8 Salesforce Buys Boost Analytics, Machine Learning Portfolio - InformationWeek

Online CRM and enterprise applications provider Salesforce.com has been snapping up different companies, small and large, in a series of acquisitions over the past nine months. The deals have added a range of capabilities to the company's existing portfolio, including cloud-based word processing, quote-price-configure software, and e-commerce. But most of the acquisitions focus on analytics, machine learning, and deep learning. CEO Marc Benioff has said that enterprise software and other systems that can analyze data and recommend the right course of action (that is, smarter and more predictive software) will shape the future of business software. At a Forbes CIO event in March, Benioff said, "This will be the huge shift going forward, which is that everybody wants systems that are smarter. Everybody wants systems that are more predictive, everybody wants everything scored, everybody wants to understand what's the next best offer, next best opportunity, how to make things a little bit more efficient."