How industry giant Salesforce sees the future of cloud technology

It's not just global brands like Burberry and Philips who credit cloud computing with redefining their business for the digital age, but successful start-ups are leveraging its power to disrupt established industries with compelling new services.

The Chapar, a luxury menswear brand, has transformed the shopping concept, offering shoppers personalised stylists that pre-select clothes before sending them directly to the customers' doors to try on.

Using the Salesforce Sales Cloud, the stylists can create reports to determine the most popular clothing items by age range, geography and profession, which helps them make more informed selections.

Within the highly competitive retail sector, first-year growth of 650 per cent and a customer base that is doubling every three months is testament to the smart way in which the firm uses cloud technology.

TRP: How is the uptake of cloud fuelling the UK economy/innovation?

SG: The cloud has not only helped established companies to improve services, boost productivity and dramatically reduce infrastructure costs, it also inspired a new wave of innovation.

In the UK, the impact has been profound. The UK internet sector is now larger than those of health, education and construction, with products and services delivered online now accounting for at least 10 per cent of UK GDP – the highest proportion of all G20 countries.

The test is to keep the UK ahead of the game in the constantly evolving digital age. As a nation we have seen great progress and success so far in the cloud era – we need to continue to ensure that such technologies, which enable smarter and more efficient working and inspire innovation, are embraced on a wide scale throughout the UK.

Recent research from the European Union predicted the app economy to be worth €63 billion by 2018 in Europe alone, confirming that the explosion in smartphone and tablet adoption in recent years has created a thriving new market for mobile apps.

The Salesforce1 Platform gives European ISVs like CloudApps, Fairsail HCM and Kimble the opportunity to develop and sell social, mobile and connected cloud apps on the Salesforce1 AppExchange our business apps marketplace.

There is a huge opportunity for enterprise app developers in the UK and Europe to not only help businesses shift to mobile successfully, but introduce innovations that will continue to redefine how business is done in the future.

TRP: Salesforce.com was the pioneer of the cloud in 1999 – how does the company plan on remaining at the forefront of the industry moving forward?

SG: Our strategy has always been to focus on the success of our customers, and the technology they need to connect with their customers in new ways. This is what has allowed us to remain at the forefront of cloud innovation since the beginning.

At this moment in time, we're focused on providing a platform that allows our customers to thrive in an increasingly connected and mobile world, and this is what we're achieving with the new Salesforce1 Platform.