Where do you see the market for Salesforce in the next five years? Will salesforce maintain its dominance over the market, or will other options threaten it? And will salesforce professionals have to evolve and adapt to become more “CRM” oriented and not just salesforce focused?

There will definitely be challengers out there. Compliments will also come along. Salesforce likes to have lots of bells and whistles behind the scenes but focusing on just CRM I would say would be the strength. Let other startups focus on bells and whistles and if they become successful then Salesforce can just buy them.

I think this hinges on two things. 1) their ability to penetrate new markets and 2) how competitive Microsoft and SAP become. Salesforce’s growth will eventually slow if they don’t continue scooping up new customers in different geos and we could see Microsoft or SAP emerge as the new leader in CRM if they improve their value proposition. Regardless of whether they stay on their current trajectory or not they are here to stay and will hold market share and remain competitive for years to come.

If Microsoft can get their act together they could crush Salesforce. Think about it - they have all the pieces to make something truly great: LinkedIn, Outlook, Office, Azure, Tech (e.g. C#, AD, SQL server, etc) if they could integrate everything it COULD be an amazing unbeatable product experience.

Salesforce will likely maintain dominance. Nobody comes close and it's difficult for startups to build a good CRM with the capabilities that can convince people to get off Salesforce. Also recently heard the line "Nobody gets fired for buying Salesforce" Microsoft maybe... But they will have to do more than just give Dynamics away for free.