May 19, 2015
Salesforce.com channel partners say the next big wave of their Salesforce-related business is, well, Wave.
Wave is the business analytics platform Salesforce launched at its Dreamforce conference in October and is the foundation for the company's Analytics Cloud service. While the company isn't disclosing sales numbers for Analytics Cloud -- and it's undoubtedly small given that it's been available for only six months -- Salesforce executives and the company's ISV and consultant partners see some serious momentum for the nascent service offering.
"This is a huge market. It is an enormous market. And we clearly see this as a large play," said Salesforce President Keith Block in a keynote speech Thursday at the Salesforce.com World Tour event in Boston. He said the company was closing "large deals" for the service within two weeks of its launch.
Salesforce pitches its cloud sales, marketing, service and community applications as a "customer engagement" bundle with the analytics application a natural addition. "Systems of engagement drive growth, and a natural extension of systems of engagement are systems of intelligence," Block said.
That's resonating with solution providers such as Blue Wolf, one of Salesforce's largest consulting channel partners. "The demand is pretty significant," said Adam Bataran, senior director of strategy and analytics, in an interview at the Salesforce event.
The major opportunity is for solution providers to offer Analytics Cloud to customers who have already implemented other Salesforce applications for managing customer relationships, Bataran said. While many businesses already have business intelligence tools, even from multiple vendors, Analytics Cloud's close tie to other Salesforce apps is a key selling point.
