OREANDA-NEWS. IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it was named a Salesforce Implementation Partner Leader in Forrester Research Inc.’s report “The Forrester Wave™: Salesforce Implementation Partners, Q3 2017.” IBM was among a select group of eleven Salesforce implementation partners that Forrester identified as companies that “matter most for digital transformation.” In the report, IBM received the top score in the strategy category. Bluewolf, a part of IBM’s Global Business Services, is the longest standing strategic consulting partner for Salesforce.

Forrester cited, “Bluewolf is the brand for all things Salesforce at IBM, though significant value comes from other groups as well.” The report adds, “IBM has scale and experience across all major Salesforce Clouds and has established, proven methodologies such as Bluewolf Align for CX. IBM has amped up its focus on bringing AI and cognitive to Salesforce customers and is actively working with IBM Watson to bring innovative solutions to the market.”

According to Forrester, 2017 will be the year when businesses gain direct access to powerful customer insight via new cognitive interfaces and other Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related tech, and they predict that insights-driven business will take $1.2 trillion annually by 2020*.

In March, IBM and Salesforce announced a global strategic partnership to deliver joint solutions designed to leverage AI and enable companies to make smarter decisions, faster than ever before. As part of the partnership, Bluewolf formed a new practice to bring clients quick access to cognitive solutions and data across Salesforce’s multi-cloud environments.

“IBM and Bluewolf are at the center of the AI revolution that will change customer and employee experiences forever,” said Paul Papas, Global Leader, IBM iX. “But successful business transformations require more than just technology; it requires a strategic partner that can help achieve a return on innovation. We think that the result of this Wave underscores our tech-enabled and human-centered approach to enabling customers in the Salesforce ecosystem and delivering strategic business value.”

“As a pioneering Salesforce consulting partner, we have an unwavering commitment to customer success and technology innovation with Salesforce,” said Eric Berridge, CEO, Bluewolf. “We believe this Forrester report reinforces that our ability to scale and bring extraordinary customer experiences to companies of all sizes and industries globally is unparalleled.”

Forrester’s rankings are based on a “comprehensive set of evaluation criteria,” including past research, client demand, vendor and expert interviews, measuring companies across three high-level categories: current offering, strategy and market presence.