The growing market for sales tools has led to a curious cottage industry: DevOps startups that specifically target the software used in sales and marketing functions.

(Here, “DevOps” refers to tools that automate processes between software development and IT teams.) It’s become a booming industry in its own right, with vendors selling software DevOps platforms, including Salesforce, claiming to more easily integrate sales technology into existing ones. workflows.

But wait, you might say: Wasn’t the promise of sales software to minimize the need for custom coding to perform sales-related tasks? Well – up to a point.

Take for example Salesforce. Built as a customer relationship management platform, it evolved over time into a development platform, but without many of the components needed to tailor it to the specific needs of organizations.