Today, Salesforce has announced they have signed an agreement to acquire consulting partner and app development firm, Traction on Demand. Traction on Demand is North America’s largest dedicated Salesforce and Salesforce.org consulting partner, with more than 14 years experience building solutions.
This isn’t the first consultancy that Salesforce has snapped up, so what’s going on?
Why is Salesforce Acquiring Consultancies?
This is not the first consulting partner that Salesforce has acquired in its history. Previous acquisitions to strengthen their services delivery include Kerensen Consulting, ATKA and Acumen Solutions.
There are multiple potential drivers behind Salesforce consultancy acquisitions:
- Geographical presence
- Industry expertise
- Client relationships/existing customers
- Access to skilled Salesforce professionals
Traction on Demand will become part of Salesforce Professional Services and they certainly tick a number of those boxes. In their statement, Traction on Demand explained:
With Traction on Demand, Salesforce will be able to better provide customers, across all industries, with products and solutions that meet their specific needs, from financial services to communications and across clouds. Together with Salesforce, and our deep commitment to our industry strategy, customers can go digital faster and transform their industry. Traction on Demand
About Traction on Demand
Global Presence
Traction on Demand has already established themselves as North America’s largest dedicated Salesforce and Salesforce.org consulting partner. However, in addition to headquarters in Canada, they have a presence in Australia, New Zealand, India and across the US.
They have a “follow-the-sun” approach, strategically having offices around the world, that enable client services around the clock. Traction on Demand were themselves completing acquisitions in the run up to their own acquisition by Salesforce. They acquired Trineo in 2021, further bolstering their presence in Australia and New Zealand.
This should have come as no surprise to anyone following the company; after being self-funded since their inception in 2007, they secured their first ever external financial investment in 2019. The investment would enable them to accelerate growth as they worked towards aggressive targets, as well as continue to develop their products.
Expertise
As well as having a ton of experience with the Salesforce product suite across multiple industries including Education, Financial Services and Nonprofit, Traction on Demand have developed several of their own standalone apps* including:
*There are minimal details available about the acquisition, however, it is likely that the Apps have not been acquired.
Existing Customers
Traction on Demand have 1800+ customers globally including Zoom, Patagonia, Clear Channel, Honda and Bombardier, just to name a few.
Skilled Salesforce Professionals
Traction on Demand’s 1100+ employees hold 1900+ Salesforce certifications between them and have delivered 7500+ projects across the Salesforce product suite, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Experience Cloud, MuleSoft and many more.
Summary
It’s not just Salesforce making consultancy acquisitions though. It’s a trend that’s also apparent in the wider Salesforce ecosystem, where larger consulting partners are swallowing up smaller ones – in 2020 Cognizant acquire EI-Technologies, Wipro with 4C, PK (ProKarma) with boutique firm Nuvem Consulting, Infosys with Simplus (Simplus, themselves, acquired Clout only one month before) – to name a few.
Recently, Ben did a bit of digging and discovered that 4 consultancies were acquired in a single week in January 2022! K2 Partnering Solutions (a recruiter) has acquired, Cloud Pacific, OSF Digital has acquired Datarati, GyanSys Inc has acquired Groundswell Cloud Solutions, and Spaulding Ridge have acquired Silvr Lining Group.
It’s clear that Salesforce skills are in demand and companies are willing to pay millions to acquire Salesforce consultancies to gain their talent and their book of customers. Who’s excited to see what the next acquisition will be? I know I am…