Salesforce Summit: Level unlocked, status obtained, clients rewarded

While it may be tempting to consider vendors who talk about their “elite” or “platinum” or “specialized” status in a given technology stack, buyers should know that sometimes that status has little or nothing to do with a vendor’s skills. Rather, that elevated status is often a function of how much revenue the vendor generates for the technology provider. Which… good for them, but how does that help you – the client – who needs a partner they can trust? 

Fortunately, Salesforce gets it.  

They have a vast and complex partner ecosystem covering their vast and complex array of products, but a simple, effective way to help you identify the right partner for your work.  

Horizontal Digital is proud to be a Salesforce Summit Partner – the highest possible partnership tier and one that is attained by less than ten percent of their thousands of partners worldwide. Hooray for us, right? No. Hooray for YOU, because this status carries with it real evidence of our expertise, thought leadership, commitment to excellence and proven track record of quality outcomes.  

What should you, the person who needs help extracting value from your Salesforce investment, know about a Summit partner like Horizontal? A few things: 

Proven results: Reaching Summit status requires partners like us to show evidence of the results we deliver by registering our completed projects and the associated customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores associated with those projects. We need a minimum number of projects across Salesforce clouds, and a minimum CSAT score, to even be in the game, and much higher numbers to get to Summit.  

Demonstrated expertise: Summit status requires that we not only maintain a certain number of experts worldwide who are certified across multiple Salesforce clouds, products and disciplines, but that we show continuous growth and expansion of those skillsets across our worldwide offices. It’s not like you pass a test once and you’re good; we have to earn and re-earn these credentials over and over, which means you can be assured that our experts are armed with the latest knowledge.  

The inside track: Summit partners get preferential treatment in the Salesforce ecosystem: We often get early access to new features not yet made publicly available, and we have backdoors we can use to help our clients escalate issues within Salesforce for faster resolution. Combine that with the fact that Horizontal has seats on multiple Salesforce Product Advisory Boards (including Data Cloud, Experience Cloud and Health Cloud), and you can confidently sign on with a strategic partner who can help guide you to what’s next.  

Aligned values: Horizontal’s status as a Salesforce Summit Partner is also measured by our alignment to shared values, like our commitment to The 1% Pledge and our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives. We’re proud to partner with Salesforce and with clients who share our values-oriented culture. 

So yes, we’re proud of our status as a Salesforce Summit Partner – we’ve worked hard to get there, and it means a lot to us. But it means even more to you – our clients who benefit every day from that hard work. Thank you to both Salesforce and our clients.