At a time when IT services companies in India are cutting back on recruitment, the $10- billion US-based customer relationship management (CRM) service provider Salesforce claims that growing adoption of its platform in the country has the potential to create as many as 1.1 million new jobs by the year 2022.

Additional jobs

Quoting an IDC study, Sunil Jose, Country Head, Salesforce, said that the number (jobs created) in India will be nearly one-third of total 3.3 million new jobs on Salesforce ecosystem to be created globally, he added.

IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and HCL implement Salesforce’s solutions as system integrators. They have a large number of employees with skillsets on Salesforce technologies, and will hire many more as clients embrace the technology.

“Ability for us is to initiate and ensure that we partner enough in India to drive the ecosystem,” he said.

A strong ecosystem around Salesforce technology is critical for both the company and for Indian economy.

For every $ spent on Salesforce technology, $5 is spent on the economy. That’s how the economy is growing in other countries that implement the Salesforce technology, Jose said.

‘Tall claims’

“The 1.1 million additional jobs is a huge claim and lacks logic,” said A Kamal Karanth, Co-Founder Xpheno, a recruitment firm.

“Even if you combine Freshworks, Zoho and Salesforce — all in CRM space — that number may not happen and at best job creation won’t cross 50,000 in India,” he added.

But Salesforce is unfazed. To meet the demand it foresees, Salesforce is enabling students and others equip themselves for these new jobs.

It is tackling critical skill gaps by partnering with ICT Academy, an initiative of the Union government.

Tie-up with ICT Academy

This partnership will see Salesforce and ICT Academy train and certify educators from over 200 institutes across India. The educators, in turn, will train over 100,000 students to equip them with necessary skills.

The Academy, in partnership with Salesforce, will set up 100 Centres of Excellence in a phased manner providing students opportunity to learn and practice key skills on Salesforce technologies.

Salesforce’s customers include Bajaj Finserv, Urban Ladder, InMobi and Janalakshmi Finance.

Globally, it has nearly 150,000 clients with 88 per cent of Forbes 100 companies use Salesforce platform.