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Salesforce Looks to Go Further in the Field by Announcing Acquisition of Field Service Vendor ClickSoftware

In mid-August 2019, Salesforce announced a definitive agreement to buy popular field service automation (FSA) vendor ClickSoftware. ClickSoftware has been a popular FSA vendor for over twenty years, providing robust functional capabilities to enable field service workers. These capabilities are centered on mobile workforce management: the ability to schedule, manage, and support field service workers. Salesforce is the market leader in CRM and customer experience applications: its Service Cloud offering provides robust case management and support for customer service workflows, while its Field Service Lightning offering competes in the FSA space.

Salesforce’s acquisition of ClickSoftware is prudent. Field Service Lightning is the “new kid on the block” in a market that still tends to be dominated by tried-and-tested vendors such as IFS and Astea. The acquisition of ClickSoftware will allow Salesforce to make inroads in this market in two key respects: giving it access to ClickSoftware’s current account roster and also providing IP to augment the mobile workforce management aspect of Field Service Lightning.

If history repeats based on many of its past acquisitions, Salesforce will keep the ClickSoftware brand for now, but will eventually fold it into the Service Cloud and/or Field Service Lightning family of products.

Source: Salesforce Service Cloud at SoftwareReviews, Accessed September 12, 2019

Source: ClickSoftware at SoftwareReviews, Accessed September 12, 2019

Our Take

• Salesforce and ClickSoftware are market leaders in customer service management and field service automation, respectively.
• Salesforce’s acquisition of ClickSoftware is a savvy move that will enhance its credibility and value proposition in the field service automation space (particularly around mobile workforce management functionality).
• We expect that – as with past acquisition – Salesforce will make a concerted effort to fold ClickSoftware into its existing portfolio of customer service solutions.

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