Since its inception, Salesforce, a cloud-based software company has been extending its services for business with each passing year. Another progression in this field is the acquisition of companies to further increase the ground base.
Salesforce is going to acquire ClickSoftware for approximately $1.35 billion. ClickSoftware is a cloud-based field service management & workforce management firm. This purchase will improve the Field Service Lightning offering for mobile workforces.
Bill Patterson, EVP, and GM of Salesforce Service Cloud said, “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers.”
The deal is supposed to seal somewhere in late October, this year. With ClickSoftware and 15400 customers across the globe, Salesforce can now extend in FSM (fast-growing field service management) market with new technology.
However, this deal was supposed to go through in 2016 as Salesforce launched Field Service Lightning in the year. To improve speed time to market, Salesforce took license for large chunks of IP from ClickSoftware.
Everything pointing out ClickSoftware as the main component, it was always in the cards. However, it has been postponed and finally, Salesforce has decided to get it done.
What Is The Benefit Of The Acquisition?
Field Service Lightning is an onsite support solution which provides mobile workers a full view of the customer, an offline-first mobile app, along with predictive insights. Together Field Service Lighting and ClickSoftware will prove to great help in field services.
They together will be able to influence mission-critical apps for leading companies including Deutsche Telekom, Bosch, PG&E, National Grid, & Unisys. Along with this, ClickSoftware will be able to provide an extensive range of capabilities, & deliver boost efficiency and customer experiences to reach out to more audience.
If a mobile employee gets delayed due to any of the reasons such as traffic, bad weather in the region, the dispatcher, can route the task to another field technician.
Salesforce said in a release, “ acquisition will create strategic synergies, technological unity, and new innovation opportunities for Salesforce.”
Salesforce said in a statement, “Salesforce Field Service Lightning, built on Service Cloud, harnesses the latest in dispatching, mobile workforce empowerment and IoT technologies to empower companies to connect their entire service workforce on a single, centralized platform. With the combined capabilities of Field Service Lightning and ClickSoftware, Salesforce will be positioned to lead the way to the future of field service.”
Why Now?
Now, the question arises, why Salesforce hasn’t acquired ClickSoftware till now. Well, apparently the reason was the interference of Francisco Partners, who bought this company in July 2015. Also, the history of the company played a role. The company was founded in 1997 in Israel, wherein most of the staff are still based.
Now, why the change of heart? ClickSoftware was successful in getting the customers shifted towards its cloud platform. Also, after acquiring Mulesoft, Salesforce has gained expertise in attaching platforms and also increased usage of Amazon Web Services as an infrastructure partner
One of the important factors is price. Francisco Partners offered a deal of $1.5 billion but Salesforce was not happy with the offer. Finally, Francisco Partners felt that it was time to get benefit out of their investments and as per the speculation, lowered the deal.
Another factor is the increased importance of field service management for Salesforce. Also, Salesforce is interested to grow in the manufacturing sector, wherein field service is important. However, it is an intricate process than in the consumer marketplace.
With this acquisition and Dreamforce event around the corner, there will be enough time to expect product announcements aligned to acquisition.
