There’s no doubt customers today want all of their interactions with brands to mirror the best experiences they’ve received anywhere, whether booking airplane tickets on their phones or pre-ordering meals online. This demand for personalized and intelligent experiences, instantaneous answers and speed-to-market has pushed digital transformation to the top of companies’ agendas. At the same time, every business is being impacted by the convergence of cloud, social, mobile and artificial intelligence. CEOs are frightened of being “Uberized” into irrelevance by these twin forces of customer expectations and technology disruption.

In this unique moment, companies are increasingly betting their futures on Salesforce. The agenda of a CEO is growth, and Salesforce provides the people, technology and best practices from our own transformation journey to accelerate this growth. Our mantra is nurturing strategic, long-term relationships by investing in our customers’ success, and we’re doing this by painting a vision of transformation, providing industry expertise and bringing together resources like our partners to deliver value.

This is where Salesforce’s Ignite program -- and gravitytank, a recent Salesforce acquisition -- come into play. Ignite is Salesforce’s unique, collaborative, pre-sales approach that helps customers envision their futures and rethink how they engage with customers. By discovering unmet needs, activating those insights through co-creation workshops, and collaborating with digital and transformation experts, Ignite helps clients translate their potential into the “art of the possible.” gravitytank has now joined Ignite, applying its expertise in design, research, strategy and its proprietary thought leadership program to help Salesforce’s customers shape their visions and connect with their customers, employees and partners in new ways.

The pioneering gravitytank team brings 17 years of world-class innovation experience with companies like Goodyear and OfficeMax to Salesforce. Our customers are looking for a trusted advisor who will co-create a vision for the future and create a culture of innovation that is sustainable over the long term. With Ignite, customers get a complete vision, execution plan, business case and app prototypes in weeks, not months. Just ask clients such as Live Nation, Tyco, Toyota, Farmers Insurance and others. Of course, all of this work is done in tandem with Salesforce’s extended partner ecosystem, who work closely with us in shaping and implementing the initiatives.

Businesses are in the midst of a massive shift toward becoming digital- and customer-centric companies. The Ignite program -- now with gravitytank’s team of world-class designers, researchers and strategists -- is helping Salesforce accelerate that shift. There is nothing else like it in the industry. Digital transformation is being democratized. One customer at a time.