Salesforce.com and Deloitte Consulting Ally

January 30, 2007 from Destination CRM – “Salesforce.com is pairing with Deloitte Consulting in a strategic alliance that may enhance the on-demand CRM giant's ability to further penetrate into larger organizations. As part of the alliance, revealed on Tuesday, Deloitte will incorporate Salesforce.com's on-demand CRM apps and the Apex on-demand platform into its consulting services.

Salesforce.com's alliance with Deloitte will help give enterprises the confidence they need to develop, customize, integrate, and deploy on-demand applications with consultants that can help them address their global requirements, according to Bobby Napiltonia, senior vice president of worldwide channels and alliances at Salesforce.com. "The largest enterprise businesses worldwide are realizing they too can take part in on-demand success," he said in a written statement. "With Salesforce Winter '07 and the Apex on-demand platform, companies are able to extend the benefits of on-demand applications to any part of the enterprise."

"Salesforce.com's on-demand model can help change the way large organizations approach their customers," said Paul Clemmons, Deloitte Consulting principal and emerging solutions leader, in a written statement. "We look forward to working even more closely with Salesforce.com to help our clients in their efforts to realize significant results from their on demand applications. The Salesforce.com Apex on-demand platform represents an opportunity to expand the benefits of on-demand computing across many facets of an enterprise."

The announcement dovetails with the findings of a study unveiled today by Nucleus Research and KnowledgeStorm, a search resource for tech solutions and information. More than half of the 198 organizations surveyed use on-demand solutions, and nearly two-thirds plan on implementing an on-demand offering in the next year, according to the study. "This survey shows that the on-demand model is beginning to outgrow its image as a small business solution that, while cost-effective, couldn't scale reliably," Jeff Ramminger, executive vice president of KnowledgeStorm, said in a written statement. "Now, companies of all sizes can take advantage of the efficiencies of these types of solutions."

Salesforce.com has been trying to move up-market for a while, says Timothy Hickernell, associate senior analyst at Info-Tech Research Group. "At some point in this process, software vendors do need to have credible system integration partnerships to get their foot in the door of large firms. The key will be to see how many resources Deloitte--and other SIs--ultimately put towards this partnership, such as full-time consultants trained and certified on Salesforce.com's technology."

180 View – This article is interesting partly because of the statistics supporting the on demand model as well as Deloitte’s commitment to it. Another view is about lack of independence. Deloitte has other strategic relationships including with Cognos, Lawson, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. Our perspective is that Deloitte (and the other firms like it that offer implementation services with specific systems) will be unable to provide independent consulting advice in business process improvement projects that potentially involve either replacement or upgrades.