Salesforce.org consulting partner landscape report 2021
Now Available!
This first-of-its-kind report provides an expansive snapshot of the Salesforce consulting partner (SI) landscape for the nonprofit and education sectors. Drawing on three years of independent research and analysis of publicly available data, this report provides a comprehensive and detailed look at how both the partner landscape as well as individual firms have changed and grown.
Who is this report for?
- Current Salesforce.org consulting partners who want to better understand the partner landscape and their place in it
- Prospective Salesforce.org partners who want to know what it takes to have a competitive practice in the nonprofit and education sectors
- Salesforce ISVs in the nonprofit and education sectors who want to understand the relative capabilities and growth of firms that are, or could be, good partners for them
- Other technology companies that want to better understand the scope and capabilities of the Salesforce.org partner landscape or identify prospective consulting partners for their own ecosystems
- Consultants who advise on partner selection and need to identify the most qualified partners for their nonprofit and education clients
- Investors and industry analysts looking for insights into the Salesforce.org ecosystem
What’s in the report?
This 110-page report is jam-packed with data and insights. It contains nearly 200 charts, tables and metrics and over 50 unique insights including:
- Firms on Top: Which 10 firms had the most appearances among the report’s “Top Firms” lists across 44 different metrics?
- Firms to Watch: Which firms had the most appearances in the report’s rankings of firms by one-year growth across 8 different metrics?
- WHC PartnerPlots: Our own quadrant-style charts showing the relative position of firms measured by Salesforce.org Alignment and Firm Capacity for both the nonprofit and education sectors
- Stack Rankings: All 126 SFDO partners ranked by Employee count, Consultant count (with one- and two-year change), Project count (with one- and two-year change), Certification Count (with one- and two-year change), and by Navigator status for Nonprofit Cloud, Education Cloud, Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Pardot as of June 2021.
The report is divided into 9 major sections:
- Key Findings
- Partner Landscape
- Consultants
- Projects
- Certifications
- Certifications By Type
- Navigator
- PartnerPlots
- Appendix
See below for the full Table of Contents.
What value does this report provide?
For existing Salesforce.org Consulting Partners:
- Understand how the Salesforce.org partner landscape has changed and grown in recent years and better understand your relative competitive position among all 126 firms
- Uncover or validate where you objectively hold competitive advantages
- Understand what year-over-year growth other firms have been able to achieve
- Know where your growth is matching, outpacing, or lagging behind your peers
- Identify gaps and blinds spots in your capabilities
- Identify firms that may be good candidates for partnership or acquisition
- Know how you compare on specific metrics relative to every other firm (see Table of Contents below)
For prospective Salesforce.org Consulting Partners:
- Understand the growth of the SFDO partner network over the past 7 years
- Understand the growth specific firms have been achieving
- Benchmark yourself against all existing firms on number of employees, consultants and consultant types, projects, certifications, and Navigator rank.
- Identify firms that may offer complementary services to yours for partnership or acquisition
For Salesforce ISVs:
- Better focus your alliances efforts by understanding:
- The relative size of all 126 consulting firms
- How much consulting capacity each firm has across Nonprofit Cloud, Education Cloud, Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Pardot
- Which firms have achieved which Navigator statuses, demonstrating the size and scope of their project work
- Identify the partners who are in the best position to provide consulting services to your customers and/or in relation to your product
For other technology companies:
- Understand the breadth and depth of consulting services that are being delivered to nonprofit and education institutions on Salesforce
- See how Salesforce.org’s partner growth and consulting capacity compares to yours
- Identify firms that could be good candidates for your own ecosystem and understand how firms you may already be working with are positioned in the Salesforce ecosystem
For consultants who advise on partner selection:
- Understand how Salesforce.org structures its partner network and how it categorizes and evaluates it partner firms
- Identify the partners who are in the best position to provide consulting services to your clients
- Get quick insights on any firm that your clients are considering or are already working with, to know whether they are leading or lagging behind their peers
For investors and industry analysts
- Understand how Salesforce.org structures its partner network and how it categorizes and evaluates it partner firms
- Learn about the type of growth that has been achieved among Salesforce.org partner firms over the past two years -- in employees, consultants, projects, certifications, and Navigator status.
- Understand where consulting capacity is highest and lowest among the most relevant Salesforce Clouds for nonprofit and education
- Identity which firms are leading and which are lagging
Why did we create this report?
Our mission at Watt Hamlett Consulting is helping organizations navigate and succeed in the Salesforce ecosystem, and our vision is “better buyers, better sellers.” To that end, we advise nonprofits who need help identifying the right partners for their Salesforce needs. We also advise consulting partners who are looking to better understand and improve their position in the ecosystem, and ISVs looking for the best potential partnerships. We conducted the research and developed the dataset upon which this report is built to help guide us in our own work over the past few years and now want to make the data and insights available more widely.
Table of contents
- Key Findings
- Top Findings
- Firms On Top
- Firms To Watch
- Infographic
- Partner Landscape
- Total Partner Count and 1-, 2-, and 4-Year Growth
- Total Partner Count and Growth - Nonprofit Only
- Total Partner Count and Growth - Education Only
- Total Partner Count and Growth - Nonprofit & Education
- Partners by SFDO Tier
- Partners by Years in SFDO Network
- Partners by Years in Business
- Partners by Geography
- New Partners for 2021, by Industry and Tier
- Top 5 New Partners
- By Employee Count
- By Consultant Count
- By Certification Count
- By Nonprofit Cloud Certification Count
- By Education Cloud Certification Count
- By Projects Completed
- Top 5 New Partners
- Partners Advancing a Partnership Tier
- Partners Dropping a Partnership Tier
- Partners Changing Verticals
- Partners Departing in 2021
- Partner Employee Count and Growth
- Top 10 Firms By One-Year Increase in Employees
- Top 10 Firms By Median Employee Tenure
- Inc. 5000 Awardees
- Total Partner Count and 1-, 2-, and 4-Year Growth
- Consultants
- Total Consultant Count
- Consultants By Firm Size + Median/Average of All Firms
- Top 10 Firms by Consultant Count
- Top 5 Firms by Sector and Partner Tier
- Median/Average Growth of Consultants
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year and Two-Year Consultant Growth (Numeric & Percentage)
- Firms with One-Year Net Loss in Consultants
- Projects
- Total Project Count
- Projects By Firm Size + Median/Average of All Firms
- Top 10 Firms by Project Count
- Top 5 Firms by Sector and Partner Tier
- Top Firms by Number of Projects Per Year + Median/Average
- Top/Bottom 10 Firms by Number of Projects per Consultant
- Median/Average Growth of Projects
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year and Two-Year Project Growth (Numeric & Percentage)
- Firms with the Slowest Project Growth
- Certifications
- Total Certification Count
- Certifications By Firm Size + Median/Average of All Firms
- Top 10 Firms by Certification Count
- Top 5 Firms by Sector and Partner Tier
- Median/Average Growth of Certifications
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year and Two-Year Certification Growth (Numeric & Percentage)
- Firms with One-Year Net Loss in Certifications
- Certifications By Type
- Total Consultant Certifications by Type - All Partners
- Nonprofit Cloud Certifications:
- Top 10 Firms by Count + Median/Average
- Percentage of Firms with Certifications + 2-year change
- Top 5 Firms by Percentage of Consultants by Partner Tier
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year Increase in Certifications (Numeric & Percentage)
- Education Cloud Certifications:
- Top 10 Firms by Count + Median/Average of All Firms
- Percentage of Firms with Certifications + 2-year change
- Top 5 Firms by Percentage of Consultants by Partner Tier
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year Increase in Certifications (Numeric & Percentage)
- Experience Cloud Certifications:
- Top 10 Firms by Count + Median/Average of All Firms
- Percentage of Firms with Certifications + 2-year change
- Top 5 Firms by Percentage of Consultants by Partner Tier
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year Increase in Certifications (Numeric & Percentage)
- Marketing Cloud Certifications:
- Top 10 Firms by Count + Median/Average of All Firms
- Percentage of Firms with Certifications + 2-year change
- Top 5 Firms by Percentage of Consultants by Partner Tier
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year Increase in Certifications (Numeric & Percentage)
- Pardot Certifications:
- Top 10 Firms by Count + Median/Average of All Firms
- Percentage of Firms with Certifications + 2-year change
- Top 5 Firms by Percentage of Consultants by Partner Tier
- Top 10 Firms by One-Year Increase in Certifications (Numeric & Percentage)
- Navigator
- Nonprofit Cloud
- Number/Percentage of Firms with Status/One-Year Change
- Number of Firms by Navigator Tier
- Number of Firms by Nonprofit Specializations
- Number/Percentage of Firms with All Specializations
- Education Cloud
- Number/Percentage of Firms with Status/One-Year Change
- Number of Firms by Navigator Tier
- Number of Firms by Education Specializations
- Number/Percentage of Firms with All Specializations
- Experience Cloud
- Number/Percentage of Firms with Status/One-Year Change
- Number of Firms by Navigator Tier
- Firms with Expert Status
- Marketing Cloud
- Number/Percentage of Firms with Status/One-Year Change
- Number of Firms by Navigator Tier
- Firms with Expert Status
- Pardot
- Number/Percentage of Firms with Status/One-Year Change
- Number of Firms by Navigator Tier
- Firms with Expert Status
- Nonprofit Cloud
- PartnerPlots
- Methodology
- Nonprofit Cloud Partner Plot (top 50 percent)
- Nonprofit Cloud - Report Card of All Firms
- Education Cloud Partner Plot (all Firms)
- Education Cloud - Report Card of All Firms
- Appendix:
- Full List of All Partners by Employee Count and One-Year Percentage Change
- Full List of All Partners by Consultant Count and One- and Two-Year Percentage Change
- Full List of All Partners by Project Count and One- and Two-Year Percentage Change
- Full List of All Partners by Certification Count and One- and Two-Year Percentage Change
- Full List of All Partners with Nonprofit Cloud Navigator Status, with Overall Status and Specializations
- Full List of All Partners with Education Cloud Navigator Status, with Overall Status and Specializations
- Full List of All Partners with Experience Cloud Navigator Status, with Overall Status and Specializations
- Full List of All Partners with Marketing Cloud Navigator Status, with Overall Status and Specializations
- Full List of All Partners with Pardot Navigator Status, with Overall Status and Specializations