Salesforce Learning Solutions: AppExchange Buyers Guide

Last week in San Francisco it was impossible to miss the presence of Salesforce, with more than 170,000 customers, employees, developers and business partners swarming the streets during the annual Dreamforce conference. And if that wasn’t enough, look up! What stands out on the city skyline now? The Golden Gate Bridge? The Transamerica Pyramid? No, it’s the Salesforce Tower, a gleaming $1 billion skyscraper that will soon be the tallest building in the city and home base for 30% of the company’s workforce.

This massive footprint is not just symbolic positioning. It is evidence that, as the world’s leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, Salesforce continues to fuel extraordinary enterprise software market momentum.

Analysts at IDC estimate that the Salesforce economy — the platform and its community of customers and business partners — will directly create 3.3 million new jobs and drive more than $859 billion in new business revenues worldwide by 2022.  Partners in this ecosystem are expected to continue earning their fair share of the revenue pie, capturing $5.20 for every $1 Salesforce generates directly — up from $3.40 in 2016. This not only is proof of the platform’s strength, but also the strength of cloud computing, which is growing at a much faster pace than IT spending, overall.

The Business Wisdom of Salesforce AppExchange

Salesforce takes its responsibility as a platform vendor very seriously.  Nearly 12 years ago, the company launched the Salesforce AppExchange as a one-stop-shop for third-party solutions that extend and enhance the platform’s core functionality. Today, AppExchange is the world’s largest business applications marketplace, featuring more than 4000 customer-focused apps, components and service providers.

Salesforce and the LMS: A Powerful Combination

Several years ago, we wrote about the business benefits of integrating modern learning management systems with customer relationship management software.  What has changed since then?  This “LMS/CRM marriage” strategy is even more compelling today, as companies look for more intelligent ways to elevate customer experience, transform sales and service operations, and drive business performance.

What else has changed?  The number of learning solutions vendors offering Salesforce integration has skyrocketed. However, only a subset of these vendors have actually invested the time and effort to partner with Salesforce and qualify their products for AppExchange.

To help you easily research these vendors, we’ve created the following alphabetical list of learning-related AppExchange solutions. Each product listing includes the number of reviews received to-date and its average rating by AppExchange users (based on a 5-star scale).  Note: While anyone can browse AppExchange listings publicly, only registered Salesforce users can actually rate products.

myTrailhead: A New Twist on Salesforce and Learning

There’s also noteworthy news on the Salesforce learning horizon, directly from the platform source. In recent years, Salesforce has moved aggressively to lead by example in providing educational content and tools for business users, admins, developers and others in the community. In 2014, the company unveiled Trailhead — a learning app that develops Salesforce technical competency by awarding points and badges to users as they master relevant skills.

Now, Salesforce is moving a step further. Building on the success of Trailhead, the company has announced myTrailhead, which promises to help organizations deliver their own engaging instructional content through personalized learning journeys and gamification. The product targets four common corporate learning scenarios:

• Product education
• New hire orientation
• Workplace culture awareness training
• Leadership development

What does the arrival of myTrailhead mean for third-party learning solution providers? It remains to be seen if they will perceive this new offering as a direct threat and if it will cannibalize their sales. However, the myTrailhead FAQ attempts to offset concerns with this messaging:

“While it is not an LMS, myTrailhead is a great complement to existing LMS platforms. myTrailhead creates a culture of inspirational learning in the workplace by making it fun and engaging, while helping to drive adoption of Salesforce products.”

Not sure if that will be enough to convince LMS vendors, but we’ll keep our eyes open for further developments as the product rolls out in the second half of 2018. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a Salesforce learning solution that’s available today, feel free to research the third-party applications listed below.

(And if you want independent guidance in choosing the best solution for your needs, feel free to contact our lead analyst John Leh for a preliminary phone consultation.)

SALESFORCE APPEXCHANGE LEARNING  SOLUTIONS

Products by Independent Developers

5600B by Think! Inc – 0 reviews
Precision-guided selling app

Absorb LMS — 0 reviews
Learning management system for Salesforce

Administrate – 0 reviews
Training management software for companies large and small

Allego – 1 review/5 stars average
Sales learning platform for Salesforce

Altify – 2 reviews/5 stars average
Sales learning platform for Salesforce

App Data Room – 0 reviews
Content-based sales enablement platform

Arlo Training – 0 reviews
Training and event management software for Salesforce

ARPEDIO – 7 reviews/5 stars average
Sales enablement with expert guidance templates

AzimuthDS Trekker for Salesforce Trailhead – 0 reviews
Assign personalized treks to users, connect badges with trails and other management capabilities

Backflipt – 0 reviews
Sales enablement based on AI machine-learning techniques

Bigtincan Hub – 15 reviews/5 stars average
Smarter, next-generation enterprise sales enablement

Bloomfire – 7 reviews/4.5 stars average
Centralized place for training, onboarding, knowledge sharing, and social learning

Brainshark – 23 reviews/5 stars average
Sales enablement solutions

CommercialTribe – 0 reviews
Software for developing salespeople and their managers

Connect Your Salesteam by Envisiontel – 7 reviews/5 stars average
Automate the way you train customers, partners and salespeople

Cornerstone for Salesforce – 18 reviews/4.5 stars average
Learning management system for Salesforce

Credly for Salesforce – 1 review/1 stars average
Certify skills and reward achievement with digital badges and credentials

Crosstalent – 2 reviews/5 stars average
HR management system, including learning and development

DigitalChalk – 0 reviews
Learning management system for Salesforce

Docurated – 24 reviews/5 stars average
Custom content portals, contextual recommendation and search

eCoach by VisionE– 0 reviews
Interactive sales scripting and coaching solution

Ellucian LingkSync – 0 reviews
Integrates Ellucian Banner data with Salesforce

ExpertusONE – 0 reviews
Learning management system

GamEffective – 10 reviews/5 stars average
Next-generation gamification for Salesforce

Gamivation – 20 reviews/5 stars average
Gamified training and incentives for sales teams

GuideMe and SalesU by EdCast – 4 reviews/5 stars average
In-app walkthrough guides, coaching and insights

Haka Connect – 2 reviews/5 stars average
Sales enablement for manufacturing and high-tech industries

Highspot – 84 reviews/5 stars average
Sales enablement platform

HireVue Coach – 0 reviews
Digital coaching, structured practice and sales enablement

Impact LMS by Stratus Cloud Solutions – 3 reviews/5 stars average
eLearning management system for Salesforce

Improved Help by Improved Apps – 18 reviews/5 stars average
In-app coach for best practice, compliance and learning

Kaybus – 0 reviews
Sales knowledge automation application

KnowledgeNow by CCI Labs – 1 review/5 stars average
Contextual training videos and content inside of Salesforce

LearnCore – 0 reviews
Sales coaching and training platform

Learnsmarter – 24 reviews/5 stars average
Run your training operations right inside Salesforce

LearnTrac by Appinium – 16 reviews/5 stars average
Learning solution enabled by Salesforce Lightning

Lessonly for Salesforce – 0 reviews
Modern learning software for sales and service cloud

LevelEleven – 205 reviews/5 stars average
Modern sales management and coaching system

LevelJump by Lurniture– 44 reviews/5 stars average
Next-generation sales enablement, onboarding and training

Litmos LMS – 19 reviews/4 stars average
Learning management system for Salesforce

Maestro Loop – 0 reviews
Mobile continuous learning software, designed specifically for sales teams

Magentrix Communities – 27 reviews/5 stars average
Solutions for collaborative partner and customer communities

MediaManager.net – 0 reviews
CRM integrated customer success, learning and lead gen portals

Meridian Global Insights – 0 reviews
LMS connector for Salesforce

Mindmatrix – 0 reviews
Sales enablement and channel automation platform

Motivis – 2 reviews/5 stars average
Higher education learning communities for Salesforce

NetExam – 8 reviews/5 stars average
Channel partner and customer training and certification system

Ontuitive – 0 reviews
Intelligence-driven sales enablement

Osler Technology – 2 reviews/4.5 stars average
Clinical performance platform

Qstream – 1 review/5 stars average
Sales coaching and enablement platform

Sales Coach Premium by Cloud Artillery – 5 reviews/5 stars average
Playbook-based sales enablement

SalesHood – 0 reviews
Sales enablement platform

SalesITV – 0 reviews
The world’s largest single-source sales and customer service training/coaching app

Salespulse – 8 reviews/5 stars average
Real-time sales coaching and performance management based on customer feedback

SAVO (and KnowledgeTree) – 19 reviews/4.5 stars average
Prescriptive sales enablement

ScreenSteps Connector by Blue Mango Learning – 5 reviews/5 stars average
Context-sensitive guides for user adoption

Seismic – 9 reviews/4.5 stars average
Leading end-to-end sales enablement platform

serve2perform by Grandslam Performance Associates – 0 reviews
Experiential leadership coaching, cross-training and community involvement app

Showpad – 12 reviews/5 stars average
Sales enablement platform

Simpplr Intranet – 14 reviews/5 stars average
Workforce portal and content concierge

SkillJar – 1 review/5 stars average
Scale online training & certifications

Skilo – 9 reviews/5 stars average
Competency and skills development for customer-facing professionals

SPI Sales Process Playbooks – 1 review/5 stars average
Cloud-based sales performance application

Studentforce – 18 reviews/4 stars average
Enterprise-level app that lets students manage day-to-day learning activities

TOPYX LMS – 0 reviews
Salesforce integration

Veelo – 2 reviews/4.5 stars average
Sales enablement platform

vPlaybook by DSG Consulting – 0 reviews
Virtual sales playbook for customer-focused sales content, tools and training

WHUT (formerly Skura SFX) – 0 reviews
Sales enablement platform

XCD – 12 reviews/4.5 stars average
HR management system

Learning Solutions Developed by Salesforce

Almond LMS by Salesforce Labs – 12 reviews/4 stars average
Learning management

Einstein Analytics Learning – 2 reviews/5 stars average
Learning adventure app for visualizations and dynamic apps

Trailhead Tracker – 87 reviews/4 stars average
The fun way to empower employees to learn Salesforce

Closing Notes

With a collection of more than 70 learning solutions, today’s Salesforce AppExchange clearly represents a vibrant and diverse ecosystem.  And the future looks bright for both buyers and sellers, with robust growth expected to continue in cloud computing, Salesforce adoption and extended enterprise learning.

However, despite Salesforce’s platform leadership, lines are beginning to blur as the company expands its own portfolio of branded business learning applications and components. While customers may welcome a broader selection of AppExchange options (regardless of whether they are developed independently or in-house), this strategy could potentially dampen third-party involvement and innovation over time. We will be watching closely as Salesforce moves forward in this space.

Thanks for reading!

Want more LMS insights? Replay our on-demand webinar:

How to Succeed at Extended Enterprise Education: Strategies for Learning Engagement

Convincing employees to engage in training is hard enough. So what happens when you want to educate customers, channel partners and others across your extended enterprise? Relevant content is a start, but it is not enough.

What else does it take to succeed?

Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Kevin Hanegan, VP of Knowledge and Learning at Qlik, as they explore learning strategies that win extended enterprise hearts and minds. They discuss:

• Innovative marketing techniques to attract external audiences
• Methods for improving content quality and contextual relevance
• How to motivate learners with contests and rewards
• Creative ways to leverage video for stronger engagement
• What custom mobile apps can do to drive continuous learning
• How to measure, analyze and improve your impact, over time

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!

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