The enterprise software industry is in a state of major upheaval caused by the cloud megatrend, with various players jockeying for market position, notes Rob DeFrancesco, editor of Tech-Stock Prospector.

Acquisitions have moved to the forefront because that’s the quickest way to gain share. In addition, products are being regrouped, sales divisions refocused and partner channels expanded.

Cloud-software leader Salesforce (CRM) – my Top Pick for 2017 among large cap technology stocks -- remains well positioned to reap the benefits of the transition away from on-premises solutions.

One of the key things Salesforce needs to do now: keep innovating. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has said software in general needs to get smarter and gain more predictive abilities.

Two years ago, the company paid $390 million for privately held RelateIQ, a pioneer in next-generation intelligent computing that combines data science with machine learning to automate relationship tracking in the sales process.

Relationship intelligence automatically captures, analyzes and produces information that is relevant to CRM solutions from various unstructured data sources—including email, calendars and social media.

SalesforceIQ looks for patterns that provide insights into future outcomes, and proactively recommends actions to be taken by salespeople to build strong customer relationships and close more deals.

SalesforceIQ enables sales reps to rapidly identify the person in their company or in their existing network who can provide the best introduction to a target contact or company.

SalesforceIQ also recommends specific actions that sales pros can take to ensure deals progress properly through the pipeline.

When combined with Sales Cloud, SalesforceIQ pushes relevant sales-related data into corporate email systems. That way, every email is linked to key customer-specific information needed to get a transaction closed.

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