Salesforce Dreamforce 2023: The 15 Coolest Exhibitors
Google, AWS, Deloitte, CGI and KPMG were among the standout companies at Dreamforce 2023.
Tech giants, solution providers and managed services providers were among the standout exhibitors at this year’s Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce event.
San Francisco-based Salesforce – a vendor for enterprise applications, customer relationship management (CRM) software and more recently generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) – advertised this year’s Dreamforce as the premiere event for AI.
And sure enough, many of the biggest announcements at Dreamforce 2023 – held in Salesforce’s hometown – centered around the emerging technology, as did Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff’s keynote address.
[RELATED: Salesforce Dreamforce 2023: 8 Biggest Announcements]
Salesforce Dreamforce 2023
“We want to build the trusted AI platform for customer companies so that everyone is an Einstein and more productive,” Benioff said this week. “We think that trust is the highest priority here. We want to turn it over to you – but only with trust. We want to make sure it’s integrated. We want to make sure it’s intelligent. We want to make sure it’s automated. We want to make sure it’s low code and no code. We want to make sure it’s open. … This is our life’s work. This is what we’ve been doing for 25 years.”
Salesforce has about 6,000 partners, according to the vendor.
Among the standout exhibitors at Dreamforce 2023:
*Amazon Web Services (AWS)
*Deloitte
*CGI
*KPMG
Read on for why these exhibitors had attendants talking.
During Dreamforce 2023, Salesforce and Google revealed that they expanded their partnership to further integrate their products.
Salesforce became the first partner to integrate with Mountain View, Calif.-based Google’s Duet AI extensions framework. And Google Workspace is the first extensibility partner for Salesforce Einstein Copilot, according to Salesforce.
Users can bring in context from Salesforce and Google Calendar, Docs, Meet, Gmail and other productivity applications
Google Workspace users gained the ability to generate content in that platform and update records and trigger workflows in Salesforce.
Joint users can also bring PaLM 2 and other Google-hosted LLMs from Vertex AI to Salesforce’s Einstein Copilot Studio to build GenAI products.
AWS
Amazon Web Services’ presence at Dreamforce this year was amplified by an announcement that the cloud giant and Salesforce will pilot a series of integrations next year that promise to enable sharing of data lakes and large language models (LLMs) between the two vendors.
Users of Seattle-based Amazon’s Redshift, EMR, Athena, Bedrock and SageMaker can leverage foundation models within Salesforce with security, according to Salesforce. The process has zero extract, transform and load (ETL) processes, meaning no copying and moving data.
An existing integration between Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect allows users the ability to launch contact center services with Salesforce’s agent desktop with Amazon Comprehend, Transcribe and other services to improve agent productivity, according to Salesforce.
AWS has about 100,000 channel partners worldwide, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
IBM
Ahead of Dreamforce 2023, IBM and Salesforce revealed a new collaboration around AI adoption for customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
As part of the collaboration, IBM Consulting professionals will guide clients through Salesforce AI adoption and deployment, according to IBM. These professionals can also combine Salesforce AI tools with IBM’s own Watsonx for more insights.
IBM Consulting’s Center of Excellence for Generative AI features more than 1,000 professionals with experience in enterprise-grade Salesforce, IBM and other vendor technology.
IBM’s AI and Automation practice has 21,000 professionals, according to the vendor.
And the IBM Data Classifier application can help reduce data mapping processes when using Salesforce AI, according to the Armonk, N.Y.-based vendor.
IBM has about 55,000 channel partners worldwide, 12,000 of them in North America, according to 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Snowflake
Although Snowflake recently brought on former Salesforce executive Tyler Prince as its channel chief, the two vendors continue to deepen their partnership for joint users.
Ahead of Dreamforce 2023, the companies announced general availability of Bring Your Own Lake (BYOL) Data Sharing with Snowflake Data Cloud from Salesforce Data Cloud, bridging data within both vendors’ platforms for more insights around market trends, customer behavior, operations and more, according to IBM.
Salesforce and Bozeman, Mont.-based Snowflake plan on launching BYOL Data Federation “in the coming months” for further bidirectional data sharing, according to Salesforce.
OpenText
OpenText’s Apps for Salesforce offering promises users the ability to connect Salesforce clouds to the former’s ware for a variety of enhanced capabilities.
The Canada-based technology vendor conglomerate’s Apps for Salesforce promises users the ability to generate and retrieve relevant communications for improved customer experiences and availability of critical documentation, brand templates and digital assets, according to OpenText.
OpenText has about 20,000 channel partners worldwide, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Veeam
In the lead up to Dreamforce 2023, Veeam unveiled the second version of its Backup for Salesforce offering.
The Columbus, Ohio-based data security vendor’s offering allows administrators to limit single sign-on (SSO) authentication to specific Salesforce domains and support multi-factor authentication (MFA).
A new restore wizard allows sandbox seeding users to specific sources and target Salesforce organizations, according to Veeam.
Veeam has about 37,000 channel partners worldwide, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Persistent Systems
Persistent Systems – a Salesforce partner and member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – was on site at Dreamforce 2023.
The MSP’s Salesforce services include end-to-end marketing, sales automation, omni-channel customer service and integration of Salesforce subsidiary MuleSoft, according to Persistent, which has offices in California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and worldwide.
Over the companies’ 18-year partnership, Persistent has landed more than 6,800 certifications, 150,000 badges on Salesforce learning platform Trailhead and more than 1,400 joint projects, according to the MSP.
Cognizant
Cognizant has a variety of industry-based Salesforce services for clients, including ones for insurance, retail, media and banking.
The solution provider’s insurance offerings include InsurElevate for managing end-to-end policy lifecycles. For retailers, Cognizant offers OmniServe Next for introducing GenAI. SubcriberX promises the ability to grow subscriber bases and increase revenue and customer loyalty.
And Loan Origination Collaboration helps banks settle loans faster, according to the solution provider.
The Teaneck, N.J.-based company – No. 6 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – also has a codeless compliant forms offering available on Salesforce’s AppExchange marketplace.
DXC Technology
Another solution provider heavyweight exhibiting at Dreamforce was DXC Technology.
Ashburn, Va.-based DXC – No. 10 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – has completed more than 500 Salesforce projects and has 10 related global solution centers, according to the solution provider.
Some of DXC’s Salesforce capabilities include expanding digital service centers, improving e-commerce functions, building Einstein chatbots and integrating industry platforms, according to the solution provider.
KPMG
KPMG had representatives at Dreamforce 2023 to discuss the Big Four accounting firm and professional services giant’s partnership with Salesforce.
Representatives of the Netherlands-based firm participated in several speaking sessions, discussing its work modernizing Cisco Meraki’s Salesforce ecosystem and implementing Salesforce at the Department of Defense.
Repeatable KPMG Salesforce services include application security and controls, sustainability reporting, modern enterprise integration and customer due diligence (CDD), according to the firm.
Deloitte
Deloitte Digital revealed a series of new integrations with Salesforce, including bringing Einstein AI to its DigitalMIX platform and new services for biopharmaceutical (BioPharma) organizations.
DigitalMIX gained new abilities for automation, personalization, and analytics across sales, service, marketing and the back-office, according to the global systems integrator (GSI).
Users can leverage more predictive analytics, GenAI and visualizations for productivity, revenue growth and customer relationships, according to Deloitte.
DigitalMIX offers scalable, pre-configured services for multi-cloud finance implementations. The offering already works with Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and other products.
Although the details were scarce on Deloitte Digital and Salesforce’s BioPharma alliance, a statement from Deloitte promised to “empower BioPharma firms to bring innovative therapies to patients faster” and “the next generation of innovations that help enable the rapid scientific and technological progress of this sector.”
They also promised “new engagement models for healthcare professionals and patients across the entire value chain from clinical to commercial,” according to Deloitte.
CGI
CGI has been a Salesforce partner since 2010, developing expertise across industries and offering strategy, consulting, design, implementation, integration, managed services and other offerings.
The Canada-based company – No. 12 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – has 10 Salesforce centers of excellence worldwide, more than 300 Salesforce customers and more than 400 Salesforce certified professionals, according to CGI.
Among CGI-s Salesforce-related offerings is a collections service for state and local government agencies, a community portal for field service and asset intelligence and a cloud accelerator for manufacturers, according to the solution provider.
Virtusa
Virtusa boasts a eight-plus year partnership with Salesforce with more than 1,800 certification and more than 710 certified professionals.
The Southborough, Mass.-based company – No. 39 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – has Salesforce-based offerings across life sciences, health care, banking, telecommunications and other industries, according to Virtusa.
Specific Virtusa offerings revolve around Salesforce Einstein GPT, Salesforce managed services, transforming contact centers and simplifying appeals and grievances processing, according to the solution provider. A Virtusa vice president even presented at Dreamforce 2023 about a sales-related project at British telecommunication company BT.
Capgemini
Capgemini introduced a Generative AI for CX Foundry offering, built from a Salesforce collaboration, before Dreamforce 2023.
With this new offering, the France-based company – No. 3 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – promises a way to personalize customer experiences and use data to automate customized content creation while abiding by security and ethics standards, according to Capgemini.
The offering should help clients use Salesforce Einstein AI technology with existing IT infrastructure, data models and business processes, according to Capgemini. Joint Capgemini and Salesforce customers include Heathrow Airport.
TCS
One of Tata Consultancy Services’s biggest Salesforce-related offerings involves its Crystallus set of pre-configured industry solutions and composable business applications.
The offering from the India-based company – No. 2 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – can help customers adopt more cloud services and improve business outcomes, according to TCS.
TCS’ Salesforce practice includes advisory services around cloud and content strategy, adopting development security operations (DevSecOps) and blueprinting, according to the solution provider.
The solution provider can also implement and support multiple Salesforce products, including Data Cloud and MuleSoft. TCS has more than 7,500 Salesforce-certified professionals, according to the company.