Mikal Todd (PwC New Zealand)
The Salesforce teams of specialist Be Intelligent and PwC New Zealand are now one, creating a 40-strong and growing practice.
Cemented before Christmas following a six month courtship, the buyout of Be Intelligent appears highly complementary in terms of the two organisations' respective Salesforce strengths, their geographical reach and their Salesforce and industry specialisations.
Where PwC's practice was largely based in Wellington, Be Intelligent covered Auckland and Christchurch.
While Be Intelligent brought particular strengths in Salesforce's Core, Marketing Cloud, automation and managed services, PwC delivered technical skills in infrastructure, experience design and Salesforce solution development.
After coming together on 20 January, the goal now is to scale up both locally and across the ASEANZ region targeting key PwC markets such as health, financial services, energy and utilities, and social services.
"PwC NZ was growing its Salesforce team organically," PwC partner and enterprise applications and transformation lead Jeff Casey told Reseller News. "We were being asked to take on bigger and bigger jobs.
"There was not enough horse-power. We were on the lookout but also being quite particular."
For Be Intelligent founder Mikal Todd, capacity was also a driver. The company wanted to grow to service larger organisations and to expand internationally.
Before Christmas, a priority for both was to make sure everyone knew what was happening, understood the strategy and was ready to hit the ground running in the new year.
Casey will co-lead the Salesforce practice alongside Todd, who also becomes a PwC NZ partner.
And word has got around.
"People are coming to us enquiring about being part of the team," Casey said.
Credit: Supplied Rob Fisher, lead partner for transformation at PwC New Zealand said the team was excited at what the enhanced scale and expertise could deliver for clients.
“This acquisition strongly aligns with our technology alliances strategy while adding new capabilities, capacity and clients," he said.
"Together, we’ll support our clients to build trust and deliver sustained outcomes by reimagining their customer experience.”
The acquisition expanded PwC’s current Salesforce team of 19 to 40 while PwC also adopted Be Intelligent’s licensed Salesforce reseller status, a first for the firm in the Asia Pacific region.
In its own right, however, PwC has been honoured by Salesforce with global strategic partner innovation awards.
Todd was proud of the success of Be Intelligent, which he founded in 2018, crediting that to a focus on securing the right people with the right attitude and experience to support clients to transform and grow.
“I’m excited about the next phase of the journey and what can be created as a result of the Be Intelligent whānau joining PwC’s Salesforce practice," he said.
"It was important for us to align with an organisation that shared similar aspirations, and the new practice has a values-led culture committed to making a positive impact for our clients.”
The combined skills of the two organisations would help clients unlock their digital assets, data and capabilities so they could respond with agility to social, political, regulatory, environmental and technological change, Casey said.
However, delivering purpose goes beyond the solutions provided to clients, he added.
"As a values-driven team, it is important the solutions we deliver make a difference to our communities and the people around us.”
Salesforce is growing fast in the A/NZ region, cracking A$1 billion in revenue for the financial year ending 31 January 2022 while profit more than tripled from A$5.21 million to A$20.11 million.
