IBM acquires pan-European Salesforce partner

Vendor announces move to acquire Salesforce consulting partner Waeg to advance cloud and AI strategy

IBM is acquiring European Salesforce consulting partner Waeg in a move it says will advance its "hybrid cloud and AI strategy".

Salesforce specialists Waeg provide consulting services including digital strategy advisory, business-to-business commerce, marketing automation and customer experience design to implementation and managed services.

The acquisition will help IBM to meet a rising demand for "experience-led business transformation and new customer engagement strategies backed by data, AI and machine learning", the vendor says.

"Salesforce continues to play a critical role in companies' digital transformations as they adapt to the conditions created by the pandemic," Mark Foster, senior vice-president, IBM services and global business services said.

"Trust is the new currency of customer and employment engagement, and every touchpoint is an opportunity to personalise the relationship.

"Waeg's strength in Salesforce consulting services will be key to creating intelligent workflows that allow our clients to keep pace with changing customer and employee needs and expectations."

IBM says its latest deal complements the acquisition of US Salesforce consultancy 7Summits in January, while the vendor also announced it was acquiring software firm Turbonomic for a reported $2bn last month.

Waeg will "significantly bolster" IBM's global Salesforce talent according to the company, thanks to its "consulting expertise" which will help to provide "multi-cloud capabilities" across Europe.

The Salesforce specialist has offices in seven different European countries and works with global brands including in sectors such as healthcare, life sciences and manufacturing.

"Our partner ecosystem is an important growth channel for Salesforce and IBM continues to expand their capabilities across the world, most recently with the addition of Waeg," Tyler Prince, executive vice-president of worldwide alliances and channels at Salesforce, said.

"The combination of IBM and Waeg's Salesforce consulting capabilities and assets will help give customers across Europe the capabilities to create streamlined, automated experiences on the Salesforce platform."