Dive Brief:
- IBM announced Thursday plans to buy Bluewolf, a specialist in the Salesforce platform that allows businesses to use the cloud and mobility in improving corporate processes and business models.
- The two companies plan to work together to provide consulting services for companies looking to adopt the Salesforce platform.
- Financial details of the deal were not released and the deal is subject to regulatory approval. Once the deal is complete, the Bluewolf team will join IBM iX, a unit of IBM Global Business Services.
Dive Insight:
IBM has continued to move away from selling hardware, focusing more on cloud-based services, Big Data and mobile security. With each new acquisition, Big Blue is capturing a new service or portion of the market, growing beyond its traditional bounds.
Bluewolf is one of Salesforce’s longest standing consulting partners, and has completed more than 9,500 corporate Salesforce platform projects. IBM said the purchase will extend its analytics platforms, design and consulting businesses, with the overall aim of delivering different consumer experiences for the cloud.
The Salesforce industry is worth an estimated $111 billion, so IBM likely sees the deal as a way to attract more SMB and enterprise clients.
"There is no question that the consumer-grade experience has emerged as a fundamental element in modern business strategy," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services, in the company’s announcment. "Meeting that expectation defines next-generation differentiation and competitive position, and with Bluewolf, we add expertise to scale that capability to the cloud-based capabilities of Salesforce."
