I spent last week at Salesforce.com’s annual user conference: Dreamforce. Similar to years past, the event was massive. Its 150,000 registrants (end-users, technology and service providers, as well as analysts like myself) took over downtown San Francisco.
Salesforce has selected a new theme each year for the event – going with themes such as “Customer-Connected Company” and “Internet of Customers” – but it appears they found a consistent theme with last year’s “Customer Success” and will be sticking with it for the near future.
As anticipated, Salesforce used the event to announce numerous new capabilities:
1. Salesforce IQ
This is an offering unique to small businesses. The product integrates with e-mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, and uses analytics to identify the nature of email conversations to aid in managing customer interactions.
For example, if a sales rep at a start-up is interacting with a prospect via email and discussing a live demo of their product, Salesforce would detect the discussion. It would then automatically input this information into the CRM to create a record of the account interaction, allowing sales managers to track the status of potential deals.
This capability holds significant potential in terms of ensuring that account interactions are updated in the CRM in a timely fashion – requiring minimal-to-no sales rep time for inputting information.
During the keynote, Parker Harris, co-founder and CTO of Salesforce mentioned that the company went back to its roots when designing some if its new offerings and so it’s no wonder that Salesforce IQ is primarily designed to help sales teams. However, considering the interconnected nature of customer interactions and the role both service and marketing play in driving business outcomes, the next step I expect Salesforce to take with this product is to provide other stakeholders in the business with similar contextual insights.
2. IoT Cloud
As time goes by, we’re seeing more connected devices (cars, thermostats, watches, glasses, etc.) become part of our daily lives. However, the data gleaned through these devices are not readily available to key stakeholders in the business. Most importantly, companies still struggle with integrating data captured through connected devices across enterprise systems such as CRM, ERP, and marketing automation.
IoT Cloud will provide companies with the ability to view data gathered by connected devices in real-time through a centralized system. For many organizations, using IoT to service clients as well as sell and market is still a ways off. However, this capability provides companies that already have an IoT program (or those that plan on establishing one) with the ability to utilize data from connected devices to meet buyer needs in a timely fashion.
Salesforce partnered with Microsoft to bring this capability to market and utilizes Microsoft Azure as part of its solution.
3. Financial Services Cloud
Personally it’s not surprising that the company chose to create a dedicated cloud solution designed to address the unique needs of financial firms. As outlined in Aberdeen’s August 2015 CEM in Financial Services: State of the Market in 2015, financial firms have a unique need: They must balance regulatory requirements such as Dodd-Frank with catering to growing customer expectations. According to Aberdeen’s research many financial firms struggle in this endeavor.
If financial firms can utilize a solution built to suit their unique needs, it will likely enhance their ability to manage client interactions seamlessly through a single system, thus helping them achieve key objectives such as retaining high-value clientele and growing profit margins, all while ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
4. Healthcare Cloud
Healthcare is the other vertical for which Salesforce chose to build a dedicated cloud solution.
Similar to financial services, healthcare firms must operate under unique regulatory requirements. And the establishment of a healthcare exchange market in the U.S. provides consumers and businesses with greater options (and visibility) into which providers they can work with to get medical needs addressed.
If healthcare firms can combine a solution that is tailor-made to the unique needs of their industry with the activities required to maximize the patient experience, then they should find this offering particularly valuable.
In addition to the aforementioned announcements, there were several other important takeaways. Salesforce Lightning, which, among other things, streamlines the app development process, is seen by both the company and its partners as a key differentiator. Considering that this capability reduces reliance on IT and minimizes the need for coding skills on the part of those managing Salesforce implementations, it’s value is readily apparent.
Salesforce also announced that it will now be embedding Wave Analytics (announced at Dreamforce 2014) into Service Cloud and Sales Cloud. Aberdeen’s related research on customer service and sales have highlighted that executives in both departments are thirsty for analytics, so this should be welcomed by many Salesforce users.
Another interesting part of the event was the analyst chat. During this session company executives shared their vision of the future and highlighted how technology has disrupted many industries, referring to the now common examples of Uber and AirBnb.
They went on to emphasize that advancements in machine learning hold the potential to revolutionize the workplace and change the very nature of customer interactions. While more focused on the perspective of company executives than on its products, this session helped communicate that the company continues to learn and pursue innovation wherever it may be found.
Follow Omer on Twitter: @omer_aberdeen
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