Many South African companies already use software from US customer relationship management (CRM) specialist Salesforce.com. Now the company has officially established a “legal entity” in the country — albeit not a full-fledged office yet.

Salesforce, which is headquartered in San Francisco, announced on Monday that it has established a legal entity in South Africa and appointed two leaders for the local “office”: Zuko Mdwaba as head of sales and Linda Saunders as head of solution engineering.

Until now, the CRM giant has been represented in South Africa through a network of partners.

“South Africa is a rapidly developing and youthful market with enormous potential,” Salesforce said in a statement. “The company’s growing customer base has been fuelled by businesses accelerating their digital transformation [projects]…”

“Africa has a great talent pool, and we intend to collaborate closely with our partners and local institutions on programmes that provide skills and job opportunities to meet the continent’s high demand for Salesforce skills, while also recognising Africa’s potential as a global talent hub,” said the company’s senior vice president for emerging markets, Robin Fisher, in the statement.

Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Parker Harris, David Moellenhoff, Frank Dominguez and Marc Benioff (who serves as co-CEO alongside Bret Taylor). It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has a market capitalisation of US$194-billion. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media