Salesforce

Salesforce's main technologies are tools for customer management. Other products enable customers to create apps, integrate data from other systems, visualize data, and offer training courses.[34]

Salesforce Platform[35] (formerly known as Force.com) is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to create add-on applications that integrate into the main Salesforce.com application.[36] These third-party applications are hosted on Salesforce.com's infrastructure.[37]

Force.com applications are built using declarative tools, backed by Lightning and Apex, a proprietary Java-like programming language for Force.com,[38] as well as Visualforce, a framework[39] including an XML[40] syntax typically used to generate HTML. The Force.com platform typically receives three complete releases a year.[41] As the platform is provided as a service to its developers, every single development instance also receives all these updates.

In 2015, a new framework for building user interfaces – Lightning Components – was introduced in beta.[42] Lightning components are built using the open-source Aura Framework[43] but with support for Apex as the server-side language instead of Aura's JavaScript dependency. This has been described as an alternative to, not necessarily a replacement for, Visualforce pages.[44]

As of 2014, the Force.com platform has 1.5 million registered developers.[45]

Lightning Base Components is the component library built on top of Lightning Web Components.[46]

Launched in 2005, the Salesforce AppExchange is an online application marketplace that connects customers with third-party applications and consulting services.[47][48] As of 2021, the exchange has over 5,000 apps listed.[49][50]

Launched in 2014, Trailhead is a free online learning platform with courses focused on Salesforce technologies.[51][52][15]

In August 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Salesforce launched a streaming service titled Salesforce+[lower-alpha 2]. The service features original content produced by the company involving its clients ranging from "days in the life" of smaller business owners to interviews with large companies' CEOs. Since 2022, Salesforce has also streamed its annual Dreamforce conference on Salesforce+.[53][54]

Desk.com is a SaaS help desk and customer support product that was acquired by Salesforce for $50 million in 2011.[55] The product focused on connecting small businesses to their customers.[55][56]

In March 2018, Salesforce announced that Desk.com would be consolidated with other services into Service Cloud Essentials.[57]

Do.com was a cloud-based task management system for small groups and businesses, introduced in 2011 and discontinued in 2014.[58][59][60]

According to Marc Benioff, Salesforce corporate culture is based on the concept of Ohana.[64]

In 2021, Cynthia Perry, a design research senior manager, resigned over discrimination in the workplace and posted her resignation letter on LinkedIn.[65][66]

On September 10, 2021, Benioff tweeted that the company is prepared to help any employee who wishes to move out of the state of Texas, following the abortion in Texas legislation announced on September 1, 2021.[67]

For the fiscal year 2019, Salesforce reported revenue of US$13.28 billion, an increase of 26% year-over-year and 26% in constant currency. The CRM giant reported subscription and support revenues of US$12.41 billion, an increase of 27% year-over-year. Salesforce ranked 240 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States companies by revenue.[68][69]

Salesforce migrated to Dell servers with Advanced Micro Devices processors running Linux from Sun Fire E25K servers with SPARC processors running Solaris in 2008.[71]

In 2012, Salesforce announced plans to build a data center in the UK to handle European citizens' personal data.[72] The center opened in 2014.[73]

In 2013, Salesforce and Oracle announced a nine-year partnership focusing on applications, platforms, and infrastructure.[74]

In 2016, Salesforce announced that it will use Amazon Web Services hosting for countries with restrictive data residency requirements and where no Salesforce data centers are operating.[75]

In 2006, Salesforce acquired Sendia, a mobile web service firm, for $15 million[76] and Kieden, an online advertising company.[77] In 2007, Koral, a content management service, was acquired.[78] In 2008, Salesforce acquired Instranet for $31.5 million.[79] In 2010, Salesforce acquired multiple companies, including Jigsaw, a cloud-based data service provider, for $142 million,[80] Heroku, a Ruby application platform-as-a-service, for $212 million,[81] and Activa Live Chat, a live chat software provider.[82] In 2011, Salesforce acquired Dimdim, a web conferencing platform, for $31 million,[83] Radian6, a social media tracking company, for $340 million,[84] and Rypple, a performance management software company.[85] Rypple became known as Work.com in 2012.[86] In 2012, Salesforce acquired Buddy Media, a social media marketer, for $689 million,[87] and GoInstant, a browser collaboration startup, for $70 million.[88]

In 2013, Salesforce acquired ExactTarget, an email marketer, for $2.5 billion.[89] In 2014, Salesforce acquired RelateIQ, a data company, for $390 million.[90] In 2015, Salesforce acquired multiple companies for undisclosed sums, including Toopher, a mobile authentication company,[91] Tempo, an AI calendar app,[92] and MinHash, an AI platform.[93] The company also acquired SteelBrick, a software company, for $360 million.[94]

In 2016, Salesforce spent over $5 billion in acquisitions.[95] Companies acquired included Demandware, a cloud-based provider of e-commerce services, for $2.8 billion[96] and Quip, a word processing app, for $750 million.[97] In 2017, the company acquired Sequence, a user experience design agency, for an undisclosed amount.[98] In 2018, Salesforce acquired several companies, including MuleSoft, a cloud service company, for $6.5 billion,[99][100] as well as Rebel, an email services provider,[101] and Datorama, an AI marketing platform, for undisclosed amounts.[102]

From 2019 to 2021 saw Salesforce make two of its largest acquisitions, with Salesforce completing its acquisition Tableau, a data visualization and analytics software company, for $15.7 billion[103] in 2019, and Slack Technologies, the developers of its namesake office messaging platform, for $27.7 billion in 2021.[104] Salesforce also made smaller acquisitions throughout 2019, 2020, and 2021, which included ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion,[105] consulting firm Acumen Solutions for $570 million,[106] CRM firm Vlocity for $1.33 billion,[20] privacy compliance startup Phennecs for $16.5 million,[107] and robotic process automation firm Servicetrace for an undisclosed amount.[108]

Salesforce's most recent acquisition was Slack-bot maker Troops.ai, announced in May 2022 and expected to close in 2023.[109]

Simplified timeline of Salesforce's biggest acquisitions ($750M or greater).

In November 2007 a phishing attack compromised contact information on a number of Salesforce customers. Some customers then received phishing emails that appeared to be invoices from Salesforce.[110][111] Salesforce has stated that "a phisher tricked someone into disclosing a password, but this intrusion did not stem from a security flaw in [the salesforce.com] application or database."[110]

In 2017 at DEF CON, two security engineers were let go after giving a presentation on an internal project called MEATPISTOL.[112] The presenters were sent a message 30 minutes prior to the presentation telling them not to go on stage, but the message wasn't seen until after they finished.[112][113] The MEATPISTOL tool was anticipated to be released as open-source at the time of the presentation, but Salesforce didn't release the code to developers or the public during the conference.[112] The terminated employees called on the company to open-source the software after being let go.[114]

The not-for-profit organization Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) rejected a US$250,000 donation from Salesforce because the company has contracts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.[115]

In December 2019, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Salesforce was one of 91 companies who "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less" in 2018, as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Their findings were published in a report based on the 379 Fortune 500 companies that declared a profit in 2018.[116]

In March 2019, Salesforce faced a lawsuit by 50 anonymous women claiming to be victims and survivors of sex trafficking, abuse, and rape. The suit alleges that the company profited from and helped build technology that facilitated sex trafficking on Backpage.com, a now defunct website.[117] In March 2021, a judge granted partial dismissal of the case, dismissing charges of negligence and conspiracy, but allowed the case to proceed regarding charges of sex trafficking.[118]

In July 2021, Salesforce Japan faced a discrimination lawsuit from a former employee, according to Japanese legal media,[119] at a time when the firm has been publicly challenged about its commitment to equality. The firm declined to comment on the suit to the media. The ex-employee, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD, claimed she was discriminated against because of her disability and terminated in the firm’s Japan web marketing team. The suit alleged that the anonymous woman, as an employee at Salesforce Japan from 2018 to 2020, faced hate speech, microaggressions and rejection of reasonable accommodation from the manager. She alleged that her attempts to resolve the problem were met with pressure from HR and job coach. The lawsuit started on September 15 in Tokyo district court. The 8th trial will open on November 14, 2022.[120][121]