Salesforce Spills on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
In one of my most recent articles this month, I covered Salesforce and one of their most recent acquisition sprees; CloudCraze and MuleSoft, so it’s come as no surprise that they are yet again in the spotlight.
In a recent interview with Business Insider’s Julie Bort at the end of March, Salesforce’s co-founders Marc Benioff and Parker Harris talked about a wide range of subjects including how the company came to be working on one of the next hot technologies, a blockchain product.
The topic came up when Bort asked Benioff:“It does seem like you are in expert mode these days with running Salesforce, does it feel that way to you?”
Benioff was quick to respond “No, I don’t think you can ever do that, and I’ll tell you right now – I mean, as an example, I try to keep that mind set. We were just at The World Economic Forum in Davos and I was kind of thinking a lot about different technologies and different things that are going on and we were at a crypto conference and I’m like wait a minute, we’re at a crypto conference in Davos? Wait, it’s the World Economic Forum. It turned out that there was a crypto conference that overbooked with the World Economic Forum in Davos.”
While Benioff did not provide exact details on the upcoming product he did provide details of how the random conversation started with one of the event attendees while at a bar in Davos, Switzerland and what got him thinking about how to integrate blockchain technology and cryptocurrency into his company. This doesn’t surprise me as Benioff is never one to shy away from ambition, especially when it comes to new and emerging technologies.
“I have been thinking a lot about what is Salesforce’s strategy around blockchain and what is Salesforce’s strategy around cryptocurrencies’ and how we relate to all these things and how will these things move forward. Just by having that conversation and just talking to him and just letting it happen. I always get that feeling that there’s a reason why I’m talking to this person. I have never met this person before, I don’t know a ton about this area and we go deeper and deeper and deeper and then in my mind all of a sudden,, I just hear this click. You know if you do this, this and this, you could put blockchain and cryptocurrencies into Salesforce and this how you would do it and this is what it would mean to your customers and how it would impact them. And that’s kind of how it works and I hope by Dreamforce we’ll have a blockchain and cryptocurrency solution for Salesforce and for all of our customers because I think it is a really exciting area for all of them and a lot of it comes from exactly that, just paying attention, listening, knowing that innovation is coming, there’s new ideas coming all the time and there’s more ideas then we can possibly execute but let’s just listen.”
Check out the whole interview between Salesforce founders Parker Harris and Marc Benioff and Julie Bort from Business Insider here.
Benioff Pulls Out All the Stops at Dreamforce
Not only is Dreamforce the largest annual customer conference, it’s said that Benioff may showcase blockchain and the digital cryptocurrency product and development at this year’s conference.
Dreamforce, is said to be one of Saleforce’s most sought after customer conferences that takes place in San Francisco. This year, the event is scheduled to take place September 25th-28th 2018.
In 2017, it was said that almost 171,000 people registered with representatives from about 91 countries around the world and another 15 million were watching the iconic event online. The company even took over the street between Moscone North and South, laid down some fake grass and put in “Dream Park.”
Here's a peak at what attendees can expect from this iconic conference:
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Learn: Transform your career with the knowledge you’ll get from 2,700+ breakout sessions, training and certification opportunities, hands-on demos, and hundreds of partners and solutions to help you grow your success.
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Get inspired: The world’s brightest, most innovative minds come to Dreamforce every year to share their expertise and wow attendees. Past speakers include Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates, Al Gore, and Arianna Huffington.
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Give back: Every day of Dreamforce brings opportunities to volunteer and make a difference in the lives of people who need it. Through commitment to making the world a more equal place, they’ve lent our support to organizations like (RED); Room to Read; Girls Who Code; Vetforce; Talk, Read, Sing; and so many more.
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Epic entertainment: Dreamforce isn’t Dreamforce without epic concerts by some of the biggest names in music. Past performers include U2, Foo Fighters, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars, Green Day, and more.
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Have fun: Dreamforce is all about learning from and connecting with fellow Trailblazers at all the sessions, keynotes, networking events, parties, and more where attendees can make connections that go well beyond Dreamforce.
This definitely sounds like the event of a life time! Are you attending Dreamforce 2018 this year? Comment down below, we’d love to hear from you!
Median Employees Made $155,284 in 2017
In an annual report that was slated for 2017, it was said that Salesforce generated almost 8.4 billion in revenue which is said to be skyrocketing by 26% year-over-year.
The end of 2017, and beginning of 2018 have been good to Salesforce with Benioff sharing "We had an outstanding quarter of growth that propelled Salesforce over the $10 billion revenue milestone for the year.
"No other enterprise software company has achieved this scale faster than Salesforce. Our relentless focus on customer success continues to strengthen our position as the global leader in CRM."
With that said, the average median employee at Salesforce made $155,284 in 2017, that’s just 3% of what CEO Benioff’s compensation of $4,653,362 was for the fiscal year. When you factor in his equity bonuses, it actually works out to be $13.2 million that he takes home annually.
According to Business Insider, here is an overview and breakdown of that median in which a Salesforce employee is said to make:
While that six figure salary may seem generous, it's nothing compared to top-level executive compensation at the company, which is valued at $90 billion by market cap.
Ending Notes
So is it any surprise that Benioff is yet again shining in the spotlight? Not to me. I’m very curious to see the announcements that happen at Dreamforce this year and if in fact Benioff will be able to stick to the timeline of his blockchain announcement at the event.
Once again, Benioff seems to have the recipe, so we here at CMS-Connected will maintain our watch on if with that, he will continue his momentum for success.
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Gabriella Pirrone
Gabriella is the Digital Marketing Assistant for CMSC Media. She brings a wealth of knowledge from not only a CMS perspective but also content, SEO and eCommerce. She enjoys everything social media and staying ontop of the latest trends in the digital marketing world.