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<ul><li><keyword id="155484" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="salesforce" source="Orion">Salesforce</keyword> launched <keyword id="67227" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="genie" source="Orion">Genie</keyword>, an upgraded data platform that can provide better digital experience for businesses running online. </li><li>Companies like Ford, L’Oreal, Formula 1®, and PGA TOUR Superstore are using <keyword id="15037607" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="salesforce-genie" source="Orion">Salesforce Genie</keyword>. </li></ul><ul><li><keyword id="1815769" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="slack" source="Orion">Slack</keyword>, acquired by Salesforce, launched <keyword id="15037604" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="slack-canvas" source="Orion">Slack Canvas</keyword> and upgrades in <keyword id="15037606" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="slack-huddles" source="Orion">Slack Huddles</keyword>. </li></ul>Salesforce Customer 360, a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) today unveiled the Genie, an upgraded data platform that aims to provide better digital experiences for businesses running online. The platform, Salesforce says, can provide real-time data that powers its Customer 360 platform. "Every business leader wants to take advantage of real-time data to create compelling, personalized customer experiences — milliseconds matter in this new digital-first world," <keyword id="10689770" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="david-schmaier" source="Orion">David Schmaier</keyword>, president and chief product officer, Salesforce said. Customer 360 provides a complete view of a customer's data which includes a website inquiry or even product purchase and customer support ticket. The new Salesforce Genie helps businesses streamline their vast data stores and provide better customer experience. How can Genie help businesses? A sales representative no longer relies only on in-person communication to close a large deal. Reps need real-time insights about every customer, based on real-time and historical data, to act on the most relevant information in the moment, every time. Today, 71% of customers expect every interaction with a business to be personalized, says Salesforce. "That's why we built Genie, our most significant innovation ever on the Salesforce Platform. Genie makes every part of Customer 360 more automated, intelligent and real-time,” said Schmaier. The amount of data created, captured and consumed each year is expected to more than double by 2026. Salesforce claims that its new platform can ease the processing of large data sets. The platform is already being used by Ford, L’Oreal, Formula 1®, PGA TOUR Superstore, Amazon SageMaker, <keyword id="15037605" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="snowflake-and-google" source="Orion">Snowflake and Google</keyword> to name a few. Slack enhances working in a digital headquarter post-pandemic Slack was acquired by Salesforce last September last year. Globally, Slack is being used by multiple businesses to run their office online. Through Genie, Slack also announced enhancement of their digital headquarters, offering various innovations. “We are focused on helping our customers navigate the future of work, whether that’s hybrid, remote or in the office,” said Tamar Yehoshua, chief product officer, Slack. “We’ve been introducing capabilities like Slack Connect, Clips, Huddles and now Canvas, that bring more value to our customers and enhance working in a digital HQ,” she added. Slack Huddles will now feature lightweight video, multi-person screen sharing and better communication via message threads allowing you to monitor your colleague’s work in real-time. A new addition to Slack called Canvas, will be launched in 2023, enabling teams across the globe to ‘work together’ on a Slack Canvas. This would include sharing texts, files, audio for colleagues to see. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/samsung-to-offer-up-to-60-off-on-galaxy-s20-fe-5g-galaxy-m53-and-more-during-amazons-upcoming-sale/articleshow/94303882.cms">Samsung to offer up to 60% off on Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Galaxy M53, and more during Amazon’s upcoming sale</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/best-offers-on-smartphones-and-laptops-on-the-amazon-great-indian-festival-sale/articleshow/94302092.cms">Best offers on smartphones, laptops, and more on the Amazon Great Indian Festival Kickstarter deals</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/realme-gt-neo-3t-review-power-packed-mid-ranger/articleshow/94299230.cms">Realme GT Neo 3T review: Power-packed mid-ranger</a>

Milliseconds matter in a digital-first world, says Salesforce as it launches real-time data platform

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="155484" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Salesforce">Salesforce</keyword> has named <keyword id="10689770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="david-schmaier">David Schmaier</keyword> <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-names-david-schmaier-president-chief-product-officer/">as its new chief product officer</a>.</li><li>He joined last year via its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-vlocity-acquisition-vertical-sales-strategy-keith-block-2020-2">$1.3 billion acquisition of Vlocity</a>, which makes software for specific industries.</li><li>Schmaier's new role shows Salesforce is focused on growing its industry specific tools.</li><li>Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@insider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. </li></ul>Salesforce has named David Schmaier <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-names-david-schmaier-president-chief-product-officer/">its new chief product officer,</a> finally filling the position that was vacant since December 2019, when Bret Taylor was promoted to chief operating officer.Schmaier joined Salesforce early last year via its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-vlocity-acquisition-vertical-sales-strategy-keith-block-2020-2">$1.3 billion acquisition of Vlocity</a>, a startup he founded that makes cloud and mobile software on top of Salesforce's platform that's tailored to specific industries.Once the deal closed in June, Schmaier was named <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-most-significant-hirings-departures-2020-keith-block-2020-7#hire-david-schmaier-ceo-of-salesforce-industries-22">CEO of Salesforce Industries;</a> As chief product officer, Schmaier will lead Salesforce's global product team, strategy, and vision.Salesforce's acquisition of <keyword id="10689769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vlocity">Vlocity</keyword> was seen as Salesforce's way of doubling down on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-vlocity-acquisition-vertical-sales-strategy-keith-block-2020-2">industry-specific sales strategy that former co-CEO Keith Block</a> introduced before he left the company last February. Giving Schmaier leadership over the entire product team further demonstrates Salesforce's focus on selling to specific industries and creating customized tools on top of its CRM tools for healthcare, financial services, government, and others categories.Schmaier has years of experience customizing CRM software for specific industries. He was one of the first employees at CRM pioneer Siebel Systems in the 1990s, overseeing efforts to customize its software for particular industries. He began building Vlocity in 2013 after seeing that there was an opportunity to customize Salesforce's tools in the same way. Since Vlocity's acquisition, Salesforce added additional capabilities to three of its five industry-specific cloud offerings, and added three industry categories: communications, media and entertainment, and energy and utilities.At Vlocity's developer conference last July, Schmaier said that the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-acquisition-of-vlocity-could-help-win-stickier-customers-2020-7">average order value of Salesforce's industry cloud products grew 71%</a> from a year prior. At the time those products had 4,000 customers and 2.8 million monthly active users, Schmaier said. It's unknown how those numbers have changed; Salesforce doesn't publicly disclose those numbers in its quarterly earnings reports.Schmaier is entering his new role at a time when the company has gone through a rapid shift, with its own employees and customers working remotely and launching new tools to help with the pandemic response. "It's impossible to predict the future," Schmaier said in a <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-names-david-schmaier-president-chief-product-officer/">blog post</a>. "What we do know is that trusted customer relationships have never been more important. I'm ready to jump in, lead our product teams and be a trusted advisor to our customers."Do you work at Salesforce? Have a tip about its focus on industries? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@insider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pzaveri@insider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tip-business-insider-securely-guide-signal-securedrop-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop</a>.

Salesforce made Vlocity's founder its new chief product officer - and it highlights a key part of its strategy

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">VlocityVlocity is finding success customizing Salesforce's service for companies in telecommunications and other industries, CEO David Schmaier said.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/vlocity">Vlocity</a> is one of the most successful developers on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/salesforce">Salesforce's</a> platform.</li><li>The San Francisco startup customizes Salesforce's service for companies in five industries, including telecommunications and health care.</li><li>Company CEO David Schmaier and his core team did something similar with great success at Siebel Systems in the 1990s and 2000s.</li><li>Investors are recognizing its promise; it recently secured a $60 million funding round that valued it at $1 billion that was co-led by Salesforce Ventures itself. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>When David Schmaier attended Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in fall 2013, he was hoping to find a startup to buy - not to found a company himself.At the time, Schmaier was on the board of a private equity firm, but he had a long history in the <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="enterprise">enterprise</keyword> software industry, and specifically in the customer relationship management part of it, which forms Salesforce's core market. Thirty years earlier, he had been one of the first employees at customer relationship management (CRM) software pioneer Siebel Systems, and had overseen its effort to customize its software for particular industries.With Salesforce's cloud-based service supplanting traditional CRM software, Schmaier was convinced there was an opportunity to repeat what he'd done decades before. In 2007, some of his former colleagues had formed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/veeva-systems">Veeva</a>, which was customizing Salesforce's CRM system for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Schmaier thought for sure six years later he'd find other startups at Dreamforce working on customizing Salesforce for other industries.But other than Veeva, he didn't find any.He realized "that there really was no company to buy, that you really had to start it yourself," Schmaier told Business Insider in a recent interview.<h2>A 'rocketship'</h2>Having done CRM customization before, he was convinced he was the best person to start a company that would focus on it for the future.So Schmaier got together with some of his former colleagues from Siebel and founded Vlocity. Instead of focusing narrowly, like Veeva did, or on more than 20 industries, like he had done with Siebel, Schmaier decided that Vlocity would customize Salesforce for a diverse but focused collection of some of the biggest industries around, including telecommunications, insurance, and healthcare.He may not intended to start a company originally, but his bet has paid off. San Francisco-based Vlocity now has 700 employees and counts among its customers a slew of household names and major corporations and organizations, including Verizon, Anthem, Allstate, the government of Canada, and the US Department of Agriculture. It's already hit $100 million in annual revenue. And, according to Schmaier, Vlocity is the fastest-growing company ever to be built on top of Salesforce's technology platform."The company's going great," he said. "It's really kind of a rocketship."Vlocity system essentially plugs into Salesforce's. Depending on the industry a customer participates in, Vlocity's service will add particular modules to its Salesforce dashboard. So, a telecommunications company might have a module that provides a graph their representatives can view that shows a customer's devices and service options. For insurance companies, Vlocity offers modules that allow them to add items such as customers' policies and coverages.<h2>Vlocity customizes Salesforce, saving clients time and effort</h2>Vlocity offers a standard set of modules across industries. Beyond the default batch, customers can pick and pay for which ones they need. But they can also customize the particular modules to match their workflows and business processes. The company's service is cloud-based, and the startup updates it monthly with new features.That's a big advantage for Vlocity and its customers, said Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Nucleus Research who covers the CRM market."The cloud model offers greater usability and greater flexibility, and the ability to change over time," she said.Although Vlocity has several competitors, including Amdocs and Zipari, many of them focus on just one or two industries. Some companies have chosen in the past to create bespoke CRM systems or customize generic ones, including Salesforce, by tapping their own developers or by hiring one of the big consulting firms.By offering CRM features that are industry specific, Vlocity can help such companies save the time and cost of creating such customized services as well as the ongoing cost of maintaining them, industry analysts said. As such, the company's service fills a critical niche for Salesforce in particular and for its customers, said Olive Huang, an analyst who focuses on the CRM industry for research firm Gartner. "Salesforce by itself without industry templates will cost the companies too much on customization, implementation will be too long and the total cost of ownership will not be competitive," Huang said.<h2>It's one of the latest tech unicorns</h2>While Vlocity isn't exactly a household name, it's already caught the attention of investors. The company has raised more than $160 million in venture funding to date.Salesforce Ventures, the cloud giant's investment arm, was an early backer of Vlocity. In March, Salesforce Ventures co-led Vlocity's <a href="https://vlocity.com/community/vlocity-raises-60-million-series-c-funding">latest funding round</a>, a $60 million Series C that gave the startup a valuation of more than $1 billion and made it one of Silicon Valley's latest unicorns.It's no wonder why, either. Services like those offered by Vlocity make the larger Salesforce platform more palatable to a wider swath of customers, broadening the potential audience for both companies. Its other backers include consulting behemoth Accenture, Sutter Hill Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and New York Life, which is one of Vlocity's key customers.When considering potential investments, Wildcat Venture Partners evaluates them on four key criteria, or pillars - their product, revenue, business systems, and executive team, said founding partner Bruce Cleveland <a href="https://medium.com/wildcat-venture-partners/why-we-invested-in-vlocity-da8b78247892">in a recent blog post</a>. Schmaier put together a team that's not only has deep experience in the industry but also with fast-paced growth, Cleveland said. And Vlocity is offering a product that's built on top of Salesforce's successful platform and offers an obvious value to its business customers."With all four pillars covered, it was hard to envision Vlocity not succeeding," Cleveland said.<h2>Schmaier is building a global company</h2>The company's biggest challenge going forward is a geographic one, said Gartner's Huang. Salesforce is expanding rapidly around the world and is going to want to be able to offer potential customers a service that's tailored for their businesses or industries.Vlocity could find it difficult to meet that demand, she said. Some of the industries for which it offers its service are covered by regulations that can vary from country to country, meaning that Vlocity may have to customize its offerings not just by industry but by locale as well."If they can't follow Salesforce [quickly] enough, Salesforce will not wait for the market to be taken by competition," Huang said. "So Salesforce will likely ... develop an industry cloud themselves, or give the business to a different ... partner."Read this: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sapphire-ventures-das-says-enterprise-software-will-see-consolidation-2019-3">This VC says a shakeout is coming to enterprise software because titans like Oracle and Salesforce have 'account control' that no startup can match</a>For his part, Schmaier doesn't seem worried about that. Vlocity is already offering its service in 20 countries around the world and counts among its customers some major international companies, including Sky Italia, France's Orange, and Canada's Rogers."This is an incredibly global company," he said.<h2>Salesforce is a key partner - and a potential competitor</h2>What's more, Salesforce is Vlocity's largest outside investor and has been supportive of what the company is doing, Schmaier said. The two companies' arrangement allows Salesforce to focus on building out its platform and Vlocity to focus on customizing for particular industries."Everybody does what their good at," he said. There's nothing to stop Salesforce from getting into Vlocity's market, he continued, "except for if we're good at it, and the customers are happy, and if we're driving value and revenue for them, and they're an investor, I think that's reason enough for them to work with us, versus the alternative."And the company plans to use some of its new funds to continue its global expansion, Schmaier said. Last year it set up shop in parts of Asia and Latin America, and it plans to fill out its sales teams in those areas.It also plans to use the new funds to continue to build out new modules and features for its service, he said. Its service collects more data for customers than does Salesforce alone, and Vlocity wants to help customers tap into Salesforce's artificial intelligence and data analysis capabilities to help make sense of it, he said. He thinks that's going to be important to Vlocity's customers."This is kind of the core operating system ... for each one of these industries," Schmaier said. "This is like the core DNA of how you run a telco, or how you run an insurance company."Got a tip about tech? Contact this reporter via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/troywolv/">@troywolv</a>, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tip-business-insider-securely-guide-signal-securedrop-2017-6"> contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop</a>.Read more about enterprise software and services:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-edge-computing-startup-pixeom-used-to-raise-15-million-2019-5" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Here's the pitch deck a Silicon Valley startup used to raise $15 million to promote its edge-computing service</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sapphire-ventures-jai-das-enterprise-software-ipo-good-bet-2019-4" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">A Silicon Valley VC says a group of tech companies are quietly blowing away expectations while the spotlight shines on splashy IPOs like Lyft and Pinterest</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-startup-kong-pitch-deck-raise-43-million-2019-4" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">This pitch deck helped raise $43 million for a startup with a new twist on the biggest trend in software development</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airtables-founders-wanted-to-build-a-lasting-company-not-a-product-2019-4" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">The CEO of billion-dollar startup Airtable explains why its founders decided on a corporate culture before they even had a product</a></li></ul> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lifelong-iphone-user-switches-android-samsung-galaxy-s10-2019-5">I've used iPhones for nearly a decade and switched to the Samsung Galaxy S10. Now I understand Android loyalty in a way I never understood before.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Here's how an enterprise software vet and his team have built a $1 billion business with $100 million in annual revenue by putting its own twists on Salesforce for big businesses

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12145631" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bret-taylor" source="Orion">Bret Taylor</keyword> has been appointed co-CEO of <keyword id="11892769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="salesforce" source="Orion">Salesforce</keyword> and vice chair of its board.</li><li>He will serve as co-CEO alongside <keyword id="11955990" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="marc-benioff" source="Orion">Marc Benioff</keyword>, who will continue as Salesforce's chairman.</li></ul>Salesforce's Bret Taylor has been appointed co-CEO and Vice Chair of the board, the company announced on Tuesday. He'll serve as co-CEO alongside Marc Benioff, who will remain in the chairman role.The news came on Tuesday alongside Salesforce's quarterly earnings report. Salesforce shares are down over 5% in after-hours trading at the time of publication. Salesforce beat Wall Street's revenue and earnings estimates, but its earnings guidance for the next quarter was lower than expected.This is actually Salesforce's second run at the concept of having two chief executives: Keith Block served as co-CEO from mid-2018 until early 2020 before leaving in February 2020. After his departure, Benioff had signaled that another co-CEO wasn't in his immediate plans, fanning the flames on the long-running rumor that he planned to step down and appoint a replacement. Today's news shows that he's apparently willing to try that approach again.Also, in an <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/30/marc-benioff-says-hes-never-leaving-salesforce-thrilled-bret-taylor-is-co-ceo.html">interview on CNBC's Mad Money</a> Tuesday, Benioff told Jim Cramer in no uncertain terms that he's "never leaving," which may quiet some of that speculation.Taylor, known in the industry for his key roles as an early product leader at both Google and Facebook, has established himself as the most visible executive at Salesforce besides Benioff himself, and had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-coo-bret-taylor-next-ceo-marc-benioff-2021-9">long been considered to be the top executive's eventual successor</a>. He was named chief product officer of Salesforce in 2017, and became its chief operating officer in 2019.Earlier this week, Taylor was named the chairman of Twitter's board of directors, on which he has served on since 2016. That announcement came as Twitter CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey announced his plans to leave the company.Taylor is a product-focused executive, bringing a different skillset to the C-suite than Benioff or former co-CEO Block, who had a background in sales. Prior to Salesforce, Taylor helped found Google Maps and was later Facebook's chief technology officer, where he gets credit for creating its "Like" button and helping lead the social network through its IPO in 2012. Taylor quickly rose through the ranks after Salesforce <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-buys-quip-2016-8">acquired his collaboration startup Quip</a> for $750 million in 2016. The following year, Taylor was promoted to Salesforce's C-suite as its chief product officer. In 2019, Taylor was named the president and chief operating officer of the cloud giant, responsible for global product vision, engineering, security, marketing, and communications. In a somewhat unusual arrangement, several of Taylor's fellow C-level execs reported directly to him, rather than Benioff: David Schmaier, who succeeded Taylor as chief product officer, Tableau CEO Mark Nelson, chief marketing officer Sarah Franklin, and chief engineering officer Srinivas Tallapragada were all under Taylor on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-org-chart-top-execs-marc-benioff-bret-taylor-2021-5">the official org chart</a>. That structure was just one of many recent signs that Taylor was poised to ascend to the CEO spot. Taylor famously spearheaded the firm's<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-slack-acquisition-merger-deal-2020-11"> $27.7 billion deal to buy workplace chat app Slack</a>, which closed in July — a move that cemented his position as Benioff's most powerful lieutenant. Indeed, as Insider reported last year, while Benioff has been very involved with significant Salesforce acquisitions like MuleSoft and Tableau, the CEO took a back-seat and let Taylor drive the day-to-day process of the Slack deal. Taylor has also joined Benioff in speaking at the company's various conferences around the world, recently including an event in February broadcasted live from Singapore. Additionally, recently, Taylor has often been the one to communicate complicated topics with Salesforce's employees, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-coo-bret-taylor-next-ceo-marc-benioff-2021-9">Insider previously reported</a>. For example, in the aftermath of the January 6th riots at the US Capitol, Taylor was the executive who sent the companywide email communicating with employees as the events unfolded, according to a memo viewed by Insider. He's also the one who later disclosed at an all-hands meeting that Salesforce was reviewing its roster of customers to make sure its technology was not being used to incite violence.Employees previously told Insider that the decision to make Taylor the internal face of the company on those matters is a sign that the company has spent much of the past few years preparing him to one day take over for Benioff.In his new role as co-CEO, Taylor will be responsible for overseeing the company's vision of a so-called "360-degree" platform that can give its clients a complete view of their customers, from managing marketing campaigns and the sales funnel all the way through to tracking purchases and customer service requests. Taylor has pitched Slack as key to that ambition, saying that the chat app will be the one interface where Salesforce customers can access and collaborate around that information."This year I do feel like the entire economy has gone digital, and in particular, all the areas where Salesforce serves our customers," Taylor told Insider in July at the time the Slack deal closed. "The opportunity to have Slack amplify and really be at the way people engage with our software and really engage with all the software that they use is this tremendous opportunity."Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@insider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

Salesforce's chief operating officer Bret Taylor just got promoted to become Marc Benioff's co-CEO

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On Tuesday, Salesforce said it had acquired Vlocity, a startup that makes cloud and mobile software tailored to specific industries, for $1.33 billion.</li><li>The news came the same day it announced co-CEO Keith Block was leaving the company.</li><li>The acquisition of Vlocity will help Salesforce continue a sales strategy that focused on selling to specific industries, like finance, healthcare, and government - a strategy that Block first spearheaded.</li><li>On a call with analysts after the earnings, Benioff said that Block inspired Salesforce to focus more heavily on vertical industries, and that the acquisition of Vlocity will help grow that effort. </li><li>Benioff said that Salesforce wasn't looking to do another big acquisition so soon after Tableau, which it acquired for $15.3 billion last year, but the opportunity to bring Vlocity on board was too good to pass up.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summarymary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>During its fourth quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday, Salesforce said it had acquired Vlocity, a startup that makes cloud and mobile software tailored to specific industries, for $1.33 billion.The acquisition speaks to a strategy championed by now-former Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block - who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-keith-block-steps-down-marc-beniof-ceo-2020-2">stepped down from his co-CEO role</a> in a surprise announcement on Tuesday -during his time at the cloud software giant. Block had just taken on the co-CEO role a year and a half ago in 2018.Block is seen as an a leader in enterprise software sales and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-co-ceo-keith-block-leaving-analysts-leadership-benioff-2020-2">analysts say he had a big role in shaping what the company is today -</a> including developing this strategy of targeting specific industries. Under Block's watch, Salesforce went from about $4 billion in annual revenue when he first joined in 2013, to doing about the same in a quarter now.On a call with analysts after the earnings, Marc Benioff, founder and now sole CEO of Salesforce, credited Block with the strategy."I couldn't be more excited about amplifying the vertical strategy with them," Benioff said of Vlocity. "And I'm sure we'll have many more things that we'll be ready to announce that have honestly been inspired by Keith's tremendous vision and passion towards taking our incredible platform but delivering it by industry and also, as Keith said so well, in the language of our customers." <h2> A vertical sales strategy</h2>Vlocity makes cloud software for specific industries, like insurance, healthcare, and the public sector, on top of Salesforce's platform. Salesforce currently has specific versions of its products financial services industry, healthcare, government, and philanthropy. The Financial Services Cloud and Health Cloud were both launched under Block's guidance. On the call with analysts, Block highlighted the growth in those areas and new customers Salesforce has signed on as a result."Approximately 3 years ago, we launched some incredible innovation with Financial Services Cloud as well as our Health Cloud and we had some amazing wins in the quarter associated with both of those," Block said. Benioff noted that the success of this industry-specific strategy was a result of Block's leadership and initiative in the space. He also noted that the experience Vlocity has in talking to customers in these industries will be a huge asset to Salesforce. Industries like financial services, healthcare and government, often have more rules and regulations they have to comply with, so the software they use has to be able to meet those needs.Benioff said he had worked with many of the executives running Vlocity for decades, including its CEO and founder David Schmaier. "Many of these executives we have worked with and worked together with for maybe 30 years or more. We know them extremely well...I'm especially excited that David Schmaier is coming into Salesforce. He's one of the finest executives who I've worked with," Benioff said. This acquisition comes after its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-earnings-tableau-acquisition-challenges-2019-12">$15.3 billion acquisition of Tableau, which just closed in Q3 of last year</a>. It was also the company's largest acquisition ever, and the two have just started to integrate their products. Benioff said that Salesforce wasn't looking to do another big acquisition so soon after Tableau, but the opportunity to bring Vlocity on board was too good to pass up. He did say that the company is not going to be focusing on making any major acquisitions in the short term, instead putting focus on growing the business and hitting the goals its set, like doubling revenue by 2024 to $35 billion."We don't anticipate any major acquisitions in the short term," Benioff said.<h2>A significant acquisition as Keith Block departs</h2>Analysts say that the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-year-ahead-2020-tableau-acquisitions-benioff-2020-1">Vlocity acquisition is significant</a> because it gives Salesforce a ton of extra expertise in this industry-specific sales stategy, especially amid Block's departure.Rob Oliver, an analyst at Baird said that the Vlocity acquisition gives reassurance that Salesforce will continue going after specific industries, even though Block is leaving the company. He added that Salesforce has acquired "one of the best vertical plays on the Salesforce platform."Rebecca Wetteman, an analyst at Valoir, said the acquisition while significant, is not surprising, given that Vlocity is built on the Salesforce platform and that the two companies have worked together for years."The Vlocity acquisition is significant in giving Salesforce tons of vertical CRM IP and industry chops, but not surprising - Salesforce has made a habit of acquiring companies from within its ecosystem where it's already done its due diligence. It's a lot easier to know what you're marrying if you've already dated exclusively," Wetteman said.Arjun Bhatia, an analyst at William Blair said while Salesforce had a strong vertical strategy by itself, Vlocity has more out-of-the-box tools, which Salesforce would otherwise have to develop on its own. "While Salesforce also has solutions that address these verticals, we get the sense that Vlocity offers more out of the box vertical workflows compared with Salesforce, which might require more custom development. Ultimately, we are positive on Salesforce's continued commitment to a vertical strategy, especially as the company looks to get more leverage on the sales and marketing line," Bhatia wrote in a research note published Wednesday.Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@businessinsider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tip-business-insider-securely-guide-signal-securedrop-2017-6">contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop</a>.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says that its $1 billion acquisition of startup Vlocity will help it pursue a sales strategy championed by outgoing co-CEO Keith Block

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Keith's Block exit from Salesforce, 18 months after he was promoted to co-CEO, was a shocker. </li><li>Marc Benioff even wrote about his decision to promote Block to co-CEO in his recently released book "Trailblazer," saying he needed a partner who reported to the board and not to him.</li><li>But in practice, Benioff still held the power in the company, and remains chairman of the board.</li><li>And one indication of the unequal power can be seen in the pay between the two executives: While Block received a handsome increase in pay when he was promoted to co-CEO, he was still making less than Benioff in total compensation.</li><li>On top of that, as Benioff filled his executive bench with more top leaders, it was hard to see how the co-CEO structure was working.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>If you were surprised when you heard that Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block was leaving the company, you weren't alone - Business Insider spoke to a few Salesforce employees who felt exactly the same way.Block had been such an instrumental figure in building the sales and operations teams since joining Salesforce in 2013, that he was chosen in August 2018 - just 18 months ago - to be co-CEO, alongside founder and chairman Marc Benioff. Marc Benioff talks about that decision in his book "Trailblazer." The story he tells goes like this: During a vacation with his family in the Pacific Isles - he owns a compound in Hawaii, which is why he and Salesforce use so many Hawaiian terms - Benioff had a revelation. He was feeling overtaxed."The more we grew, the more product rollouts, marketing campaign launches, executive development sessions, speeches and customer meetings mandated my presence," Benioff wrote. "It was time to ask our board of directors to make Keith Block, then Salesforce's chief operating officer, a co-CEO."He struggled with the idea of giving up some control, he admitted in the book, but took the plunge anyway. With this arrangement, Benioff would handle "technology, marketing, stakeholder engagement and culture, while Keith would be responsible for growth strategy, execution and operations," he wrote.In truth, as COO, Block was already helping to run the company. But the idea, Benioff explained, was that Block would be reporting to the board "and no longer to me.""The new arrangement would allow me to be more mindful, more present and, perhaps, less chronically late for meetings," Benioff wrote. <h2>Theory vs. practice</h2>In practice, though, reporting to the board meant that Block basically still answered to Benioff, who was and remains Salesforce's chairman.Furthermore, while Block got a handsome raise when he got the co-CEO gig, his compensation and shareholder status did not put him on equal footing with Benioff.For the 2019 fiscal year, Benioff was paid a bigger cash salary ($1.55 million to Block's $1.435 million). This means Benioff's potential cash bonuses, up to 200% of their salaries, were bigger, too. Benioff was also granted more stock including options ($8 million worth, to be price, to Block's $6 million) and performance-based restriction stock ($12 million for Benioff, $9 million for Block).All in all, Block's total CEO pay for Salesforce's 2019 fiscal year was $16.96 million, compared to Benioff's $28.39 million. That's certainly a healthy salary for any CEO, but it also meant that Salesforce was shelling out a lot of money for its chief executives, split as it was between two people: $45.35 million for that same fiscal year.Shareholders in the past were not particularly thrilled with the high pay granted to the corner office. In 2015, after some shareholders bristled at Benioff's $39.9 million pay package, the company froze his base cash salary to 2016 levels and reduced some of his fresh stock tranches to trim his overall annual <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-salary-13-million-after-paycut-2017-4">pay in subsequent fiscal years 2016 and 2017.</a>On top of that, Salesforce recently also promoted Bret Taylor to the second-in-command job of chief operating officer, filling a vacancy left by Block's acension to co-CEO.Between Taylor's pay and the stock he received when Salesforce bought his startup, Quip, by the end of FY19, Taylor was actually the third-biggest individual executive shareholder (with nearly 1.5 million shares) behind Benioff (who owns 4.7% of the company with nearly 3 million shares), and co-founder Parker Harris (nearly 2.8 million shares). In FY19, Block was at 627,261 shares.<h2>A stacked executive bench</h2>While Benioff gave Block the warmest possible send-off, <a href="https://twitter.com/Benioff/status/1232412950209560576">tweeting out a happy goodbye photo</a> and including Block on the final earnings call with analysts, he also gave a couple of hints as to what life was like among this full-stack executive suite.When asked on the call how Salesforce would redistribute Block's responsibilities, Benioff said, "When we promoted Keith to co-CEO, one of the things that he said to me is he wanted to get out of the business of running the sales force. That's been something that we've worked to do."Block's main duty throughout his tenure at Salesforce was building the sales team. If he was no longer going to do that, what, exactly, was his signature contribution? Taylor runs global product strategy, engineering, security, marketing and communications <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/salesforce-names-bret-taylor-president-chief-operating-officer-2019-12-12">and reports to Benioff.</a> Cofounder Harris runs product-development engineering, working hand-in-hand with Benioff, too. Benioff pointed to a new executive joining the company that will run Block's signature project at Salesforce: serving specific industries (known as "vertical industries" in enterprise software parlance). Salesforce acquired a company called Vlocity, it announced on the same call, to help with build it serve vertical industries. Benioff is also appointing Vlocity CEO David Schmaier to run the vertical business. On the call, Block said launching Salesforce's vertical strategy has "always been a passion of mine," adding, "Approximately three years ago, we launched some incredible innovation with Financial Services Cloud as well as our Health Cloud." This vertical strategy, which Schmaier will now run, is one of the reasons that Salesforce blossomed since Block joined the company.Benioff also announced he hired former BT CEO, Gavin Patterson, to become CEO of Salesforce's international operations, taking that off the CEO's plate as well. Benioff called out Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky as a rising star with experience running a public company on his executive team, too. Selipsky is still running Tableau, Salesforce's largest acquisition to date at $15.3 billion.It all adds up to a company that is rich top executives, even without a second CEO.Are you a Salesforce insider with insight to share? Contact Julie Bort on encrypted chat app Signal at (970) 430-6112 (no PR inquiries, please), or email at <a href="mailto:jbort@businessinsider.com">jbort@businessinsider.com</a>. Open DMs on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Julie188">@Julie188</a> (no PR inquiries, please). Now read:<ul class="read-more-links"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-immediately-deleted-former-co-ceo-keith-block-2020-2">Salesforce has already deleted outgoing co-CEO Keith Block from its leadership web page</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-co-ceo-keith-block-leaving-analysts-leadership-benioff-2020-2">The sudden departure of Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block could show how Marc Benioff is preparing a new generation of talent to take the reins at the cloud giant</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-exec-who-was-rebecca-neumanns-cousin-ran-up-expenses-2020-2">A WeWork exec who was Rebekah Neumann's cousin regularly ran up huge expense reports before other execs ganged up and forced him out</a></li></ul>

Keith Block may have been the co-CEO of Salesforce, but he never got paid as much as fellow CEO Marc Benioff

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block has stepped down from his role, less than 2 years after he first ascended to the role in the summer of 2018.</li><li>Analysts say that it was always a strange choice for Salesforce to have a co-CEO: While they respect Block's success at the company, experts say that his lofty title didn't necessarily give him more power over the company than founder and CEO Marc Benioff, known for doing things his own way.</li><li>Block's departure could clear the deck for a new generation of leadership at the company, analysts say: The company is in a good position today, thanks in no small part to Block's efforts, they say, but Benioff and cofounder Parker Harris could be looking to the future.</li><li>Rising stars at the company include Bret Taylor, promoted to COO last fall, and Adam Selipsky, CEO of Tableau, which Salesforce recently acquired to add more data analysis chops.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summarymary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-keith-block-steps-down-marc-beniof-ceo-2020-2">sudden and surprising departure of Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block</a> after only about a year and a half on the job could signal that Marc Benioff - now the sole CEO of the $161 billion cloud software giant once more - is clearing the decks for a new generation of leadership.Since joining <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-keith-stong-operator-sudden-exit-oracle-2020-2">Salesforce in 2013 as head of sales, getting promoted to COO, and then moving on to the co-CEO role</a>, Block played a crucial role in building out Salesforce's sales strategy - particularly in building traction in selling to specific industries like healthcare and government. He had over 26 years of experience at Oracle before coming to Salesforce.There's evidence that Block had a lot of success: Salesforce's revenue just about quadrupled from $4 billion annually when he joined in 2013, to doing about the same in a quarter now. Even so, Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Valoir, said its not surprising that Block is stepping down. The ever-bombastic Benioff and his cofounder and CTO Parker Harris are still very much involved in the day to day operations of the company.She suggests that despite Block's lofty title, the two founders still wielded outsized power over the company, and that their more freewheeling style never fully meshed with Block's more traditional approach to business."People talked about Keith as the heir apparent to Marc, but Marc is still firing on all cylinders and he and Parker continue to be the key leadership figures for Salesforce," Wettemann told Business Insider. "While he was doing a great job, Salesforce has never marched to the traditional enterprise software drummer, and Keith was the perfect drummer boy." Dan Newman, an analyst at Futurum Research agrees, and said he always found it interesting that Salesforce decided to have someone share the CEO role with Benioff. "I felt from the beginning it would be hard for the two to be equals, but it was a fascinating experiment," he told Business Insider. He added that while Block seemed to be indispensable to the company's operations, Bret Taylor seems to already be fulfilling some of the operational duties left vacated. Taylor, formerly the CTO of Facebook and a key engineer at Google, was named chief operating officer last fall, taking over Block's old job.<h2>The next generation</h2>Steve Koenig, an analyst at Wedbush, said that while Block was a great asset to the company, Benioff might be looking to pave the way for a future generation of leaders - like Taylor. "I think bigger picture, my guess is that Marc is looking forward into the future and looking at what he needs to do put in place the next generation of leadership at the company," Koenig told Business Insider, adding that Taylor is one example of that kind of talent. Koenig adds that he could see Salesforce putting Taylor into a CEO role in the future, something that others have speculated before as well. Taylor came to the company when Salesforce acquired his startup Quip, and he quickly rose though the ranks, reporting directly to Benioff once he joined. Another person who represents the type of leadership talent Benioff could be looking for is Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky, Koenig said. Salesforce acquired Tableau for $15.3 billion last year. Selipsky was previously an executive at Amazon Web Services and took over Tableau in 2016.Koenig said Selipsky has done a "remarkable" job reviving Tableau when it was having trouble and "propelling it forward and then taking Tableau to the next level."While Block had a huge impact on the company, he built a sales organization that can continue doing the work, so analysts said they don't expect much to change with the day to day operations."I really don't see any significant impact on the external perception of the business based upon this move. Internally, Block appeared to be pivotal to operations and this could see a transitional period where the company will have to make adjustments in Block's absence," Newman said.Salesforce has also hired Gavin Patterson, formerly CEO at BT, as the new president and CEO of Salesforce International, responsible for the company's operations outside the US. Rob Oliver, an analyst at Baird, said that Salesforce has a strong bench of executives, so while Block leaving is certainly a big deal, he's not worried about the company's future performance."If there's any company that can withstand the departure of one person it's Salesforce, because Marc Benioff has built a culture of surrounding himself with great people," Oliver said. <h2>The Vlocity acquisition</h2>Additionally, Wetteman said she sees the acquisition of Vlocity, a startup that makes industry-specific cloud and mobile software that is built on the Salesforce platform, to play a key role here. Salesforce said it acquired Vlocity at the same time it announced Block was leaving. The acquisition will help Salesforce increase its focus on a industry specific sales strategy, tailoring its products to industries like financial services, healthcare and government - a strategy that Block spearheaded. "They get not only the vertical IP, but also [Vlocity CEO] David Schmaier, who is positioned to have a great leadership role there if he wants to do it. David knows the market, he knows the customers, from an industry perspective, he could be a great person to bring on to central leadership of Salesforce," Wetteman said. Oliver said that the Vlocity acquisition gives reassurance that Salesforce's industry specific sales strategy will continue to grow, even though Block is leaving the company. He added that Salesforce has acquired "one of the best vertical plays on the Salesforce platform."Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@businessinsider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tip-business-insider-securely-guide-signal-securedrop-2017-6">contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop</a>.

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