Salesforce is empowering users across industries through Lightning (article). Nearly everyone has become a believer in Cloud solutions. The challenge continues in migrating from an older edition of Salesforce. There is also a ton of data migration and solutioning involved in moving from legacy applications such as Oracle CRM (Siebel). 

Salesforce can be very clunky when it comes to heavy customization. Lighting is fixing this. If Salesforce doesn’t succeed, expect challengers to fill in the gaps. Many have become partners with Salesforce.

This story has been told before. Siebel focused on verticals around the turn of the century in the year 2000. There was a ton of consolidation in the CRM industry from 2000-2005, culminating in Oracle’s acquisition of Siebel in 2005.

I expect to see consolidation in cloud computing for the next few years with another Big Bang acquisition, perhaps involving Salesforce. There are many ‘me-too‘ products out there. At the same time, most vertical industries are lagging in absorbing all the amazing Cloud-based technologies.  

It’s all about speed in absorbing these new technologies and re-inventing industries through superior customer experience. It took just a few years for ride-sharing startups Uber and Lyft to put Yellow Cab out of business in San Francisco. There are hundreds of stories like this one. 

On the other hand, the hype cycle is similar to what it was back in 2000 (article). Many companies didn’t make it back then because they were either way ahead of their time or didn’t focus enough on industry solutions. 

It’s 2017 and Salesforce continues to improve Lightning. Expect more growth ahead…