Some businesses have been crushed by the financial impact of the novel coronavirus. On the other hand, though, others have reaffirmed their ability to adapt during a crisis. That said, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is in the latter category, and the stock price has benefited from the company’s willingness to facilitate important changes.
Like it or not, the “new normal” will be quite different even after the coronavirus threat eventually subsides. The older, more convenient ways of living and working will be history.
Moreover, Salesforce doesn’t just recognize that the workplace will be different. The company is making the transition smoother and easier, and that’s been a major part of the company’s value proposition. For CRM stockholders, a case can be built in favor of holding the shares through the coronavirus crisis and afterwards as well.
A New Paradigm for Work
You might think of Salesforce as a customer-management company, but the company is venturing into new areas with its new platform known as Work.com. The purpose of Work.com will be to assist businesses in facilitating a shift towards the “new-normal workplace” with measures such as social distancing and contact tracing.
As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff explains, these measures will be a necessity as the world recovers from this persistent health threat:
“When we go back to work in a few weeks, the virus is still going to be there. So we need to be thinking about what kind of things are we going to be doing to keep ourselves from the virus, or what kind of things can we do to take action to keep our workplaces safe.”
To that end, Work.com will include wellness assessments for workers. The purpose of this will be to enable employers to keep track of each employee’s health status.
There will also be a contract-tracing tool which will provide visual maps indicating who has come in contact with whom and what their location was. The idea is to determine whether any workers have come in contact with an infected employee.
Meanwhile, social distancing will be facilitated via shift management tools. These tools could be used to stagger employees’ shifts, which could be useful when a company wants to implement social-distancing practices.
More Than Just Adapting
With these tools, Salesforce is moving beyond just recognizing change. Putting your capital behind innovators can be a smart move, and CRM stock represents a company that’s solution-oriented.
That said, Benioff acknowledges that workers will have to adjust to broad-based changes throughout the foreseeable future:
“When we reconfigure our workplaces, we’re going to look very, very different until we’re all vaccinated… And certainly, when we come back into our office, we’re not going to be sitting side-by-side next to each other either. We’re going to be using the same social distancing, which means that I’m going to be staying about six feet away from other employees and customers in the workplace.”
Investors should consider Salesforce as one of the “first responders” as businesses struggle to manage workers in this new and challenging scenario.
However, it’s not only businesses that are calling upon Salesforce for help. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently tweeted an announcement concerning a crucial partnership with Salesforce:
“We’re partnering with Salesforce to launch a call center and case management system to support our test and tracing efforts. We’re readying 1,200 hotel rooms for those who cannot self-isolate at home, with the food, medical care and laundry services they’ll need.”
Clearly, Salesforce’s tech-enhanced solutions are capable of going beyond the workplace. When a major city is tapping Salesforce for potentially lifesaving technology, investors can remain supremely confident that they’re getting behind a company on the cutting edge.
The Final Word on CRM Stock
Collectively, Salesforce’s tools will help people get back to work — even if what work looks like will be drastically different.
And as long as the company continues to innovate, CRM stock’s momentum has no reason to slow down.
Louis Navellier had an unconventional start, as a grad student who accidentally built a market-beating stock system — with returns rivaling even Warren Buffett. In his latest feat, Louis discovered the “Master Key” to profiting from the biggest tech revolution of this (or any) generation. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters.