Global CRM giant Salesforce’s India unit has registered year-on-year revenue growth of over 50 per cent to ₹6,000.3 crore in FY23. Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and Chairperson, Salesforce India, said tech spending in the region remains robust, providing headroom for growth.
The company also plans to expand its office presence in Bengaluru and actively hire talent for roles across technology and product, sales, business support and customer success. It currently has 10,000 employees in India, across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, and Jaipur.
“The Indian economy is bucking the global trend, and going in a different direction, in various areas like inflation and demand. The IT demand remains robust in the region, and it is one of the highest and fastest growing operating units for the global inc,” Bhattacharya told businessline.
- Also read: Salesforce collaborates with ICT and AICTE to introduce the Educator’s Empowerment Program
She explains that even though India has considerable IT talent, the country’s industry hasn’t embraced digitisation at the same pace, especially among legacy enterprises. Now companies are realising the necessity to adopt advanced tech like AI and ML due to increased data requirements. This realisation is driving a surge in demand, reflecting a widespread interest in catching up with modern technology.
Growth drivers
Salesforce’s growth is also fuelled by the increasing necessity to adopt cloud-based solutions, especially public clouds as they provide flexible compute use and pay-as-you-go model, making them less capital intensive (OPEX-oriented). The CEO notes that in India, the scarcity of capital makes OPEX-focused solutions appealing, enabling easier access to advanced applications even for smaller companies.
“We are probably one of the late entrants to India and to that extent there is still considerable white space in the region. We expect to see broad-based growth in the region, as interest across the board is peaking,” Bhattacharya said.
The company is seeing traction across verticals including financial services, automotive, edtech, life sciences, and manufacturing. TVS Motor, Asian Paints, and Kotak Mahindra Bank are some of the companies it currently works with. It is also seeing interest from newer areas such as power and utility, and logistics. Additionally, the education sector is gaining prominence, with a focus on enhancing student and faculty experiences to stand out in a competitive landscape.
Gen AI operations
The CEO also underscores that its operational presence in India is of high relevance with most operations including R&D, support, finance, compliance and the new Generative AI operations. She believes India’s skilled talent can be leveraged to innovate solutions for multiple sectors, and can even be applicable globally.
Salesforce is also betting big on Generative AI with the recent launch of its new offerings. In India, Bhattacharya notes that a number of its customers have started pilots, are experimenting and trying to assess the risks. They are also determining particular use-cases to ascertain if these technologies can significantly enhance solutions.
Published on November 22, 2023
