Salesforce opens Auckland office, needs 10,000 additional people certified in its tech stack

Customer relationship management software vendor Salesforce officially opened a spacious new office in Auckland’s CBD this morning.

The office, hosting 76 workstations and decked out in the exact same design colour scheme as every other Salesforce office around the world, is situated at 45 Queen St, a stone’s throw from 45 Queen St, a stone’s throw from Britomart and Commercial Bay.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, a former Salesforce customer when he ran a business that used the CRM software, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony that Auckland Council was also a customer and had found the software particularly in the recovery operation following last year’s devastating floods in Auckland. Salesforce ANZ General Manager, Frank Fillmann, also flew in for the event.

The high-profile presence in Auckland comes 18 years after Salesforce arrived in New Zealand and the day before the Marc Benioff-founded company’s 25th birthday.

Salesforce skills: 50% growth in two years

Hamish Miles, Salesforce New Zealand country lead, told Tech Blog that Saleforce now had around 1,200 customers in New Zealand, including 140 non profits, and 57 partners. Salesforce seen a 24% growth in its New Zealand partner ecosystem over the past two years. NZ partners have grown their Salesforce Certified Individuals by 49% and Credentials by 50% over the past two years.

While 16,000 people with certifications or credentials in Salesforce CRM and related products locally, the number will need to nearly double in short order to support anticipated growth in use of the platform, Miles said.

“We see growth of around 10,000 jobs in the next few years just in our Salesforce ecosystem,” he said.

“We are running a whole lot of programmes with organisations like TupuToa, who are advancing opportunities for Maori and Pacific development,” he added.

Salesforce has joined the likes of AWS and Microsoft in offering free short courses and microcredentials to tackle the tech skills shortage and allow a pathway for people to switch career into a tech-related role. 

“It’s a 12 week course, you can earn as you learn, do it part-time and then go into an internship,” said Miles.

“I met a lady the other day who did one less than two years ago. She was a receptionist at an optometrist, was earning minimum wage. Now she works remotely as a Salesforce for the RSPCA New South Wales and earning $55 an hour. It’s transformative for her and her daughter. She was in her forties.”

Productivity push

Salesforce customers were facing  “challenging macro economic headwinds,” said Miles, but looking to utiliser the CRM platform to lift their productivity.

“They got a little bit bogged down maybe with manual and legacy systems. With Salesforce we are seeing a real drive towards AI augmentation, just helping people get through their day jobs quicker,” he said.

“I saw an example recently where a contact centre was able to make 3 - 4 times the number of calls per hour than they normally would because AI is recording the call but taking all the notes, surfacing the next best steps, crafting the email response to the customer and its right on the money.”

Miles said the generative AI tools Saleforce unveiled last year were now production-ready and being used by customers. AI ethics and maintaining trust in automated platforms remained integral to their use, he added. 

“Our customers need it, they are looking to go faster,” he said.

“I would also say that waiting is not a good option, because those that move first will get that first mover advantage.”