IBM is growing its Salesforce consulting business with the acquisition of European firm Waeg.

The acquisition strengthens global IBM Salesforce talent with consulting expertise and multicloud capabilities across Europe. Waeg will join IBM’s Salesforce business within IBM Global Business Services.

IBM’s Mark Foster

IBM says Salesforce will play a critical role in companies’ digital transformations, post-pandemic.

Mark Foster is SVP, IBM Services and Global Business Services. He said Waeg will be key to creating intelligent workflows. These, he said, “allow our clients to keep pace with changing customer and employee needs and expectations.”

Salesforce’s Tyler Prince

Tyler Prince, EVP worldwide alliances and channels, Salesforce, said the company’s partner ecosystem “is an important growth channel.” He said the acquisition will help enable European customers “to create streamlined, automated experiences on the Salesforce platform.”

Accelerate Growth in Europe

Founded in 2014 with offices in seven European countries, Waeg provides Salesforce consulting services. These range from digital strategy advisory to business-to-business commerce. It also offers marketing automation and customer experience design, implementation and managed services.

With more than 400 Salesforce certifications, Waeg holds expert distinctions in Salesforce’s Navigator program in manufacturing, Pardot and Salesforce B2B commerce. It is also a cloud specialist in the health care and life sciences industry.

Chris Timmerman is the company’s co-founder and managing partner. He said he was “excited to leverage our collective Salesforce capabilities to accelerate … growth across Europe.”

IDC analysts expect the worldwide CRM consulting and systems integration services market to reach nearly $21 billion by 2024

Latest Acquisition

IBM has made a series of acquisitions to boost its hybrid cloud and AI offerings. This includes U.S. Salesforce consultancy 7Summits in January. The vendor has also snapped up Nordcloud, Taos, Expertus and Truqua.

Last week IBM announced new competencies, skills training and other benefits for partners in its PartnerWorld Program. It’s part of its $1 billion investment to help partners capture a $1 trillion hybrid cloud market opportunity.

Separately, Kyndryl has appointed industry veteran Michael Bradshaw as its CIO. The new company spawned after the separation of IBM’s Managed Infrastructure Services business.

The Waeg acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Expect it to close this quarter.