Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sees a huge sales opportunity under Trump's administration
So when Yahoo Finance's Andy Serwer asked if Benioff would be open to working with President-elect Donald Trump, who he famously opposed during the election, the billionaire CEO didn't hesitate to bring up an idea for a potential deal.
Benioff said:
"One thing that I certainly hope he does is to take a good, hard look at how all of our agencies operate. I know that they are still using a lot of on-premise software in the government.
I hope that they'll be looking to go to the cloud and to some of these next-generation solutions that companies like Salesforce and others offer that help them to lower costs and make things easier for all of the citizens of the United States."
Benioff has a point. Even though the shift to web-based cloud services has been going on for over a decade, a lot of large companies or government agencies are still sticking to on-premise software, or those that need to be installed in your own servers. On-premise software tends to be more expensive and harder to use, although some believe it's more secure than cloud software.
Salesforce has been making a stronger push towards selling to government agencies lately, as it expands into a broader customer base. Some of the big government agencies under contract include the Justice Department and Defense Department, as well as smaller city offices.
Benioff also stressed that his management style and frequent activist efforts will not change under the new Trump administration, despite his history of clashing with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
"I'm not changing how I operate my business," Benioff said. "We have an obligation as CEOs to be able to stand up for what we believe in and advocate on behalf of our companies and our stakeholders, regardless of the political situation and regardless of the economic situation."