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Feb 17, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- Salesforce Services Market | Outlook 2023-2029 | Pre and Post-COVID Research is Covered, Report Information | newest 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 MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

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.

Story continues

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 Improve 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.

Salesforce.com (CRM) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.

Over the past month, shares of this customer-management software developer have returned +13.3%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.3% change. During this period, the Zacks Computer - Software industry, which Salesforce.com falls in, has gained 0.1%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?

Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.

Revisions to Earnings Estimates

Rather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.

Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.

For the current quarter, Salesforce.com is expected to post earnings of $1.36 per share, indicating a change of +61.9% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +0.3% over the last 30 days.

For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $4.93 points to a change of +3.1% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has changed +0.1%.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $5.77 indicates a change of +17.2% from what Salesforce.com is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +2.3%.

Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the accurate change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, Salesforce.com is rated Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

12 Month EPS

© Provided by Zacks.com 12-month consensus EPS estimate for CRM _12MonthEPSChartUrl

Projected Revenue Growth

Even though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.

For Salesforce.com, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $7.99 billion indicates a year-over-year change of +9%. For the current and next fiscal years, $30.92 billion and $34.17 billion estimates indicate +16.7% and +10.5% changes, respectively.

Last Reported Results and Surprise History

Salesforce.com reported revenues of $7.84 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +14.2%. EPS of $1.40 for the same period compares with $1.27 a year ago.

Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $7.81 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +0.39%. The EPS surprise was +15.7%.

The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.

Valuation

Without considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.

While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S) and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.

As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.

Salesforce.com is graded D on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.

Conclusion

The facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about Salesforce.com. However, its Zacks Rank #2 does suggest that it may outperform the broader market in the near term.

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

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.

Collaboration 

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. 

Ethical

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.

My take

A positive move. 

Related articles

ENTERPRISE Salesforce just did another round of layoffs as part of its plan to cut 10% — a 'bloodbath' affecting mostly salespeople. 4,000 fewer employees are on Salesforce's internal Slack.

ENTERPRISE If Marc Benioff is forced to sell Slack to appease activist investors, it would probably be worth less than half the $28 billion he paid just 18 months ago

TECH Salesforce's Marc Benioff defends his statements that new employees — and possibly younger remote workers — are not as productive, in leaked all-hands meeting

TECH Salesforce employees fear deeper cuts now that a second activist investor has a stake. Elliott, the world's most feared hedge fund, has confirmed it wants changes.

I've been looking for a driver who is qualified, reader. I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm a little rusty at driving after taking public transportation for so long. Driving at night is especially nerve-racking, because I keep getting blinded by the lights.

It's happening much more frequently, and I thought my eyesight was for sure getting worse (it is). But the real culprit is more complex: light hues, misaligned headlights, and other vehicle quirks. My colleague Madison Hall illuminates the problem here.

Before we drive off into the night, let's jump into today's tech.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. download Insider's app here.

1. Salesforce performance pressure is on. Employees told Insider that the cloud company is about to drop new performance metrics for engineers. It's also trying to lower the headcount. Some salespeople had to choose between a "Prompt Exit Package" severance option or a 30-day performance improvement plan.

This is all part of a sprint to cut 10% of the workforce after going on a two-year hiring spree. Plus, multiple investors are believed to be pressuring Salesforce to cut additional costs to become more profitable.

More on the heightened tension at Salesforce here.

In other news:

2. Tech layoffs tell one story. Company headcount tells another. These six charts show how tech giants like Meta and Google have still grown, despite layoffs. Check them out here.

3. A woman doesn't want to prosecute her husband who is accused of purposely driving their family off a cliff. He is suspected of driving off a 250-foot cliff with his wife and two children inside a Tesla. The California doctor faces three attempted murder charges. More on the situation.

4. Microsoft really wants you to use Bing and ChatGPT. The company is throwing it back to the 90s. It's pushing people to set Bing as their default search engine. And it's trying to trade access to its augmented search engine for market share. Here's a breakdown of its desperation.

Story continues

5. Hundreds of influencers revealed their rates for sponsored posts. New data revealed that the average rate for TikTok fell from $3,108 in 2021 to $2,947 a year later. Meanwhile, the costs of Instagram sponsored posts are rising. Get more insights on sponsored post rates.

6. The danger of putting computer chips in your brain. Elon Musk's neurotech startup has been working toward putting chips in people's brains since 2016. Other startups have been hurry to do so, too. But experts warn there are real dangers and unique ethical pitfalls. Dive into them here.

7. Leaked Amazon all-hands recording reveals CEO pep talk. On Tuesday, Andy Jassy urged employees to band together to get through this challenging time. He encouraged them to "redefine" the company and laid out how they can be successful. Get the full meeting breakdown.

8. Walmart forces employees to relocate or bounce. The retailer is cracking down on remote work. It closed tech hubs in California, Texas, and Oregon, and gave impacted employees two options: relocate or take severance. More on the employment ultimatum.

Odds and ends:

9. Beep Beep: Road trip with this couple in an EV. Axios reporter Joann Muller joined her husband on a 1,500-mile road trip in a Kia EV6. They didn't use heat — and stopped 12 times due to "range anxiety." Come along for the ride here.

10. Stop doing these things at Chinese takeout restaurants. Su-Jit Lin grew up working in her parents' American Chinese restaurant. She witnessed her parents facing racism and aggression while running their business. Here are nine things she wishes customers knew.

What we're watching today:

Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in San Diego. (Feedback or tips? Email dsiu@insider.com or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Dave Smith (tweet @redletterdave) in Toronto and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London.

Read the original article on Business Insider

You can bring Gmail and Salesforce together to achieve a more productive platform. It lets you access Salesforce data directly in Gmail, and you can switch back to Salesforce to create records or view emails. Your entire team is synced, and they no longer need to worry about manual data entry.

The integration process is simple and takes a few minutes to complete. The benefits your sales team gets are many. They keep their records organized, schedule meetings, and reduce the time taken to switch between the two platforms to organize data.

How can you sync Gmail with Salesforce?

After completing Salesforce integration with Gmail, it is easy to access Salesforce features in Gmail and use them to log emails and create reports and records. You can also access email templates in Salesforce while still on Gmail. But you might ask, how does Gmail sync work with Salesforce? Here are the steps to follow:

Step one: Sign in to Salesforce

Sign in to Salesforce. Check the Gear icon and click on it. On the menu that opens, click Setup. Type Gmail Integration and Sync in the Quick Find Box and click on it.

Step two: Sign in to Gmail

Now sign in to your Gmail account. Check the icon showing Log in to Salesforce and click on it. A menu will open where you can log in with your Salesforce username and password. You now have access to all your Gmail data in Salesforce and vice versa. You must make sure that the Enable Enhanced Email with Gmail icon is enabled.

It will allow your sales team to create content, add attachments, and access all data in both tools. You can now customize the tools to provide various permissions to your teams. You can Improve Gmail-Salesforce functionality by adding the Salesforce Gmail plugin from https://revenuegrid.com/. It helps keep your CRM updated and captures all sales activities automatically.

What do you get from Salesforce and Gmail sync?

One of the pain points that sales reps experience is having to manually update Salesforce data daily. It impacts negatively on their productivity and could lead to talented sales reps leaving your company. Salesforce Gmail sync revolutionizes your sales cycle in different ways.

• Improves sales team productivity: Sales teams spend a lot of time updating the CRM, but integration eliminates manual work. It automates activities and thus improves sales team productivity.
• Improves visibility of sales cycles: When all updating is done manually, about 40% of sales data is never updated in Salesforce. Due to this, sales teams do not get clear visibility of the sales cycle and thus miss opportunities. Syncing allows automation and increases visibility.
• Removes errors and redundancy: Manual processes are prone to errors and redundancy. It causes a compromise of data quality and increases the chances of duplicated or missing data. Syncing ensures there are no errors or redundancy in data.
• Improved communication and data value: Syncing integrates email with salesforce data where the sales team can view customer information in one place. The team communicates with customers on time. The company gets more data value when sales teams leverage data to make sales decisions.

Pros & cons of Salesforce and Gmail sync

Your sales team reaps various benefits after syncing Gmail with Salesforce, but it is necessary to look into the challenges too.

Pros

• It becomes possible to auto-log various tasks, emails, and telephone calls in Salesforce. Your sales team no longer needs to spend too much time logging.
• Sales teams get access to view contacts and gain insights from accounts which improves communication.
• Your team of sales reps improves productivity
• Elimination of errors and redundancy

Cons

• Possibility of data threats and attacks through CRM or Gmail
• Everyone with access permission can view data from different teams, which reduces privacy
• Users might experience syncing errors such as login or Salesforce failing to work.

Summary

Salesforce can sync with Gmail to create a more functional platform. The process completes within a few minutes, and sales teams benefit from a centralized view of communication and data. It eliminates errors and keeps all data updated. Sales teams Improve productivity, collaboration, and visibility of sales cycles.

• Some Salesforce employees have been offered a "Prompt Exit Package" instead of a layoff, with less severance.
• If they refuse, they will put on a PIP, sources say, a common step before termination in the industry.
• Employees say the company is ratcheting up performance expectations as activist investors invade.

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.

Less severance than those laid off

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.

Changing a hard-to-fire culture

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.

Are you a Salesforce employee or do you have insight to share? Contact Ashley Stewart by sending a secure message from a nonwork device via Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or via email (astewart@insider.com). Contact Ellen Thomas via email (ethomas@insider.com) or send a secure message from a nonwork device on Signal: (+1-646-847-9416).

Startup has raised $5M to eliminate data silos by enabling Salesforce to be the source of truth for product information

CHICAGO, Feb. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pimly, the first ever Product Cloud, makes Salesforce the source of truth for critical product information allowing employees, prospects, partners and customers to become experts on product information.

Mike Milburn left his role as Chief Customer Officer working for Marc Benioff at Salesforce and teamed up with veteran Salesforce architect and entrepreneur, founder of Etherios and Aleysian, Mike Dannenfeldt to re-define Product Information Management. The platform is now live and generally available in the Salesforce AppExchange.

"Most Product Information Management (PIM) tools on the market introduce yet another data silo into an organization that only a small number of employees access," notes co-Founder Mike Dannenfeldt. "By bringing a 360-degree view of product information into Salesforce CRM, Pimly solves the data silo problem and distributes always-on, always-accurate product information to all company stakeholders that drive results."

"At Salesforce, we disrupted the global Customer and Field Service Industries, and we are doing it again with Pimly," says Mike Milburn. "Salesforce is an incredible platform, since Pimly is built on core, (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Lightning Commerce, Order Management, etc.) every user can get the benefits of Pimly with clicks not code."

Pimly's mission to build the next great B2B SaaS company, headquartered in Chicago, has been so enthusiastically received that Pimly completed a $5M seed round led by Mike Fitzgerald and High Alpha. Other investors in the round include Hyde Park Angels (HPA), Handshake Ventures, and Dan Dal Degan (CEO of SpringCM and former Salesforce EVP Sales).

Mike Fitzgerald, Partner at High Alpha shared, "Mike and Mike are proven business builders who have spent years laying the foundation for this business. Their vision for Pimly is grounded in experience serving sophisticated customers throughout the Salesforce ecosystem who need a new solution for managing product information. We are thrilled to lead the investment and support the team."

Story continues

"Pimly has an exceptional team that is disrupting a fast growing and dynamic market," said Erik Severinghaus, the HPA deal lead. "I couldn't be more excited to be partnering with them to transform how customers interact with products digitally."

The financing will enable Pimly to drive further growth in the Go-to-Market and Product Teams. Pimly will advance its technology in the Sales, Service, Commerce and Industry Salesforce Clouds to deliver customer success.

Seedbox Solution, an innovator in the agricultural packaging industry chose Pimly for its first Product Information Management System. Joe Waldman, Director of Growth for Seedbox Solution said, "We standardized our CRM on Salesforce and needed to enable our Sales and Services teams on our products. Pimly provides a simple way to unify all our product information including images, videos, technical specifications and installation information into one system. The DNA of Seedbox is our breadth of seed packaging products. Pimly furthers our commitment to our customers by having this data accessible to every employee 24x7."

About Pimly

Pimly is a modern Product Information Management solution that brings all of your product information into Salesforce to easily manage and utilize product data and digital assets across your Salesforce clouds. Now you can create world-class customer experiences because every client-facing team member sees the same, accurate information. Visit pimly.co for more information or go to Pimly on the Salesforce AppExchange to get started now.

About High Alpha

High Alpha is a leading venture studio that conceives, launches and scales next-generation B2B SaaS companies. Founded in 2015 by tech veterans Scott Dorsey, Eric Tobias, Mike Fitzgerald and Kristian Andersen, the Indianapolis-based firm pioneered the venture studio model. To date High Alpha has raised $250M across three funds from leading enterprise software investors and has launched and invested in more than 70 startups, including Lessonly, Socio, Attentive, SalesLoft, Zylo, Terminus, The Mom Project, Rheaply, LogicGate, MetaCX, Mandolin, project44 and more. For more information, visit highalpha.com or follow on Twitter @highalpha.

About HPA

HPA is a leading early-stage investor. Our People First model leverages world-class operating expertise, a powerful business network, and venture capital to fuel startup success. As a result, our founders transform their businesses into industry leaders, our investors generate best-in-class returns, and our community experiences job creation and economic growth.

Contact: Erica Lanyon, Pimly
Phone: 512.785.9018
Email: elanyon@pimly.co

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SOURCE Pimly