BearingPoint Builds in Salesforce as it Nears €1bn Revenue

BearingPoint, the management and technology consultancy that emerged from the break-up of the KPMG Consulting business 15 years ago, is closing in on the €1bn revenue mark.

The Amsterdam-based firm now has more than 5,000 employees, and reported a 24% rise in revenue to €862m in 2022, marking its strongest-ever performance since its buy-out and re-launch as an independent firm in 2008.

One of the company’s growth engines in the last five years has been its Salesforce services operation, and PAC recently caught up with Markus Franke, the head of the firm’s practice. 

Franke has helped to drive the evolution of the company’s application services proposition to combine strategy consulting with technology expertise with a focus around some of the world’s largest platforms – including SAP, Microsoft, IFS and Salesforce. 

BearingPoint’s Salesforce practice has achieved Platinum Consulting Partner status, and brings together more than 200 specialists. The practice has more than 140 Salesforce-related services projects under its belt and has supported more than 50 clients, including one of Europe’s largest logistics organizations. 

BearingPoint has Salesforce-related experience in the financial services, manufacturing, telecoms and retail sectors among others, and has developed several assets to help clients drive more value from their Salesforce investments, in areas including sales management and customer journey management. Franke also highlights the firm’s Energy 360 solution, designed to help small and medium-sized utilities tackle customer management, as an area with strong sales momentum. 

Earlier this month, BearingPoint announced a deal to acquire Smplicity, a UK-based Salesforce consulting partner, for an undisclosed sum. The target company focused on the retail, insurance, media and publishing sectors, with clients including BDO, Adecco and Citi. Specialist European Salesforce services firms remain in strong demand, but most of those with significant scale have been hoovered up by predators including Accenture, IBM and Wipro. With Smplicity, BearingPoint has picked up one of the more established players still available on the market.

BearingPoint has doubled its volume of Salesforce-related project bookings during the last three years, and plans to deliver the same level of growth between now and 2025. The company is looking to build on its core European hubs (DACH region, France and Benelux), while ramping up its presence in its growth markets, such as the Netherlands, UK, Ireland and the Nordic region. 

There has been a lot of negative energy around the Salesforce brand in 2023. The vendor has fallen short on recent quarterly targets, and the leadership team has announced a round of cost-cutting measures in the face of pressure from activist investors. However, PAC shares Franke’s view that while Salesforce has built a major platform of business in most industry sectors in Europe – including a growing presence in the public sector – there remains a lot of headroom for growth. 

Salesforce has overstretched itself, but it continues to extend its reach deeper into its clients’ core business activities. Partners such as BearingPoint have an important role to play in helping them join-the-dots between the ever-expanding Salesforce portfolio and their specific – and fast-changing – business demands.