Salesforce.com SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

The SWOT/TOWS analysis is a structure, employed to assess a company's competitive stance by identifying its internal strategic factors like strengths and weaknesses, external strategic factors like opportunities and threats. Precisely, SWOT analysis is a primitive evaluation model that evaluates the internal and external factors and their influences on the company's micro and macro environment.
Salesforce’s CRM business model is broken down in to various key business segments offering distinct services like-
• Marketing cloud: offering digital marketing automation and analytics service
• Data cloud: Automated system for maintaining CRM’s record
• Community cloud: offering wide variety of web properties
• Service cloud: offering assistance and customer support based services
• Sales cloud: offering services to monitor entire sales
• Commerce cloud: Monitors business engagement with customers over distinct channels
• Health cloud: Health care CRM to engage with patients
• Financial service cloud and App cloud
Salesforce is a global leader in CRM OR Customer Relationship Management software, the company introduced its first CRM software in the year 2000, since then they have extended their suite of service offerings to almost all sizes of businesses, operating in various industries. Their comprehensive portfolio of services, easy to use CRM application, versatility and customization option, subscription-based model, market share, innovative services, leadership in cloud-based CRM, strong customer base and reliable employee support are all the key strengths of Salesforce that gives the company a competitive edge over its rivals in the CRM industry.
Though Salesforce.com has witnessed impeccable growth, certain internal factors like deliberate slow expansion in potential markets, software more adapted to the B2B market and not very favorable for B2C, product pricing which is on the expensive side, not implementing the “multiple roles” feature in the organization, are all weaknesses of Salesforce.com. The CRM market is profoundly competitive; it is subjected to wavering technology, shifting customer demands, swiftly elaborating with new products and services. Some of Salesforce’s biggest competitors are Microsoft Dynamic CRM, Oracle, and SAP Salesforce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor; its largest acquisition by far has been InStranet, a customer service technology software provider. This kind of acquisition is a great opportunity for Salesforce. Another big opportunity for Salesforce is its strategic partnership with Google (Google Analytics 360 and G Suite) to provide smarter and collaborative experiences to its customers. Progressions in technology will be beneficial for the company, for instance IoT being the new face of technology can make the CRM model easier and smarter, with the ability to gather and analyze data in the most effective way. Advantages of cloud computing are driving businesses to use cloud-based services, this shows that Salesforce’s offerings are high in demand.
One of the biggest challenges to Salesforce is data security; if the data of their cloud computing platform provider or third-party service partners is breached, then customers will sense that Salesforce is no longer secure and will quit using its services. One instance of fraudulent attack was witnessed in 2009, when one of the Salesforce employee account was breached to obtain sensitive information of customers, however authorities claimed that there was no security flaw with the system, instead the employee was tricked in order to obtain credentials. Security breach is one of the biggest threat apart from various other factors like high competition, economic recession in the US and dependence on third parties for internet services.
The SWOT analysis for Salesforce.com is presented below in SWOT Matrix followed by detailed swot analysis report:

Strengths	Weaknesses
1. Delivering consistent growth from 5 years 2. Innovative and diversified product portfolio 3. Leader in on-demand cloud hosted CRM 4. Strong market share in CRM	1. Focusing more on home-ground
Opportunities	Threats
1. Growth in the CRM market 2. Investment in IoT & Analytics 3. Growth through strategic alliances 4. GDPR compliance to drive CRM adoption 5. Expanding into new categories and verticals	1. Data privacy and hacking 2. Regulatory issues to data privacy and usage 3. Dependence on third party for internet infrastructural maintenance 4. Highly competitive market with growing need for technology

Detailed SWOT Analysis of Salesforce.com

PESTLE is an acronym for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental and the PESTLE / STEEPL / PEST analysis is a strategic tool used to evaluate these external factors and their impact on company’s business model, growth trajectory, its business case, and market strategy.
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is one of the key aspects of any organization, it focuses on valuable customer information that not only helps in acquiring new customers but also to retain the existing ones. CRM plays a vital role in the imperative positioning of an enterprise. The PESTLE analysis of CRM industry shows the pivotal external factors that affect the industry and largely Salesforce.com.
The core functionality of a company offering CRM services is to maintain sensitive customer information. However certain government policies can hinder companies from retaining their citizen’s information at an external location due to security risks. Hence a political interference and legal issues can be troublesome for Salesforce and can devise hindrances in establishing global footprints.
The economic growth of any business depends on customers and as mentioned earlier in the report that a CRM Software helps in maintaining critical information of a patron that helps in both retaining and acquiring customers. Economically underperforming organizations need CRM application utmost. Hence economic growth of Salesforce’s clients will eventually bring growth to the company itself.
The economics of any organizations revolve around customer pattern and behavior. For a company offering the customer information to other organizations, it is vital to keep intact with all social aspects of buyers.
Salesforce Marketing cloud is an all in one marketing platform that provides marketing solutions through distinct channels; the model monitors the customer journey by identifying Social factors like age, demographics, lifestyle, buying patterns etc., to create right content for the right audience at the right time. Advantages of Cloud computing like cost effective, security, flexibility, mobility, data recovery etc., makes the cloud-based-marketing application a beneficial one, to build and execute actionable plan to achieve organization goals.
Salesforce operates on 4 core values, viz., trust, growth, innovation, and equality. Indeed, Salesforce outranks its competitors and gains the highest trust from its customers due to its powerful technology that helps deliver a high level of security and authenticity. Salesforce has been the first company to deliver cloud-based CRM, a software as a service. Its application can be easily deployed via mobile devices, and with an increasing number of mobile users’ cloud-based CRM is surely a scalable solution.
Salesforce aims at toiling as a company with absolute zero emissions of greenhouses gases and claims to attain 100% renewable energy for their global operations. It also focuses on achieving a low-carbon future by delivering carbon neutral cloud. This represents that Salesforce is a responsible company working for the betterment of the environment.
The PESTLE/ STEEPL / PEST analysis for Salesforce.com is presented in a nutshell below, followed by the detailed PESTEL analysis report:

Political	Economical
1. Different policies and laws by different governments	1. Currency fluctuations and controls 2. Impact of Covid – 19 on business operations
Social	Technological
1. Rise of social CRM	1. Rise in mobile based cloud 2. Initiatives towards technology convergence 3. Integration of AI into Customer 360 may result in reputational harm
Legal	Environmental
1. Laws related to data privacy 2. Subject to industry specific regulations	1. Initiatives for carbon neutral cloud 2. Focus on operational sustainability

Detailed Pestle Analysis of Salesforce.com

The SWOT and PESTLE Analysis reports provide strategic intelligence on the following:
1. The SWOT and PESTLE analysis report of Salesforce presents a comprehension of the complex internal and external factors affecting the brand and its operations. It provides insights into micro and macro factors through a thorough examination of internal and external factors.
2. The report comprises of SWOT and PESTLE matrices to provide a quick glance at internal and external factors, followed by a comprehensive SWOT analysis report and PESTLE analysis report.
3. Utilizing the SWOT/TWOS analysis to examine the present Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of Salesforce.
4. Core competitive advantages enjoyed by Salesforce over its rivals and competitors from the CRM industry.
5. Utilizing PESTLE/ PESTEL/ STEEPL Analysis for interpretation of all external factors namely, political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental and highlighting their impact on the Salesforce business model.
6. Summary of Salesforce founders, employee base, its corporate headquarters, owners & stakeholders and revenue jumps, followed by a complete company analysis to gain insights into company profile, business model, business plans and marketing strategy.
7. Penetrations into Salesforce business diversification, eliciting its key business segments and highlighting its major competitors.
8. Analysis of the acquisitions, mergers, capital raising, equity transactions, alliances or partnership ventures that Salesforce subscribed with deal valuations and the business objectives or goals that were achieved with them.
9. Cognizance of current trends of the IT and CRM industry and its influences on Salesforce.
10. Understanding of Salesforce’s USP or unique selling proposition, mission statement and vision statement that has set a benchmark in the CRM industry.
11. Synopsis of Salesforce’s business model, along with further division and examination of key business segments and business case study.
12. Crisp information about the Salesforce’s share price, key performance indicators, success factors, value proposition and core competencies.