🕸️ My spidey sense about CloudSense 🕸️

Did you hear the news? TelcoDR affiliate Skyvera bought CloudSense, a killer telco-specific configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution that sits on top of the Salesforce platform. My spidey sense started to tingle the minute the company came on my radar. That’s because CloudSense is a perfect match for my growing portfolio: it’s already built on the public-cloud-based Salesforce platform; it’s already software as a service (SaaS); and it’s a BSS product we can add awesome AI capabilities to that will allow us to deliver great business value to customers.

Let’s get everyone’s first question out of the way: how much did I pay? A lady never tells (especially if she doesn’t have to), so instead I’ll compare it to another similar deal that happened fairly recently: Salesforce’s acquisition of telco-specific CPQ competitor, Vlocity.

In 2020, Salesforce paid $1.3B for Vlocity. Based on my research, it was about 8-10x Vlocity’s annual revenue at the time. I suppose their investment thesis was to grow revenue by expanding from being telco-only into other industry verticals—which it eventually did. This pivot RUINED Vlocity. The telco-specificity that made it the darling CPQ of the telco industry was diluted with the multi-industry focus, and telco customers of Vlocity despised the result. 

One thing is true of our acquisition of CloudSense: we won’t be making this same mistake. That’s because TelcoDR is 100% dedicated to TELCO.

What is CloudSense?

CloudSense is a provider of business-to-business (B2B), cloud-based CPQ and order management solutions that help telecom and media businesses launch, sell, and fulfill complex solutions. The company serves big telco players like BT, Telefonica, and Vodafone, as well as media and tech companies like Spotify. It was founded in 2009 by former employees of a mobile network operator, and as a result it started with, and still has, deep telco industry DNA. Its portfolio of applications can streamline complex orders, boost operational efficiency, and help get products to market faster through multi-channel integration.

While CloudSense has thrived on the Salesforce platform, and through the years has kept its focus on telco. That’s exactly why we saw this as an opportunity—telcos need a CPQ solution built specifically for their unique challenges. And with our vision to supercharge CloudSense with AI capabilities, we’re positioned to dominate this space.

My AI vision for CloudSense

Here’s a datapoint for you: 85% of CSPs report their current CPQ systems meet less than 75% of their requirements.¹ Why? Because most CPQ solutions weren’t built for telco’s unique complexity—the bundled services, multiple channels, and intricate integration and orchestration challenges that define our industry.

We are going to do two things with CloudSense: double down on building out telco-specific capabilities, and add a ton of AI functionality to the product. Telco is a great industry, but it’s complicated. We’re not afraid of that; we love it, and now with the capabilities of AI growing by the day, it’s going to be even easier to support telcos’ complicated quote generation process. I don’t think I need to tell you why this is important for our industry.

As for the AI plan, we’ll start by leveraging the investment that Salesforce is already making in its AI platform, including the recently announced Agentforce and the slightly older Einstein. We’re already investigating what we can incorporate so we can bring it to customers quickly. This is innovation and investment being done by another, bigger company with deep pockets that sees AI as the future. Why wouldn’t we ride those coattails? We will absolutely jump on that train and leverage it for our customers, too.

But this won’t be all. Thankfully, we have a powerful trick up our sleeve: Totogi’s BSS Magic. We plan to integrate our “Services as Software”² product with CloudSense, enabling faster and cheaper integrations and customizations, not to mention amazing killer business insights. BSS Magic will be made available to all the CloudSense consultants so they can combine Salesforce’s AI capabilities with BSS Magic. Our eventual plan will be to allow our customers’ IT departments to develop new functionality with BSS Magic themselves, which will light up the business value this product delivers. By leveraging AI, we’ll be able to do more work faster and for less money (upgrades for half the cost in half the time; ability to use natural language to derive business insights, and more). This will help us to bring better solutions to our customers at a lower price.

Here’s what makes our CPQ’s AI approach different: while others are racing to add generic AI capabilities across multiple industries, we’re laser-focused on telco-specific AI that delivers real business value. By combining Salesforce’s AI infrastructure with our deep domain expertise through BSS Magic, we’re building something uniquely powerful. This isn’t about slapping a chatbot on existing software—it’s about embedding AI that truly understands telco operations, predicts customer needs, and drives revenue growth. That’s the difference between checking an AI box and delivering genuine BUSINESS VALUE.

I am SO excited about this acquisition and its potential. Now it’s up to the teams to execute on the vision. As a telco executive, you should be excited, too—and definitely keep an eye on us. Want to learn more about what I have planned? It’s time to get on the horn and connect with me. I can’t wait to tell you all about it. 

¹ Telco-specific CPQ systems, The anchor for CSP-enterprise engagement, Appledore Research, October 2024.

² “Services as Software” takes traditionally human-led effort (in this example, Professional Services) and uses AI to write code to deliver the same work in a more efficient, cheaper, and higher quality way.

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