Fast-Growing Salesforce Demand in Germany Drives Increasing Consolidation Among Service Providers

ISG Provider Lens™ report says acquisitions of midsize firms are driven by competition to hire experienced experts who can implement Salesforce solutions for multiple industries

FRANKFURT, Germany--()--Salesforce ecosystem partners in Germany are consolidating, with the number of buyouts increasing as the market for implementation services heats up, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Salesforce Ecosystem Partners report for Germany finds fast-growing adoption of Salesforce products is increasing the need among enterprises for outside support to implement solutions. The rising demand for resources with Salesforce implementation experience has led to big technology players acquiring smaller service and solution providers, with Salesforce itself making two of the recent takeovers. Last year, in the U.S., it announced the acquisitions of software vendor Vlocity and implementation service provider Acumen Solutions.

The consolidation trend in the German market, though less pronounced than in the U.S., has seen global system integrators acquire medium-sized vendors in the past year, and the pace is expected to keep increasing, ISG says.

“The German market for Salesforce implementation services has heated up in the year since our last report,” said Andrea Spiegelhoff, EMEA partner for ISG in Germany. “More enterprises are adopting Salesforce software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions and turning to the ecosystem for help in implementing them.”

All providers of Salesforce support, from global system integrators to boutique vendors, still need a strong network of independent software vendors to meet the specialized requirements of specific industries and enterprises, the report says. Salesforce products have a highly standardized range of features, so providers are forming partnerships to avoid having to develop solutions for individual clients on their own.

For large-enterprise implementations of Salesforce products, the most common development approach is now the Hybrid Agile model, which combines Agile and phase-oriented approaches, ISG says. Most service providers offer this approach. Pure Agile methodologies are still suitable but are applied primarily for midsize clients with lower integration requirements and no need for a global rollout.

Meanwhile, the dominant tool for Salesforce integration is Mulesoft, the report says. Service providers need significant capabilities in this area, and many global system integrators have large, dedicated Mulesoft practices for integration activities around Salesforce.

This year’s Salesforce Ecosystem Partners report distinguishes between the requirements of large, globally operating companies and that of medium-sized enterprises, with most providers best suited to one category. The report consists of two quadrants concerning providers meeting the needs of large companies and three for partners serving midsize firms.

The 2021 ISG Provider LensSalesforce Ecosystem Partners report for Germany evaluates the capabilities of 36 providers across five quadrants: Implementation and Integration Services for Large Enterprises, Implementation Services for Core Clouds – Midmarket, Implementation Services for Marketing Cloud – Midmarket, Managed Application Services for Large Enterprises, and Managed Application Services for Midmarket.

The report names BearingPoint, Deutsche Telekom (MMS), ec4u, Factory42, Persistent Systems and Salesfive as Leaders in three quadrants each. It names Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, Infosys, Magnet360, TCS and Wipro as Leaders in two quadrants each and Deloitte, HCL and PwC as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, Aquilliance and DIA are named as Rising Stars—companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

The 2021 ISG Provider LensSalesforce Ecosystem Partners report for Germany is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

Contacts

Press Contacts:
Philipp Jaensch, ISG
+49 151 730 365 76
philipp.jaensch@isg-one.com

Matthias Longo, Palmer Hargreaves for ISG
+49 152 341 464 63
mlongo@palmerhargreaves.com

Release Summary

Buyouts among Salesforce ecosystem partners in Germany are increasing as the market for implementation services heats up, says ISG (Nasdaq).

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Contacts

Press Contacts:
Philipp Jaensch, ISG
+49 151 730 365 76
philipp.jaensch@isg-one.com

Matthias Longo, Palmer Hargreaves for ISG
+49 152 341 464 63
mlongo@palmerhargreaves.com