Bluewolf to 'give a flavour' of Salesforce to smaller firms in expansion drive

Salesforce's fourth-largest global partner diversifying from mid-market stronghold under new owner IBM's guidance

Salesforce consultancy Bluewolf is betting on an SMB assault to help it double the size of its UK business in 2017.

The US-headquartered outfit has traditionally focused on the mid-market, but is pushing down into the sub-500 space as well as upwards into the large enterprise market under new owner IBM.

UK headcount is slated to double to 130 this year as Bluewolf broadens its go-to-market strategy, UK managing director Vera Loftis (pictured) told CRN.

Tomorrow, the firm will unveil Bluewolf Go, a series of packages designed to help smaller firms "prove the model" of Salesforce by initially investing in 10 to 50 licences.

"It gives you a flavour of Salesforce, with the same level of consultants we have traditionally used, for a fixed price, fixed timeline and fixed set of deliverables, so you understand what you are getting upfront," Loftis said.

Bluewolf, Salesforce's fourth-largest global partner with 1,079 certified staff, was previously "very strict" about sticking to its upper mid-market stronghold, but Loftis said IBM's investment has enabled it to diversify.

"We didn't have the scale to service the biggest implementations of £40m. Similarly, we weren't going for the small, sub-50-person companies, again because we didn't have the scale to do transactions in that volume," she explained.

"We were always purposefully niched in the upper mid-market area, but with IBM's investment we can service the entire market."

At the upper end of the market, where the likes of Accenture and Deloitte operate, Bluewolf has already bagged Salesforce deals with two of IBM's UK strategic accounts, Loftis said.

"It's opened us up to accounts we never really would have had access to," she said. "IBM has the contacts, and we have the approach, methodology and experience to start to talk to those contacts about the right type of Salesforce implementations."

Bluewolf has replicated this within its salesforce, and now has a team of staff who help IBM account partners sell into large accounts, as well as one focused on its traditional mid-market stomping ground, a space Loftis claimed some of Bluewolf's competitors had abandoned.

"Tquila and Cloud Sherpas were bought by Accenture and have been taken out of that space as they were bought for capacity on customers on the Accenture side - they've been fairly clear about that," Loftis said.

"We have been very diligent to say we will stay in that market. Appirio [a Salesforce consultancy which Wipro acquired] has talked similarly, but that's yet to be seen."

Aggressive expansion in mainland Europe, where Bluewolf currently has offices in France and Prague, is also slated for this year, Loftis said, with seasoned Bluewolf vice president Glen Stofel recently moving to Madrid to spearhead the charge.

Loftis admitted that staff "held their breath" after IBM closed its acquisition of Bluewolf last May to see if it would honour its pledge to run the firm as a standalone entity, and keep its branding, methodology and culture.

"But we've come out of that transition period, and every conversation and plan has been to push Bluewolf to be 'more Bluewolf', which was very refreshing," she said.