Salesforce launches public sector division in India

At its World Tour Essentials Mumbai event, software giant also announces a digital lending solution to provide banks and lenders with a platform to digitally approach consumer lending

By Naini Thaker Forbes India Staff

Published: Jun 19, 2024 06:05:57 PM IST

Updated: Jun 19, 2024 06:21:04 PM IST

Full Bio

Salesforce in India has been growing 35 percent year-on-year across industries, as per the latest earning call announcing the FY24 fiscal results. Image: Shutterstock

During its annual World Tour Essentials Mumbai event on Wednesday, software giant Salesforce announced that India is expected to create 1.8 million jobs and $88.6 billion in new business revenue by 2028. Additionally, Salesforce also announced the launch of its public sector division in India to cater to government agencies and public sector organisations. They also launched a Digital Lending solution for loan origination which will provide banks and lenders with a platform to digitally approach consumer lending. Salesforce in India has been growing 35 percent year-on-year across industries, as per the latest earning call announcing the FY24 fiscal results.

Public sector division

Salesforce wasn’t present in the public sector earlier, since many governments didn’t have cloud policies, and Salesforce is a pure cloud-based software company. “But since then, things have really changed and people have realised that cloud is a safe venture, and there can be a lot of applications on the cloud,” Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and chairperson, Salesforce India, said at the event. “In fact a number of government applications, the India public stack, much of it sits on the cloud. So, to that extent, the public sector companies have become open to the solutions that we bring to the table.”

The solutions within this division will be designed to help government agencies serve people faster. “Our focus on the public sector comes at a time when cloud has become the underlying strength of digital transformation efforts, playing a pivotal role in paving the way for innovation and propelling India to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030,” said Bhattacharya. “Artificial intelligence—both predictive and generative, machine learning, and application development based on trust will boost citizen experiences,” she added.

Generative AI could unlock a $1.75 trillion productivity opportunity annually across many functions and levels of government. “Today, citizens expect better, faster service that’s tailored just for them across every platform they use. Building a 360-degree view of citizens to deliver services based on a unified data platform with trust at the core and deep industry expertise will unlock tremendous potential for government organisations,” said Arun Kumar Parameswaran, managing director - sales & distribution, Salesforce India.

The company also recently announced the launch of Public Sector Einstein 1 for service—a version of their enterprise AI platform—including CRM, AI and data capabilities. These solutions are also available on a public cloud infrastructure, called Hyperforce, a next generation infrastructure architecture built for the public cloud. This would help government agencies meet their data residency, data control and security obligations.

Digital Lending solution

This solution is Salesforce’s ‘Made in India’ product that will provide banks and lenders with a platform to digitally approach consumer lending, while potentially reducing the cost and burden to maintain disconnected, outdated platforms. It will exclusively serve customers within India.

It will be a unified platform for intake, underwriter review, and pre-disbursement operations for applications for home, auto, and personal loans. This solution will ensure faster time-to-value and reduction in loan processing time. “With a strong digital focused approach, digital lending is reaching the hinterlands of Bharat, reshaping how borrowers access funds, making lending more convenient, efficient, and accessible than ever before,” said Rajendra Bisht VP - technology and digital, Bajaj Finance Limited Auto Finance. He added, “As we look to explore the next phase of digital lending in India, the potential of technology to transform this sector is immense and innovation from companies like Salesforce will provide a strong impetus for digital lending in the country."

Also read: Indian IT leaders are ready to embrace generative AI but also have concerns: Salesforce study

Job creation and growing India business

The global leader in CRM also announced insights from an IDC study, which indicates that the Salesforce economy in India, led by AI will create close to 11.6 million jobs globally, of which there will be 1.8 million new jobs in India. The study also forecasts that Salesforce will generate $88.6 billion in new revenues from 2022 to 2028.

Currently, in India among the companies that use AI today 79 percent use AI-powered CRM solutions and 80 percent use Enterprise AI software platforms. In the next 12 months, AI-powered cloud solutions are expected to impact organisations, with 58 percent citing increasing need for workforce AI skills. However, the biggest challenges of implementing AI-powered cloud solutions are: Trustworthiness or bias in data; lack of skilled employees and AI governance and risk management.