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Ford has shut down VIIZR , a software - as - a - service society that along with Salesforce built an app to help tradespeople like pipe fitter , locksmiths and electricians to schedule field of operation appointment , send bill and bring off customers , TechCrunch has acquire . About 40 the great unwashed who worked at VIIZR were laid off .
VIIZR , which was announced in December 2021 , was a separate company absolute majority owned by Ford with Salesforce as a nonage investor . Its bearing , at the time , was to build one of the many digital tool that would catapult the automaker ’s commercial vehicle and service business Ford Pro to about $ 45 billion in revenue by 2025 .
VIIZR is no longer part of that plan .
Ford spokesperson Catherine Hargett confirmed that the auto maker ended its investiture in VIIZR and discontinue the Cartesian product November 1 due to lack of client demand and prioritizing its telematics , fleet direction and charging productivity software package where requirement is strong and grow .
Ford Pro is well on its way to hitting $ 45 billion in receipts — a object that CEO Jim Farley noted during an event in January 2022 that highlighted VIIZR and Salesforce ’s involvement . Ford Pro generated $ 42.7 billion in tax income in the first nine months of 2023 , a 22 % gain from the same period of time last yr , according to thecompany ’s latest earnings . Ford Pro software subscriptions , which includes services that helps a business manage fleet , charging its electric vehicle , data analytics and telematics , reached 476,000 in the third fourth part , up nearly 50 % year over year .
WhileFord Pro ’s businessis blast , the software system - as - servicing app was met with more challenger and limited need .
When VIIZR first set in motion , however , Farley and Salesforce chair and carbon monoxide - CEO Marc Benioff touted its potential at a January 2022 event in Napa , California that TechCrunch attended . VIIZR used Salesforce ’s field service merchandise , which provides software design for mobile workforces , to build its app . Ford , mention market research from Salesforce and Gartner , noted that the market for field service direction was estimated at $ 3 billion every year in the U.S and was expect to double in the next six years as changes to consumer behavior bring on by COVID would get high demand for trades .
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The premise was that tradespeople , many of whom might be drive Ford transit vans or motortruck , already used their fomite as their mobile berth . So why not capitalise on selling them digital tools like an app that create their job easier so , as Farley put it at the sentence , “ they do n’t have to hightail it their business from sticky notes . ”
“ One of the big customer set for these trucks is these professional equipment driver ; they can be first responder , contractors , electricians , plumber — and a lot of these folk work right in their truck , ” Benioff told TechCrunch on the sidelines of the 2022 event . “ You ’ll see they ’ve reconfigured the truck , so that it has a desk and you do n’t even have to go away the motortruck . So that approximation that we could then supply applications for those professionals to achieve keen levels of productivity made a sight of sense and then it gets integrate more right into vehicle services as well . ”
The market for apps like the one VIIZR was developing became crowded and apace acquire in the two year since the fellowship launched , consort to Hargett , who noted software was relate to job scheduling and automatize back office administrative tasks and not directly tied to vehicles or managing commercial vehicles , which is Ford Pro ’s focal point .
While VIIZR has been discontinued , Salesforce is still providing enterprise software to Ford Pro .
