Technology:
Salesforce
In Q4 2023 Investigo’s technology team saw around 30% more Salesforce vacancies across our permanent and contract divisions than we did in our previous three quarters. If demand continues along the same trajectory, Q1 2024 will see a dramatic increase compared to 2023. Robert Woodhouse, director of technology at Investigo, looks at where that demand’s coming from.
Here are the key areas leaders need to prepare for in 2024:
AI skills – increasingly in demand as new tools are released.
Demand unrelenting – niche skillsets continue to dominate.
Contractor support – to bring Salesforce experience to internal admin.
In almost every conversation we’re having with our customers about a new Salesforce role they need to fill, they’re mentioning AI as a key qualification. But AI is progressing far quicker than educational curriculums and training programs can keep up. Salesforce are continually announcing new features and tools and although the required experience is scarce right now, this will dramatically increase in the year ahead, with AI becoming a part of every Salesforce expert’s day to day.
Niche skillsets continue to dominate the urgent requests from our customers who are completing new projects. Over the past 12 months alone, we have completed full team buildouts for Configure Price Quote (CPQ), Marketing Cloud, B2B and B2C Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and Salesforce Industries.
We would expect this to continue in 2024 as more organizations adopt cloud solutions and Salesforce continues to innovate their product offering. Indeed, we’re expanding our Salesforce team into Denver this year, opening up a new market and further growth opportunities for our clients, which reflects where the industry is heading as a whole.
The past year has seen a huge influx of entry level Salesforce candidates, meaning organizations have tended to hire junior admin roles directly. Interestingly, this has highlighted a lack of commercial Salesforce experience on the market, prompting some of our customers to hire a contractor alongside their internal admin to complete more complex reporting, configuration and other Salesforce responsibilities.
AI is an increasingly important part of new Salesforce roles and employers will need to continually upskill in this area if they’re to utilize Salesforce technologies effectively. As Salesforce continues to launch new features in 2024, niche skills and contractor support will be crucial in delivering new projects and strengthening internal admin.