Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, has announced its annual Middle East Partner Awards winners for 2021 with over 200 virtual attendees registered.

Held as a virtual event for the second year running, the awards recognize excellence amongst Salesforce’s 70-plus partner ecosystem in the Middle East for Financial Year 2021 (February 2020 – January 2021). Awards are judged based on how partners are driving customer success, number of certified resources, and revenue contribution of the partner for that category.

"Salesforce congratulates our Middle East Partner Awards winners for their hard work, and support in enabling business resilience and customer success amid the challenging past year, but also the wider ecosystem for placing Salesforce at the forefront of digital transformation journeys for our customers," said Mukesh Kumar, Alliances and Channel Director – Middle East and North Africa, Salesforce.

Awards were handed out as follows:

• Customer Success – This award highlights partners that share our total commitment to customer success by building product, industry and service expertise; demonstrated through Salesforce specializations. Building a solid track record of successful implementation projects and maintaining a high customer satisfaction score. – Cloudworks

• Outstanding Knowledge – Based on the number of individuals holding an active Practice Growth salesforce credential and with the most year on year growth. – PwC

• Sales Excellence SMB – This award highlights partners who are committed to growing the Salesforce footprint. They have demonstrated this through increased sales and marketing engagement reflected in being Top Influenced ACV contributor. – Emakina

• Connected Ecosystem – This award highlights partners who are committed to growing their practice across our Customer 360 platform whilst also expanding service lines in acquired solutions such as Mulesoft and Tableau to enable that end to end digital transformation. – Deloitte

• Community Impact – Awarded to partners that dedicate their time, money, and resources to have a positive impact on the local community. Measured through their enrollment in the Talent Alliance, Pledge 1% and sustainability programs – Changi
• Outstanding New Logo – Celebrates partners which positioned Salesforce to help solve unique and complex business challenges for new customers across the Middle East – 4C
• Rising Star – Recognizes the growing efforts of an emerging partner in the region based on the Salesforce partner program pillars – Cetrix Cloud Services
• Partner of the Year FY20 – This award serves to recognize partners that have gone above and beyond in their commitment to building a world class Salesforce practice – Cloudzlab

Salesforce’s channel partners in the Middle East have grown their number of certifications year-on-year by an amazing 53 percent. In digital skills development on the Trailhead Learning online platform, from FY2019 to FY2021, the number of UAE users has roughly doubled, and the number of "badges" collected for demonstrating knowledge on topics has grown by about 6-fold.

There is a massive cloud opportunity for partners, with IDC showing UAE spend on cloud computing to grow by 27 percent, from USD 184 million in 2018 to USD 778 million in 2024.

"Salesforce’s Middle East Partner Awards underscore how our customer and partner ecosystem will generate USD 2.6 billion in new business revenues in the UAE to 2024, along with 11,180 new jobs and 18,700 indirect jobs, according to IDC," said Thierry Nicault, Area Vice President – Middle East and North Africa, Salesforce. "We are excited for our channel partners’ journeys on our Customer 360 Platform and on Hyperforce coming to the UAE with AWS, driving end-to-end digital transformation."