren’t as productive.
All of this is probably related to the fact that activist investors — including Elliott Management, Starboard Value, ValueAct and Inclusive Capital — have been circling the company, undoubtedly putting tons of pressure on Benioff to increase productivity and cut costs. These firms are a big part of the reason Salesforce announced that it was cutting 10% of its workforce in January, a process that has been handled badly with layoff notices coming in dribs and drabs, leaving workers anxious and uncertain.
Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, blames Boston Consulting Group, which he says was brought in at the behest of the activists to deal with the cuts and implement new performance review policies. “From what we know, BCG made some significant recommendations on how salespeople and developers should be measured to Boost productivity,” Wang told TechCrunch. Update: BCG denies being responsible for the performance review policies.
Wang says that whether you think this approach is a good idea or not depends on your perspective. “If I was an investor, I would advocate for this approach, but if I was the owner-founder, I would want something less harsh and more nuanced,” he said.
Wang isn’t a fan of how the activists have handled this, calling them “vulture firms.” While he does agree with their assertion that Salesforce overpaid for bad acquisitions, he believes these firms lack an understanding of how to run a company like Salesforce, and they are ultimately doing more harm than good.
“The vulture firms do not have a good understanding of the investment levels in R&D that are needed for innovation to continue, nor did they understand what level of marketing spend Salesforce needs to remain top of mind for execs,” Wang said.
“They don’t add any value. They come in to just make money on the arbitrage and they leave the firms more damaged than when they were before they were taken over,” he said.