When Salesforce was founded by two ex-Oracle executives in 1999, not only would the software landscape be changed, but a new economy would form underneath it.
A new report from IDC puts the number of jobs created by Salesforce and its ecosystem at 3.3 million worldwide between the end of 2016 and 2022.
The Salesforce ecosystem, the analyst firm asserts, is almost four times as big as Salesforce itself, as organisations who spend on cloud computing products also need to layout on ancillary services. In the six year period until 2022, the finance sector is expected to see the greatest gains, with $164 billion in new business revenue and 585,000 new jobs, with manufacturing, at $159bn new revenue and 638,000 new jobs, not far behind.
Not surprisingly, the US is far in front in terms of business revenue created, as well as on top for direct jobs created. Yet India, with almost 724,000, is the clear leader in terms of indirect jobs created; positions available by spending in the general economy by people filling the direct jobs.
The report also assessed the overall impact of cloud computing in the economy and job creation, giving best practice tips to organisations utilising or interested in cloud. IDC says the payoff to the larger organisation is much greater than the impact to the IT organisation “just as digital transformation is more than an IT function”, while the variety of cloud apps and development platforms available today mean most processes and workflows can be migrated to the cloud.
“IDC’s forecasts show a significant payback from investments in cloud computing out to 2022,” the report notes. “But even by then, spending on public cloud computing will be less than 13% of spending on IT. We are still on the ground floor of cloud computing, with lots of headroom for more payback.
“Salesforce and its ecosystem are well positioned to help customers take advantage of that headroom.”
Commenting on the report, Tyler Prince, Salesforce executive president of worldwide alliances and go to market innovation, wrote: “Last year, IDC forecasted the Salesforce Economy would create 1.9 million jobs and $389 billion in new revenues by 2020. We are encouraged by this huge increase from last year, and the strong momentum from the community of Salesforce customers, partners and developers who power the Salesforce Economy.”
Alongside the report, Salesforce also announced updates to AppExchange, the company’s enterprise cloud marketplace. New features include intelligent search, personalised recommendations, and embedded learning with Trailhead, the company’s education platform.