The Salesforce Partner Ecosystem: A Spotlight on France

The Salesforce partner ecosystem continues to expand across the world, built on the global values of developing strong relationships with visionary partners and providing added value for customers to increase their success.

In France, the partner ecosystem has seen particularly rapid growth. With an ever-increasing demand for Salesforce expertise, partners are working to facilitate these tools in order to grow with their customers, creating a thriving network.

Eric Foucaud, Regional Vice President Alliances & Channels for France, and Pascal Ruby, Director, ISV & OEM, for South EMEA share their insights into the partner ecosystem in France gained from their first-hand experience helping our consulting and ISV partners succeed.

How would you describe the Salesforce Partner Ecosystem in France?

The French partner ecosystem is one of the most fast-moving and growing in the organisation. The number of certified users in France has grown by 176% — a year-on-year average of 42% — over the last three years. A recent study by IDC forecasts that every €1 a customer spends on Salesforce solutions generates €5.61 of revenue for the Salesforce ecosystem, including 120 partners comprising consultancies, agencies, resellers, OEMs and ISVs. Despite this impressive growth, there is still scope for the network to create additional value and attract new partners. With the Salesforce Economy projecting creation of 154,000 new direct jobs in France for customers and partners by 2024, we need to build more partnerships to continue to grow together.

The demand for Salesforce expertise in the region is always increasing, and our partners play a key role in extending and facilitating our expertise to continue growing with our customers. So far, our collaborations have enabled 6,000 ISV AppExchange user bases worldwide, with 88% of our customers deploying at least one solution. That represents 8M+ deployments today — a truly fantastic result. Still, there is more to come.

Where should the focus of this growth lie?

There are two key focuses we have when partnering in this region: expertise and approach. Expert knowledge from our partners allows us to grow in scope and fill in any gaps we have. For example, the manufacturing industry will have very different requirements to the retail industry, with specific expert knowledge required to fulfill the needs of the sector.

Regardless of the industry, the key thing we look for in a partner is differentiation in approach. We want you to be thinking, ‘How can I be different from the others and what can we make our own?’ This combination of specific industry expertise and a fresh take is what we thrive on when working with our partners — not just to support our customers, but to push our internal teams to think smarter.

More specifically, we are looking to extend Salesforce capabilities on business domains we do not currently cover. In our region, these range from Crosstalent (HR) or Insideboard (Change Management and Adoption), SightCall (Enterprise Video), to products like Shift Technology (accelerating insurance processes such as fraud detection and claim management). We have come a long way in a very short time, but there are still lots more opportunities for growth.

How important is collaboration between partners in France?

In our world, you see so many different ways of working. Whether it is large companies subcontracting smaller ones to enhance capacity, or many small businesses pooling their resources and expertise to rival bigger competitors, partnership and teamwork is key. Collaboration between organisations with different strengths creates the strongest results. We find this approach brings the most success to everyone involved, most importantly our customers as we aim to provide them with the best service possible.

The current global situation means partnership is essential. Our partners have been integral to helping our customers stabilise and pivot during the coronavirus pandemic. From working with customers to optimise their business models, to joining forces with partners to enable setting up emergency medical support lines, collaboration has never been more important to engage with customer bases. Recovery products like Work.com are also proving fundamental to facilitate adaptation and returning to work, which our partners are constantly adding value to and helping evolve, as we continue to navigate these uncharted waters.

We base our Consulting Partner Program on customer success, innovation, and business growth, with specific focus on increasing our 3Cs — capacity, certifications, and capabilities. This enables our partners to grow with us, learning new skills along the way as we move forward together. We are constantly developing new partner training programmes to ensure we keep evolving with the ever-changing tech space. As it stands, each consultant has an average of 2.5 certifications, increasing their expertise and giving them new opportunities to show their unique take on things.

How are partners in France using their business platforms as a force for good?

We are advocates for using business as a platform for change and are keen to work with our partners to give back to the community. We have worked with bigger partners like Accenture to upskill younger generations from different backgrounds, giving them a head start in the business world, but also run ongoing collaborative Salesforce projects with multiple associations to support communities in times of hardship.

Another great example is Lightforce where partners of all sizes are working with us and investing in bringing solar light to villages around the world that suffer from light poverty. This innovative and sustainable initiative is bringing increased chance of safety to small and isolated communities.

These are just some of the ways we work with our partners to give back to the community and we hope future partnerships will further enable us to use business for change.

What’s next?

Our partner ecosystem in France is one of the busiest and strongest we have and is always working to deliver impressive results in new and exciting ways. Our new and existing partners impress and deliver time-and-time again, approaching everything they do with expertise and innovation. We are so excited to see where this region takes us next.

Sounds interesting? If you’re thinking of joining the Salesforce partner ecosystem, we would be delighted to have you as part of our family.