Salesforce Careers & Entering the Salesforce Ecosystem

This two-part series is dedicated to helping you transition into the Salesforce ecosystem and Salesforce career opportunities. Whether you are a veteran who is looking to find a new Salesforce career, a stay-at-home parent who wants to jump back into the workforce, or you just need a career change, this series is dedicated to you. In this first part of the series, we’ll walk you through the Salesforce economy, potential economic growth, and provide a breakdown of the roles within the ecosystem. In part II, we’ll hear from the experts Kate & Hector Perez who have helped so many veterans as part of the Merivis organization transition into the Salesforce ecosystem. Additionally, we’ll get insight from Mike Hoal, Director of Operations at Roycon, who has successfully made the transition. He discusses some of the hurdles and how you can overcome them and how he made the transition. Finally, in the next section, we will provide resources used by some of the pros to successfully transition into the ecosystem. 

Salesforce
There’s no doubt that Salesforce has pioneered the enterprise and cloud computing space by dominating the market as the world’s number 1 CRM (customer relationship management) solution. Salesforce first released its product back in 2000, when cloud computing was just in its infancy. Today, its solutions are unrivaled and have not only created a demand for the platform but an ecosystem of not just customers, but fans, and not just users, but trailblazers. The ecosystem consists of fans and trailblazers that are committed to learning the platform and invested in the culture and belief in the benefits the platform can provide to its customers. 

The Salesforce Economy
Research from organizations such as the IDC has studied the Salesforce economy and its results are impressive, but they’re not surprising. With the passion and leadership that the Salesforce organization possesses, it’s no surprise that Salesforce has forecasted a 17 percent annual growth, that was projected to reach $2 trillion by 2020. Astonishingly enough, The Salesforce economy has forecasted to create 3.3 million new jobs and $859 billion in new business revenue from 2016 through 2022. 

The Salesforce Ecosystem
Today, the Salesforce ecosystem expands beyond the platform. It reaches additional products and services such as subscriptions, services, storage for security, additional software, management, and networking, especially for private cloud computing implementations. The Salesforce ecosystem includes all organizations that provide the products and services that surround the Salesforce implementation. These products and services widen the ecosystem and surround the Salesforce implementations. They foster the growth of the partner network and ancillary products and services needed by customers as their implementations become more complex. Many of these organizations are a part of the Salesforce Partner Community. 

The Salesforce Partner Community
Salesforce has the largest partner ecosystem of any technology company in the world. Salesforce consultants and system integrators who are experts on the Salesforce platform, provide expertise, technical skills, and guidance for organizations who are looking to both use the platform to its fullest and better connect to their customers. Additionally, there are thousands of independent software vendors (ISV’s) and developers who have built businesses by creating apps, to further extend the functionality of Salesforce, These apps are available on the AppExchange. Salesforce offers a variety of certifications, training, and other resources to its partners that help them to grow their Salesforce practice as well as provide them with the resources to become experts, and therefore provide better assistance to Salesforce customers. The IDC estimates that in 2017, for every dollar Salesforce made, the ecosystem, including its partners, made approximately $3.67, by 2022, that figure will be $5.18. 

What is the AppExchange?
The Salesforce AppExchange, also known as the Salesforce App Store, and it features thousands of apps that are pre-integrated and pre-vetted to with all Salesforce products. They are peer-reviewed and can be customized to meet your company’s specific needs. The need for new apps is constantly growing, this is where the partner community steps in, they recognize the need and fill the gap by creating the app. It is estimated, by Salesforce, that more than 70% of Salesforce customers have installed at least one app from the AppExchange. 

Salesforce Job Creation
The Salesforce ecosystem has and will continue to have a positive impact globally. As described above it’s not just the jobs created by Salesforce itself, but the surrounding applications and services needed for a Salesforce implementation. They have created an entire sub-ecosystem known as the partner community, which in itself creates indirect jobs. See below, in the United States, the number of jobs created through the Salesforce ecosystem from 2016 and projected through 2022.

It’s no secret that the technical skills and roles for Salesforce admins and alike, continue to be in high demand in our job market. Additionally, the barriers of entry to make a career shift have never been lower:

• Anyone can learn Salesforce.
• There are more free resources to learn Salesforce than ever before.
• The Salesforce Ohana is one of the most welcoming communities you can be a part of. They’ll help you overcome obstacles and support you the entire way.

Understanding the Salesforce Career Roles
Welcome to the Salesforce ecosystem, now that you understand the potential and growth, it’s time for you to find your career path. Let’s dive into the different roles available within the ecosystem and explore the job functions, and details about these roles to help you find the right path. Additionally, Salesforce has some great resources on trailhead to help you build your career within the ecosystem, feel free to browse the resources to help you find the right path. 

We’ve covered the Salesforce ecosystem, its growth potential, and the career opportunity. Stay tuned for the next section where we will provide you with tips to transition from the pros. We’ve got great insight and advice from Katie & Hector Perez from the Merivis organization, as well as Mike Hoal, Director of Operations at Roycon. They’ll go into more detail on transitioning, what to expect, and provide some of the best resources you can leverage when you’re trying to transition into the ecosystem.

About Roycon
We’re an Austin-based Salesforce Consulting Partner, with a passion and belief that the Salesforce platform’s capabilities can help businesses run more efficiently and effectively. Whether you are just getting started with Salesforce or looking to realize its full potential, Roycon specializes in Salesforce Implementations, Salesforce Ongoing Support, and Salesforce Integrations, and Development. We’re the certified partner to guide the way to increase Salesforce Adoption, make strategic decisions, and build your Salesforce Roadmap for success.