In the ever-evolving landscape of business technology, adapting to change is no longer a choice — it’s a necessity. And when it comes to managing those changes seamlessly, Salesforce stands tall as a powerhouse. However, navigating the intricate realm of Salesforce Change Management can often leave even the most seasoned professionals scratching their heads.

We unveil six invaluable tips that promise to unravel the complexities, making the process not just manageable, but downright straightforward. Whether you’re a salesforce novice or a seasoned pro, these insights will empower you to wield change as a tool for growth, without breaking a sweat.

Clear Change Identification and Prioritization

Before embarking on any salesforce changes, it’s essential to meticulously define the scope and objectives of the proposed modifications. This involves a detailed analysis of the current system, identifying pain points, and recognizing opportunities for enhancement. Once potential changes are identified, a rigorous prioritization process should be employed.

This prioritization should be based on factors such as the anticipated business impact, alignment with strategic goals, and feasibility of implementation. The impacts of any change should be thoroughly evaluated, considering both short-term and long-term consequences. This includes assessing potential disruptions to existing processes, workflows, and user experiences, as well as estimating the financial, resource, and time investments required for successful implementation.

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Cross-Functional Collaboration

Successful salesforce change management thrives on collaborative efforts across diverse departments. Forming a dedicated change management team comprising representatives from different functional areas fosters a holistic approach. Involving stakeholders early in the process ensures that all perspectives are considered, mitigating resistance and enhancing buy-in.

Open communication channels must be established to facilitate idea sharing, status updates, and issue resolution. This collaborative synergy not only promotes comprehensive change planning but also empowers a sense of ownership among stakeholders. By uniting expertise and insights from various disciplines, organizations can navigate change with collective strength and drive more successful implementations.

Comprehensive Change Documentation

Thorough documentation is the backbone of effective salesforce change management. Detailed records of change requests, requirements, and implementation plans ensure a clear roadmap for all involved. A well-maintained repository of version-controlled documentation facilitates transparency, aiding in tracing the evolution of changes and reducing confusion. This meticulous documentation also supports knowledge transfer, enabling seamless onboarding and continuity.

By meticulously capturing every step and decision, organizations establish a reliable foundation for change, ensuring that stakeholders remain informed and aligned throughout the process. Robust documentation safeguards against uncertainties and serves as a valuable resource for future enhancements.

Thorough Testing and Quality Assurance

Rigorous testing and quality assurance are cornerstones of successful Salesforce change management. Crafting comprehensive test plans and scenarios allows for the meticulous examination of new configurations and functionalities. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) involving end-users validates the changes from a practical standpoint, ensuring they meet user needs and expectations.

Addressing any detected bugs, performance issues, or discrepancies during testing guarantees a smoother transition. A robust testing phase minimizes post-implementation disruptions and fosters user confidence. By prioritizing quality assurance, organizations fortify their change management process, delivering dependable solutions that align seamlessly with business objectives.

User Training and Support

Empowering users through effective training and ongoing support is pivotal in salesforce change management. Developing comprehensive training materials, including guides and tutorials, equips users with the knowledge to navigate new features and processes. Conducting engaging training sessions and workshops enhances user proficiency and fosters a positive transition experience.

Providing accessible avenues for user support, such as help desks or forums, ensures timely issue resolution and knowledge sharing. Prioritizing user training and support cultivates user confidence, reduces frustration, and promotes efficient utilization of the salesforce platform, ultimately contributing to the success of change initiatives.

Effective Change Rollout and Monitoring

A well-executed change rollout and vigilant monitoring are pivotal to salesforce change management success. Careful planning of controlled rollouts or pilot launches ensures gradual adoption and minimizes disruption. Monitoring user adoption, feedback, and system performance provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of implemented changes. Iterative improvements based on real-time data help fine-tune configurations and address evolving needs.

This proactive approach guarantees that the change’s impact aligns with expectations, promoting sustained user satisfaction. By maintaining a watchful eye on the ongoing change process, organizations can swiftly adapt, optimize, and enhance the Salesforce environment, driving long-term success and continuous improvement.

Simplifying Salesforce change management is a multi-faceted endeavor that demands strategic planning, collaboration, documentation, testing, training, and vigilant monitoring. By adhering to these key principles, organizations can navigate transitions with clarity, engage stakeholders effectively, and ensure seamless system enhancements. Embracing change as an iterative process allows for agility and continuous improvement, leading to a Salesforce environment that not only meets current needs but also lays a solid foundation for future innovation and success.

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© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

It has been a rocky earnings season so far. Investors have demanded nothing short of perfection to justify sky-high valuations; even when companies beat guidance and Wall Street expectations, big losses are ensuing as the markets unwind a chunk of the past months' interest rate-driven rally.

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) doesn't report earnings until the end of August, but the stock is already down ~10% since the start of the month in tandem with other big tech names. And though the stock remains up more than 50% from a year-to-date basis, I think this dip is a great entry point in this software giant:

Salesforce is finally taking profitability seriously

A well-known adage is that a good crisis can often present a great opportunity. For much of the past decade, Salesforce.com was riding high on the cloud boom, easy and cheap money, and skyrocketing valuations. It may have been one of the key poster children for excess in the tech sector, and its corporate strategy wasn't far off either: as organic growth slowed, Salesforce deployed its balance sheet for aggressive M&A, acquiring the likes of Tableau, MuleSoft, Slack, and Quip for billions to expand its cloud software empire.

Amid greater macro pressure, however, Salesforce has started to show more discipline. M&A and the costs of integrating acquired targets have long held Salesforce's operating margins down. Headcount expansion to fill offices across the world, including in its home city of San Francisco where Salesforce Tower and many other high-rises are sitting at low occupancy, has held off profitability. True: Salesforce was the original blueprint for a high-growth software company that would initially burn lots of cash but become incredibly profitable later at a more mature stage, on the back of high gross margins and recurring revenue.

That "later" took many years to arrive, but I believe we're finally there. The company has finally turned its focus to the bottom line, laying off a slew of workers this year. And since the Slack deal in 2021, the company has not acquired another major target since.

Valuation looks buyable, on either an earnings or revenue basis

And so, at long last: The company is finally expanding its bottom line in a meaningful way. Its valuation can also be supported by its earnings. For the next fiscal year FY25 (the year for Salesforce ending in January 2025), Wall Street expects Salesforce to generate $8.99 in pro forma EPS, up 21% y/y on the back of $38.4 billion in revenue, up 11% y/y.

At current share prices near $209, this puts Salesforce's valuation at 23.2x FY25 P/E - which, for a company expected to grow pro forma earnings at north of a >20% clip, is quite attractive (considering a high-teens multiple for the S&P 500 which is weighed down by much slower-growing industries).

On a traditional revenue basis: Currently, Salesforce's market cap sits at $203.27 billion, and after netting off the $13.98 billion of cash and $9.60 billion of debt on Salesforce's most accurate balance sheet, its resulting enterprise value is $198.89 billion. So against consensus FY25 revenue targets, Salesforce's revenue-based valuation stands at 5.2x EV/FY25 revenue - again, not unreasonable.

My year-end price target on Salesforce is $243, representing a 27x FY25 P/E multiple or a 6x FY25 revenue multiple.

The long-term bull case for Salesforce

When we look beyond the short term for Salesforce, I find quite an attractive multi-year bull case for this company.

The key upside catalysts I see are:

• Best-in-breed reputation will shield Salesforce as smaller competitors dry up. In the software industry, few brands are as recognizable as Salesforce, particularly in the CRM space, where Salesforce has a dominant market share. Amid a tough macro environment where many smaller software companies are folding, Salesforce will continue to gain share.
• Very diverse array of software products. Though we may decry Salesforce's past penchant for acquisitions, the truth is that Salesforce is now left with a very wide net of software products, all of which carry strong cross-selling potential. Outside of its core CRM and marketing tools, Salesforce has enterprise communication via Slack and Quip, API tools via MuleSoft, BI via Tableau, and a variety of other best-in-class software offerings.
• Pure recurring revenue. Outside of one-time professional services and implementations which make up a very tiny portion of Salesforce's revenue, Salesforce is unsurprisingly built on an entirely recurring subscription revenue base. Given as well that most of Salesforce's products are seat-based (meaning it's priced per user), Salesforce has plenty of opportunity to expand within its current install base as well.
• RPOs continue building. Remaining performance obligations, which is a measure of Salesforce's contracted subscription revenue, continue to build at a nearly equivalent pace as revenue, which is a strong leading indicator that revenue deceleration isn't in the near-term cards.
• Rule of 40. Salesforce has a high-20s pro forma operating margin and mid-teens revenue growth and classifies as a "Rule of 40" software stock - which makes Salesforce even more appealing in the current market which has shifted away from a growth-first mindset to one that considers bottom-line expansion as well. Salesforce also generates healthy free cash flow that adds an additional buffer on top of a balance sheet loaded with more than $13 billion in cash, which is useful fodder for its regular acquisitions.

Stay long here and buy the dip.

Recent trends show healthy growth across cloud verticals amid margin expansion

Though Salesforce has been hit by its fair share of macro slowdown impacts - which, in the software sector, has delayed IT purchases and increased scrutiny on deal approvals, lengthening the sales cycle - it is still showing growth across all of its key cloud verticals while also boosting profitability.

The chart above shows that each of Salesforce's core cloud verticals saw double-digit growth on a constant-currency basis in Q1 - including and especially Sales Cloud, Salesforce's core CRM product that started the company. It's worth noting as well that Tableau, which wasn't much of a growth champion when Salesforce acquired it in 2019, saw revenue growth accelerate to 12% y/y in the quarter, which helped to offset MuleSoft's declaration in the "Data" segment. Looking at the chart above, FX-neutral revenue growth in the Data cloud has accelerated substantially versus early FY23.

The company's core priority now, however, is the bottom line: A sentiment echoed by founder and CEO Marc Benioff on the accurate Q1 earnings call:

On our last call in March, we told you about how Salesforce had radically accelerated our transformation to profitable growth. We share with you how we hit the hyperspace button across the key areas of our transformation, restructuring for the short and long-term, reigniting our performance culture by focusing on productivity, operational excellence, and profitability, prioritizing our core innovations that drive customer success, building even stronger relationships with you, our investors.

Our Q1 results show that we continue to make great progress. As I said in March, we're just getting started with this incredible transformation. We continue to scrutinize every dollar investment, every resource, and every spend and we're transforming every corner of our company. Our progress over the last 5 months, while it's very impressive and I cannot be more grateful to our entire team for their leadership. In fact, you may hear me say that several times on this call. Our transformation drove our Q1 financial results.

As I said, on our last call, well improving profitability is our highest priority. As a result, we significantly exceeded our margin target for the quarter, delivering a non-GAAP operating margin of 27.6%, up 1,000 basis points year-over-year, incredible. And there's no greater point of evidence to our transformation than this amazing result following the tremendous operating margin Q4."

The chart below shows Salesforce's progress: The majority of the 10-point improvement in margins came from reducing sales and marketing costs as a percentage of revenue by 6 points:

Pro forma operating income soared 74% y/y on a nominal basis to $2.27 billion, representing a 27.4% margin - which, when stacked on top of 13% constant-currency revenue growth, still squarely puts Salesforce in the "Rule of 40" category. Pro forma EPS, meanwhile, grew 72% y/y to $1.69.

Key takeaways

Salesforce has hidden its profitable bones underneath a mass of corporate hiring and a multi-year M&A shopping spree, but as the company turns its focus to efficiency and profitability, we're starting to see the benefits of massive operating income and EPS growth. Don't forget top-line strength as well, as Salesforce continues to leverage the breadth of its product portfolio to sustain double-digit growth across each of its key product lines. Stay long here and buy the dip.

In an exciting announcement, Salesforce has introduced Einstein Studio, empowering users to create and deploy their bespoke AI models. This innovation opens doors for businesses to harness AI’s potential in a personalized and tailored manner, driving enhanced insights and efficiency.

Einstein Studio is designed to offer a user-friendly environment for building AI models that suit specific business requirements. This cutting-edge platform empowers users to take charge of their AI journey, even without extensive technical backgrounds. By combining intuitive tools and robust capabilities, Einstein Studio ensures that the power of AI is accessible to a broader spectrum of professionals.

With Einstein Studio, companies can tailor AI models to match their unique data and challenges. This level of customization allows for a deeper understanding of customer behaviors, more accurate predictions, and optimized decision-making processes. The ability to deploy these custom models directly within the Salesforce ecosystem enhances user experiences and drives intelligent automation across various touchpoints.

Furthermore, Einstein Studio’s integration within the Salesforce platform simplifies the deployment process. This seamless integration eliminates the need for complex integrations, ensuring that businesses can swiftly implement their custom AI models into their existing workflows. In this case, Salesforce integration services are becoming very significant. 

This announcement underscores Salesforce’s commitment to democratizing AI and making it a practical tool for businesses of all sizes. By putting the power of AI model creation and deployment in the hands of users, Einstein Studio empowers organizations to unlock new dimensions of growth and innovation.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, Einstein Studio stands as a testament to Salesforce’s dedication to staying at the forefront of technological advancements. This tool not only amplifies the capabilities of businesses but also reinforces Salesforce’s position as a leader in providing solutions that bridge the gap between technology and business needs.

In conclusion, the unveiling of Einstein Studio marks a significant stride in the AI arena. Businesses now have the means to develop and implement AI models that resonate with their unique objectives, fostering better insights and smarter decision-making. As this cutting-edge platform becomes an integral part of the Salesforce ecosystem, it ushers in a new era of customized AI solutions that drive success across industries.

The stock of Salesforce Inc. (CRM) has seen a -1.43% decrease in the past week, with a -8.34% drop in the past month, and a -0.63% decrease in the past quarter. The volatility ratio for the week is 2.09%, and the volatility levels for the past 30 days are at 1.91% for CRM. The simple moving average for the last 20 days is -3.11% for CRM stock, with a simple moving average of 14.47% for the last 200 days.

Is It Worth Investing in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Right Now?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) has a higher price-to-earnings ratio of 550.08x compared to its average ratio, and the 36-month beta value for CRM is at 1.20. Analysts have varying views on the stock, with 31 analysts rating it as a “buy,” 3 rating it as “overweight,” 15 as “hold,” and 1 as “sell.”

The average price suggested by analysts for CRM is $240.71, which is $32.35 above the current market price. The public float for CRM is 943.32M, and currently, shorts hold a 0.79% of that float. The average trading volume for CRM on August 22, 2023 was 6.50M shares.

CRM) stock’s latest price update

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM)’s stock price has increased by 2.05 compared to its previous closing price of 204.83. However, the company has seen a -1.43% decrease in its stock price over the last five trading sessions. Zacks Investment Research reported 2023-08-21 that Salesforce.com (CRM) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock’s prospects.

Analysts’ Opinion of CRM

Many brokerage firms have already submitted their reports for CRM stocks, with Morgan Stanley repeating the rating for CRM by listing it as a “Equal-Weight.” The predicted price for CRM in the upcoming period, according to Morgan Stanley is $278 based on the research report published on July 31, 2023 of the current year 2023.

CRM Trading at -3.30% from the 50-Day Moving Average

After a stumble in the market that brought CRM to its low price for the period of the last 52 weeks, the company was unable to rebound, for now settling with -12.25% of loss for the given period.

Volatility was left at 1.91%, however, over the last 30 days, the volatility rate increased by 2.09%, as shares sank -7.37% for the moving average over the last 20 days. Over the last 50 days, in opposition, the stock is trading -0.24% lower at present.

During the last 5 trading sessions, CRM fell by -1.43%, which changed the moving average for the period of 200-days by +30.79% in comparison to the 20-day moving average, which settled at $214.91. In addition, Salesforce Inc. saw 57.65% in overturn over a single year, with a tendency to cut further gains.

Insider Trading

Reports are indicating that there were more than several insider trading activities at CRM starting from Benioff Marc, who sale 15,000 shares at the price of $205.12 back on Aug 17. After this action, Benioff Marc now owns 16,086,166 shares of Salesforce Inc., valued at $3,076,807 using the latest closing price.

Benioff Marc, the Chair and CEO of Salesforce Inc., sale 15,000 shares at $208.23 during a trade that took place back on Aug 16, which means that Benioff Marc is holding 16,101,166 shares at $3,123,394 based on the most accurate closing price.

Stock Fundamentals for CRM

Current profitability levels for the company are sitting at:

• +5.93 for the present operating margin
• +65.09 for the gross margin

The net margin for Salesforce Inc. stands at +0.66. The total capital return value is set at 2.55, while invested capital returns managed to touch 0.29. Equity return is now at value 0.60, with 0.40 for asset returns.

Based on Salesforce Inc. (CRM), the company’s capital structure generated 25.50 points at debt to equity in total, while total debt to capital is 20.32. Total debt to assets is 14.50, with long-term debt to equity ratio resting at 22.02. Finally, the long-term debt to capital ratio is 17.55.

When we switch over and look at the enterprise to sales, we see a ratio of 6.27, with the company’s debt to enterprise value settled at 0.09. The receivables turnover for the company is 2.89 and the total asset turnover is 0.31. The liquidity ratio also appears to be rather interesting for investors as it stands at 0.95.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Salesforce Inc. (CRM) has had a mixed performance lately. Opinion on the stock among analysts is bullish, with some giving it a “buy” rating and others a “hold”. It’s important to note that the stock is currently trading at a significant distance from its 50-day moving average and its 52-week high.