As Salesforce Growth Eases, U.S. Firms Map Out Projects

More enterprises in Salesforce’s home market can now hire experts to carefully plan strategies, while providers still play key roles, ISG Provider Lens™ report says

U.S. enterprises continue to work with service providers on implementing and operating Salesforce applications amid moderating growth in demand for the company’s applications, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2024 ISG Provider Lens™ Salesforce Ecosystem Partners report for the U.S. finds that Salesforce growth rates above 20 percent in recent years slowed to between 10 and 15 percent in 2023. The cooling of the market has made it easier for some enterprises to plan sustainable Salesforce initiatives, ISG says.

“Until recently, a severe skills shortage prevented some companies from hiring the right experts for Salesforce strategy and optimization,” said Bill Huber, partner, digital platforms and solutions, for ISG. “Now they are filling those positions and engaging with providers on execution.”

Salesforce has a particularly high market share in the U.S., its home market, the report says. Its U.S. customer base is diverse, ranging from small companies to large corporations with global operations. The biggest of these have complex IT support needs, including global rollouts of standardized core systems with region-specific variations. Small and midsize enterprises have simpler requirements and often use more standard Salesforce implementations.

As in other regions, U.S. organizations that make extensive use of Salesforce across many departments are taking a harder look at the value it delivers, ISG says. In some cases, they are consolidating their Salesforce instances.

Salesforce is strongly emphasizing its industry-specific applications, encouraging clients to migrate to these new platforms from current function-based tools, the report says. Some clients are hesitant to adopt the new approach, partly due to concerns about licensing costs and the potential difficulty of the transition.

“Enterprise software is evolving quickly, and implementation and licensing are complex,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “In some cases, companies rely on experienced third-party service providers to keep up to date.”

The report also explores other trends in the U.S. Salesforce ecosystem, including the ongoing consolidation of service providers and the importance of partnerships between providers and independent software vendors.

For more insights into the Salesforce challenges enterprises face, including pressure to adopt vertical solutions and generative AI (GenAI), see the ISG Provider Lens™ Focal Points briefing here.

The 2024 ISG Provider Lens™ Salesforce Ecosystem Partners report for the U.S. evaluates the capabilities of 48 providers across six quadrants: Multicloud Implementation and Integration Services for Large Enterprises; Implementation Services for Core Clouds — Midmarket; Implementation Services for Marketing Automation; Managed Application Services for Large Enterprises; Managed Application Services for Midmarket, and Implementation Services for Industry Clouds.

The report names Accenture, Cognizant, Infosys, Persistent Systems and TCS as Leaders in four quadrants each. It names Capgemini, Coastal Cloud, Deloitte, HCLTech, IBM and Wipro as Leaders in three quadrants each. Birlasoft, Coforge, Hexaware, Mphasis Silverline, Perficient and Zennify are named as Leaders in two quadrants each. Customertimes, Grazitti, LTIMindtree, Slalom and Tech Mahindra are named as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, Jade Global, LTIMindtree and Tech Mahindra are named as Rising Stars — companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in two quadrants each. Grazitti, Perficient and Persistent Systems are named as Rising Stars in one quadrant each.

Customized versions of the report are available from Brillio, Coastal Cloud, Cognizant, Customertimes, Grazitti and Hexaware.

In the area of customer experience, Hexaware is named the global ISG CX Star Performer for 2024 among Salesforce ecosystem partners. The provider earned the highest customer satisfaction scores in ISG's Voice of the Customer survey, which is part of the ISG Star of Excellence™ program, the premiere quality recognition for the technology and business services industry.

The 2024 ISG Provider Lens™ Salesforce Ecosystem Partners report for the U.S. is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., France, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics, Australia and Singapore/Malaysia, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 900 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including AI and automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,600 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

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