Australian Research Uncovers Growing Investments in Multi-Cloud and Analytics to Drive Digital Innovation, Customer Experiences, and Business Outcomes

Sydney, Australia — 20 November, 2014 — Bluewolf, a leading global business consulting firm, today released its first Australian edition of its award winning “The State of Salesforce” report that evaluates how companies use, innovate, and prioritise spending on the world's leading CRM platform. Using data gathered in collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management, and based on insights from nearly 100 Salesforce customers in Australia, the 2014-2015 report dives into the business impact being realised by enterprise organisations using Salesforce and its role in driving digital transformation and customer engagement.

Bluewolf’s third annual global report, released in October, indicates that business outcomes, such as top line growth, improved customer experience, and increased visibility, have re-emerged as a primary driver of how organisations prioritise strategic initiatives and digital customer experiences. Enterprise organisations are moving away from the idea that technology drives company strategy. Instead, they’re re-emphasising business strategies and focusing on digital customer experiences and engagement to accelerate meaningful business outcomes.
 
“Bluewolf’s first Australian ‘State of Salesforce’ report shows how Australian companies are prioritising business strategies around customers, adapting to changing digital markets, and using Salesforce to accelerate business outcomes,” said Arlene Wherrett, Managing Director APAC, Bluewolf. “Digital disruption has dramatically increased the power of customers across all industries, and our report provides the context and guidance enterprise organisations need to align people, process, and technology around the customer experience and power new levels of business performance.”

In today’s competitive marketplace, companies grow or stagnate based on their ability to provide customers a superior digital experience. Customers expect high-quality experiences that are smart, relevant, and frictionless across all channels. Adopting a business-wide approach is essential to serve the digital customer and their growing needs. 

Budget owners see Salesforce’s products and the Salesforce1 Platform as critical to this mission, as 82 percent of Australian respondents say Salesforce is more valuable to their company than one year ago and 74 percent are planning to increase their spend with Salesforce in the coming year. 

Additionally, Australian customers are seeing growth in revenue (29 percent), improved customer experience (37 percent), and improved productivity (73 percent), which they attribute to their adoption of Salesforce. Bluewolf predicts that multi-cloud investments, mobile, and intelligent data stand to gain the largest share of new investments and existing budgets.

Bluewolf’s Australian “State of Salesforce” examines insights uncovered from Australian-based Salesforce customers, including:

• Multi-Cloud is an emerging standard - 35 percent of Australian customers are using two or more Salesforce Clouds, spanning Sales, Service, Marketing, and Community. Organisations are transitioning from utilising Salesforce solely as a sales application and instead leveraging it as an all encompassing platform to engage customers.
• Service Cloud is the command center of the customer voice - 45 percent of Australian customers have invested in Service Cloud. Based on responses, Service Cloud has emerged as the second most adopted cloud and is helping to transform customer service departments and revolutionise the way agents interact with their customers. 
• Marketing is leading digital transformation strategies - 22 percent of Australian customers have invested in Marketing Cloud. Globally, 91 percent of respondents say that marketing leaders have a strong voice at the executive level  With expanded influence over business strategy, marketing is leading the shift to meet customers’ digital expectations. By combining investments in Salesforce and marketing automation, marketers are gaining deeper insight into customer needs and driving new levels of collaboration across the enterprise. 
• Data drives your customer experience - 81 percent of Australian customers will increase their investments in data and analytics in the coming year, with 17 percent of those customers increasing investments substantially. While 50 percent of Australian companies say they have strong adoption of their analytics tools, only 17 percent say their use of predictive analytics is mature. Digital experiences are only as good as the data behind them and enabling employees, partners, and customers with accurate and relevant data is the foundation of a strong digital strategy. 
• An industry-driven approach solves specific business challenges - 39 percent of Australian customers have invested in an industry-specific application, compared to 14 percent globally. Australian Salesforce customers are more than twice as likely as the global average to embrace an application specific to their industry in order to accelerate time to value. 

Bluewolf's Australian “The State of Salesforce” review surveyed nearly 100 leading business and technology Salesforce customers in Australia. The respondents were employees in very large enterprises (more than 1,000 employees), large enterprises (up to 1,000 employees), and medium to small enterprises (fewer than 500 employees). The study was conducted via online survey from June to August 2014. Data collection was done in collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management.

• Click here to download the full report
• Benchmark yourself — Receive a personalised report comparing your Salesforce use and investment to leading Salesforce customers. 

About Bluewolf
Bluewolf is a global business consulting firm that helps companies produce extraordinary customer moments to transform their business. Named a global leader in the Salesforce ecosystem by IDC MarketScape, Bluewolf’s strategic business consulting, cloud implementation, change management and learning, and cloud management and governance services help customer-obsessed enterprises realise business outcomes in weeks, not years. With 14+ years of expertise in cloud computing, our proven Agile Business Transformation methodology, and entrepreneurial people, rapidly innovates business processes and technologies to accelerate business results. To learn more, visit www.bluewolfconsulting.com.au or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

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