Two specialist Salesforce.com partners are merging to create a larger and experienced development house for enterprise applications based on the Salesforce.com’s enterprise platform as a service (ePAAS) solution, called Force.com.
The new entity is named CloudSmiths, and brings together Cape Town-based SFD Consulting, which has been a Salesforce.com partner since 2010 and has more than 40 implementations under its belt, and relative newcomer, Johannesburg-based Vistar, led by industry veteran Derek Hughes.
Hughes, former MD of Software Futures and one of the founders of DVT, says he became a cloud convert when he set out to find a CRM solution for CQS, where he was CIO until 2013.
“Force.com is an incredibly powerful toolset for creating enterprise-grade applications that delight customers. The interaction between the applications and the core Salesforce.com platform is so well designed that when the platform is upgraded (something that happens four-monthly) one gets no regression errors on the applications.
“I went through 12 of these major releases at CQS without a single regression error. This is the type of performance that has made Salesforce.com the power in cloud computing, and earned it accolade after accolade.”
Stephen Moore, the director of SFD, says that the future of IT lies in the cloud, and that Salesforce.com definitely offers the best cloud platform and development environment.
“Salesforce.com skills are still relatively rare in South Africa. As we have worked with clients from a broad range of industries here and in the US, Europe and the Middle East, we can offer clients not only access to these skills but also invaluable experience,” he adds.
The long list of SFD clients includes blue chips like Coca-Cola, Investec, PSG and Visa. Hughes says that CQS will remain a customer of the new business.
Ashley Cohen, CEO of CQS Technology Holdings, says that Salesforce.com has made a considerable impact on the business.
“Just about everybody at CQS lives in Salesforce.com—it’s become the platform on which we run the business,” he comments. “I’m excited by the launch of CloudSmiths because of the value that they bring to us with their expertise in this technology.”
DVT will also remain a CloudSmiths customer and has also taken a strategic stake in the fledgling business, which will be based at DVT’s offices in Hyde Park.
“Today’s and tomorrow’s business leaders understand that firm’s success is increasingly based on its applications—they are the medium through which they interact with customers and deliver their services,” Hughes concludes. “As the pioneer of cloud-based enterprise apps, Salesforce.com is the recognised innovator and leader in this space and CloudSmiths is backing the leader.”
CloudSmiths is a Cloud Alliance Partner of Salesforce.com. It has also recently been appointed a value-added reseller of Box.com, an outstanding cloud-based document storage solution for the enterprise.
